Around 60 percent of SAP customers believe there is scope to further exploit the vast capabilities of SAP solutions. however the key to achieving this is streamlining and simplification according the Fujitsu KISS Report, launched today at Fujitsu Forum Munich 2014.

In support of this, 87 percent of customers asked believe that streamlined and standardized SAP landscapes help to better respond to business needs. 87 percent find that managed hosted or cloud services can help to simplify internal processes. And again 87 percent agree that ‘simplification’ is the basis for helping to improve many other areas (costs, flexibility, harmonization) – it is definitely not considered to be just another business buzz word. In fact, four areas were identified as having the greatest impact on their SAP landscapes: business processes (66 percent), IT operations (56 percent), analytics & data (54 percent), cloud (50 percent) and mobility (30 percent).

The Fujitsu KISS Report: ‘Keeping IT Simplified and Streamlined’ to maximize the business value of SAP Applications and SAP HANA shares insights from senior stakeholders at international businesses across a range of industries. The report explored their perceptions and expectations for achieving the business advantages offered by SAP business applications and the SAP HANA® platform. Fujitsu, which has more than 8,000 customers worldwide using SAP software, has worked successfully with thousands of organizations to enable them to quickly achieve better business outcomes, exceptional return on investment, and a more efficient enterprise than would otherwise be possible.

Respondents’ business requirements from SAP solutions were found to vary between markets. On average, each customer has four key requirements which are likely to be: improve efficiencies (especially important to businesses based in Germany), to serve external customers better or faster (UK and US), to streamline applications and systems (all), and to drive business continuity (the Nordics). This ‘trend of four’ was mirrored by IT requirements, with the most common being to align IT better to respond to business needs (UK and US), to standardize and globalize systems (Germany), to improve cost reductions, and to make full use of the functionality and innovations of SAP solutions.

However, respondents also cited challenges in integrating systems and data migration. In comparison, key factors of a successful SAP software landscape transformation highlight the need for supporting internal resources, particularly with project management (57 percent) and in attaining the necessary level of internal skills (45 percent). Leading results differed across the researched countries. For example, in the US having a good supplier relationship is most important (47 percent), while in Germany change management and end-to-end impact analysis are the priority (both 47 percent).

Fujitsu will share a second set of findings and recommendations based on The KISS Report in early 2015, which will focus on exploiting trends in SAP software and expectations of Big Data. For further information, please see: http://sap-simplicity.global.fujitsu.com/Inspiring-Simplicity-In-A-Changing-World.

Keita Yashima, Senior Director, BAS – Global Delivery, SAP Solutions, Fujitsu said “The hyperconnected world can be an unnecessarily complex one. Fujitsu applies Human Centric Innovation to optimize our customers’ investments in SAP applications and the SAP HANA platform. Fujitsu infrastructure solutions, based on powerful, industry-standard PRIMERGY and PRIMEQUEST servers, are highly cost-efficient and scalable to match mission-critical readiness with a low total cost of ownership. By helping organizations to keep their IT simplified and streamlined, enabled by Fujitsu’s comprehensive global portfolio of services and infrastructure solutions , they can achieve a more efficient enterprise with better business outcomes.”

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Respondent quotes:

CIO, Energy, USA
“What we ideally need is for easier transformation of business activities.”

SAP Specialist, Retail, Sweden
“Customer satisfaction is one of the major driving factors. The fact that the SAP software is integrated allows for better efficiencies in our systems and means we can operate at a higher level, above our competition.

IT Solution Manager, Logistics, Germany
“More people are always an option, but I think that working with somebody who already has experience with such implementations or some consulting company would be the best way to reduce complexity.”

SAP Application Analyst, Energy, USA
“It is more to do with change management. It was difficult for some people that had been using legacy systems and a lot of integrated systems. To me that was the hardest thing we had overcome. But it appears that we adopted the processing and the use of the systems after a few months of learning that and using it.”

SAP BI Specialist, Manufacturing, Finland
“We have worked very hard to raise awareness of the importance of SAP software to our organization and among our staff. Knowing the capabilities of the software helps set expectations.”

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