SAP and Accenture announced a new joint offering to bring cloud-based transformation to large-scale enterprises.
SAP and Accenture have a new joint offering to help large enterprises transition to the cloud. By combining RISE with SAP and SOAR with Accenture services into one software-as-a-service model, they hope to provide companies with a robust package to achieve cloud-based business innovation. By developing a clean core on SAP S/4HANA, companies can then integrate other cloud-native business solutions to support a multicloud operating environment.
“The most successful companies will undergo total enterprise reinvention over the next decade, transforming every part of their business through technology, data and AI, and new ways of working and engaging with customers as well as new business models,” said Julie Sweet, chair and chief executive officer of Accenture. “SAP and Accenture are now offering the ability for large enterprises to dramatically accelerate their transformations and new opportunities for growth.”
The combined offering builds on the more than 40-year partnership between Accenture and SAP. The solution helps facilitate the adoption of industry-specific best practices and optimized cloud capabilities to help companies realize the full potential of their cloud strategies. Accenture is currently the largest SAP partner to offer services specifically developed to help enterprises plan, implement and manage cloud deployments in RISE with SAP. Accenture already runs its own financial operations processes on a single, global instance of SAP S/4HANA, which helps the company provide robust solutions for the platform.
Time and Again, Companies Struggle to Gain the Full Potential of Their Cloud Strategies
For years, cloud computing has been heralded as the solution to a rapidly evolving and increasingly unpredictable economy. The COVID-19 pandemic reinforced this point for many companies, which are now adopting “cloud-first” strategies to remain competitive.
With the increasing adoption of multicloud computing environments, many companies are struggling to manage the complexities inherent in using products from multiple vendors. Right now, each cloud offers its own APIs, management tools and interaction portals, creating unanticipated silos and hindering company-wide innovation.
A focus of IT development over the next few years will be investments in vendors that offer the flexibility necessary for a successful multicloud strategy, allowing companies to choose how and where they ultimately run different workloads.
However, despite the industry-wide recognition that multicloud computing will be the future, and the increasing adoption of cloud-based solutions, a recent survey by Accenture found that only 37 percent of companies believe they are achieving the full value they expect from the cloud. The good news from the survey is that most companies using the cloud are beginning to see its benefits—they are just struggling to reach the technology’s full potential.
What’s holding companies back? There are challenges with using products from multiple vendors, security concerns, legacy infrastructure, and a misalignment between IT and business goals. Accenture and SAP are hoping to address many of these concerns with their new joint offering, which is aimed at making the cloud transition seamless for companies at any stage of cloud maturity. Like most other tech companies right now, SAP is betting on the multicloud future and aiming to develop customer-focused services that will help it stand out in a crowded field of solutions.
Does Accenture and SAP’s Joint Offering Make the Transition to the Cloud Easier?
The new joint offering from SAP and Accenture aims to bring together all the elements that engineers need for cloud-based transformations, with optimized options for a wide range of industries. Cloud infrastructure management, application management, and operations services are integrated into a convenient, single delivery model.
RISE with SAP is a cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution that uses advanced data analytics to help drive business success. The comprehensive solution includes AI-driven software to automate business processes, manage sustainability metrics, grow revenue by developing distinct business models within an industry, and more. RISE with SAP currently counts the NBA, Energizer and Colgate among its clients.
The new aspects of the RISE with SAP offering are courtesy of Accenture, which adds value to the solution with its suite of services and business tools optimized for the platform.
“As tech leaders, engineers bear the brunt of many of the challenges caused by the pandemic and blistering pace of technology and business change, finding themselves in a position of continuous flux and adaptation. SOAR with Accenture allows engineers to quickly transform and innovate, redesign business processes, and reduce internal complexity, helping them agilely and successfully transfer industry systems to the Cloud,” said Stefan Goebel, head of Strategic Engineering Partnerships at SAP, to engineering.com.
Specifically, SOAR with Accenture bundles business tools in Accenture’s myConcerto platform to help companies plan, implement and manage RISE with SAP projects. Tailored services are available across 25 industries for software, platforms and architecture. Overall, the end-to-end solution helps companies identify business challenges and define a roadmap that helps them reach their goals.
“These components support business needs throughout the transformation journey—from business case to implementation and operations to innovation. Additionally, the boost in predictability and efficiency allows engineers to focus on modernizing business applications and other activities that propel value and innovation across the enterprise,” said Goebel.
Many tools have promised to simplify the enterprise-level transition to the cloud. When asked about how this offering will succeed where others have struggled, Goebel highlighted the solution’s focus on the multicloud future.
“SAP is committed to its multicloud strategy, which supports the customer’s choice of cloud provider to run our flagship solutions. This is another option for customers to choose where to run their SAP ERP workloads but is unique by offering end-to-end realization with one partner for RISE with SAP,” explained Goebel.
For the combined solution, Accenture brings its experience implementing SAP software across diverse industries. Goebel described the solution’s goal of providing a “future-proof architecture” supported by an SAP S/4HANA cloud core. With the SAP Business Technology Platform, the core can then be extended and integrated into other cloud-native business solutions.
“Bringing together RISE with SAP and SOAR with Accenture helps ensure that our SAP applications are on the latest versions with leading technologies and are based in the cloud for more flexibility,” said Penelope Prett, chief information officer, Accenture. “The boost in predictability and efficiency allows our global IT organization to focus on modernizing our business applications and other activities that propel value and innovation across the enterprise.”
An End-to-End Solution for Enterprise-Scale Problems
Where many tech companies are offering complex cloud computing solutions for IT-specific applications, SAP and Accenture are looking to stand out by providing the tools businesses need to achieve cloud-based transformation at the enterprise level.
For innovative business practices, companies need a cloud solution that can address specific business needs and challenges. Both SAP and Accenture describe their joint offering as a lower risk and lower cost option for companies to adopt the SAP S/4HANA cloud, with opportunities to expand to other cloud-native technologies.
Despite the focus on supporting the multicloud, it remains unclear how the new solution will ultimately integrate with more specialized cloud-based solutions that are not focused on business operations. To be truly distinct from other solutions in this space, the SAP and Accenture offering needs to make it as easy as possible for companies to navigate diverse cloud computing environments without affecting their bottom line or requiring expert data scientists. If this can be achieved, the joint offering will likely add incredible value to the future of multicloud computing.
