Diana David, SAP Romania: Cloud and AI will help companies reinvent themselves

Most of the business environment changed profoundly after the covid pandemic. In addition to changing the behaviour of employees, many of whom were forced to work from home, recent years have also brought unprecedented technological developments. Technology has been the main ally of companies in the fight against geopolitical or economic crises and besides being a tool that helps organisations function in the current conditions, it has also become a strategy for transformation.

By Aurel Dragan

Reinventing a business to keep it competitive and make it more flexible and adaptable is possible with technology. Reinvention was also the keyword of this year’s edition of SAP Discovery Day, which was attended by 500 company representatives. In short, technology has become a means of business reinvention, enabling companies’ growth, but also their resilience in times of crisis. “We always have to reinvent ourselves; it’s a continuous process. If we look back at how much has changed, we realise that 20 years ago we couldn’t imagine how many events our region would go through, with things like the pandemic, the war or working from home. Technology is at the heart of reinvention, and people follow. Because without people you can’t do anything, no matter how much technology you have at hand,” said Diana David, Managing Director of SAP Romania, in a discussion with Business Review.

The 2023 edition of SAP Discovery Day placed the idea of reinvention through technology at the heart of the event and made it a priority to answer decision-makers’ questions about the complexity of the reinvention process. “True change rarely happens in the comfort zone, and even though when we go through a period of transformation, we can all fear the loss of value, reinventing your business is not about disruption, but the exact opposite: it’s about development, market relevance, and finally, success,” said Diana David as she opened the event alongside Josephin Galla, Managing Director at SAP Southeast Europe.

Among the topics discussed at the event were the reasons why reinvention must take place now, why it is no longer optional, what exactly organisations need to start the reinvention process, how to build the foundation once they have decided to make this transformation, as well as who can help them go through this successfully.

In addition to the inspirational speeches on the main stage, the second part of the event was centred around the SAP Experience Village, a space dedicated to transposing participants into the world of a traditional and, at the same time, unconventional village. Beyond traditional dishes, decorations, and activities, event attendees were able to discover the latest trends in technology based on concrete examples and demonstrations by SAP experts. One of the main attractions in the village was the showcase focused on the supply chain—”Farm to Consume”—which illustrated how, through data-driven solutions, companies can successfully achieve a better and more efficient balance between high-quality production and environmental conservation.

Cloud means scalability

The main trend in digitalization today is the move to the cloud, which is increasingly being used all over the world. “The cloud is being used more and more, but we still have customers who are running on-premises and doing very well. Change cannot happen overnight, and some organisations are not ready to make the change right now,” said Diana David. “But cloud means scalability, flexibility, and more, as well as being prepared for the changes that may come. When you have a flexible system, you can adapt it very easily. Everything that means innovation, new functionalities, everything is in the cloud and accessible from there,” David added, also highlighting the fact that the adoption of innovation is also important for employee retention. People will not stay in a company that lags behind technologically; they want to work with the latest technologies, to be up to date with innovation. “And one more important thing: there is no longer a single solution for digitalization, no one size fits all, but we have tailored solutions based on the size of the company, specific industries, etc. Solutions can be designed so that companies’ strategies can be split into several steps. Perhaps there is not enough money for a complete solution from the beginning, but it can be implemented in stages,” she explains.

Nevertheless, the future is in the cloud. Just as we as smartphone users have already become accustomed to using a multitude of applications that are stored in the cloud, such as email inboxes or social media accounts, businesses will also become accustomed to keeping their data and applications in the cloud. “Cloud migration is the future for all businesses, along with AI (Artificial Intelligence), which has now become the other main trend in technology,” says Diana David. The difference in the use of AI now compared to the early 2000s is that back then AI required a lot of algorithms to work, meaning a lot of people had to work for the AI. “Generative AI has been around for a few years now, and it is something else—it can be used by any human, it’s simple to use. It can give you tomorrow’s weather forecast, but it can also do a predictive analysis on a certain segment of the business if it’s connected to the right databases. It’s much easier to use because you no longer need people who know how to use AI,” David notes. Of course, AI remains dependent on the data at its disposal. “AI doesn’t do miracles; it’s a helpful tool. It needs well-arranged and clean data to give correct answers.”

In a 2023 Wrap at SAP TechEd in 2023, the company outlined its main objectives for 2024. The first was “Turning Every Developer into an AI Developer,” as developers are essential to the modern world, driving innovation and transformation forward across every industry, with the help of SAP Build Code, a generative AI-powered application development solution. Another direction is “Generative AI for Everyone,” as more than ever before, companies are seeking to unleash the power of AI in their applications and processes. The third direction is “AI-Powered Business Data,” as SAP believes every data professional should have seamless and scalable access to mission-critical business data. To this end, SAP has announced new innovations that empower developers to build intelligent data applications with SAP HANA Cloud, as well as new capabilities that enhance the business data fabric with SAP Datasphere. The last major direction is “Enterprise Automation,” as integrating, analysing, and automating end-to-end business processes is critical in today’s digital landscape.

SAP Romania has offices in Bucharest, where it is also headquartered, as well as in Bucharest, Cluj and Timisoara, with a total of 820 employees. Consulting teams are active in Cluj and Timisoara, working for both local and global clients. “Future plans involve further growth, continuing that of recent years, but we also depend on the things that happen around us,” says Diana David. “And what we really want is to get even more involved in the area of education, at the university level, where we already have many projects—because the labour force problem is increasingly pressing, both for us and for our partners,” she adds.

DMCA

PROTECTED