SAP Study finds overwhelming interest in industry digital transformation efforts

WALLDORF — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced findings of its “Emerging Opportunities to Deploy Industry Processes in the Cloud” study, conducted by Forrester Consulting.*

The survey polled decision-makers in five industries to evaluate their interest in industry cloud solutions. Some 95 percent of the respondents believe moving business processes to industry cloud would notably improve their abilities to digitally transform their operations.

Innovative Organizations Are Industry Cloud Trailblazers

Companies that rate themselves highly for innovation, strategy, technology, people, process and culture appear ahead of the curve on recognizing the value of industry cloud solutions and cloud platforms. Some 91 percent of these organizations believe that intelligent technologies in the cloud will drive strategic business and IT benefits, compared to 71 percent of organizations that don’t qualify as digital leaders.

“Innovative organizations seek scalable and secure cloud solutions that natively embed new intelligent technologies and are tailored to specific industries,” said Peter Maier, co-president of SAP Industries. “This study revealed that traditional cloud solutions are being implemented by three out of four companies (76 percent), and moving to industry cloud can help enterprises add value by improving the areas of standards and consistency. This allows enterprises to meet rising customer expectations by digitally transforming their organizations and their ecosystem of suppliers, customers and partners.”

Industry-Specific Sentiment Around Industry Cloud

The five industries surveyed in this study have high interest in adopting industry cloud solutions for end-to-end digital transformation priorities. These priorities vary based on industry and are outlined below:

• Banking and insurance: Value seen in industry cloud to help with data management and insights (87 percent)
• Consumer products: Most interested in leveraging industry cloud to support supply chain business processes (92 percent)
• Discrete manufacturing: Interested in adopting industry cloud to improve digital supply networks (88 percent)
• Public sector: Interested in industry cloud for tax and revenue operations (86 percent)
• Retail: Interested in processes such as risk management (95 percent) and procurement (91 percent)

Organizations are looking for a robust set of capabilities that enable data-driven decisions in real time across their business. As noted in the Forrester study, “Industry cloud can add value in driving standards and consistency in markets, supply chain transparency, cost savings for commodity processes, and fast customizations to improve customer experience. But the main benefit is the ability to deliver end-to-end processes and next-generation innovations in the cloud.”