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<\/a><\/p>\nUntil now, SAP has typically been mostly\u00a0associated with “systems of record” — the business applications that provide\u00a0the essential foundation that\u00a0keeps organizations running smoothly. But over the last few years, notably with the game-changing SAP HANA technology<\/a>, SAP has worked\u00a0very closely with its\u00a0customers on business transformation, and learned a lot about what it takes to succeed, compared to more traditional IT implementation projects.<\/p>\n Unlike typical ERP upgrades, digital transformation involves creating new business models by bringing together the real and virtual worlds — and this means new ways of selling, new relationships with customers, partners, and suppliers, and new organizational structures.<\/p>\n SAP realized it\u00a0had an opportunity to do more to support its\u00a0customers in these\u00a0efforts, with new ways of packaging its products and services to meet the new needs.<\/p>\n The result is the new SAP Leonardo.<\/p>\n There are already lots of great SAP Leonardo explainer<\/a> blogs<\/a>,\u00a0articles<\/a>, and interviews<\/a> out there, but briefly, it’s a “digital innovation system” that was created\u00a0to help SAP\u00a0customers innovate at scale to redefine their business. In other words, Leonardo is designed to provide everything SAP customers\u00a0need to actually succeed<\/em> with digital transformation, not just technology.<\/p>\n But what’s particularly interesting is that SAP Leonardo\u00a0was created using many of the same digital-transformation-enabling processes\u00a0that are included in the system itself:<\/p>\n Design Thinking<\/strong>. Digital transformation\u00a0requires a lot of technology, and that\u2019s something SAP has a lot of experience in providing. But technology is only one factor in\u00a0customer success. SAP used Design Thinking to look at the end-to-end digital transformation customer journey, identifying the real problems that were holding back success even when the technology worked perfectly. These turned out to include\u00a0difficulties in prioritizing transformation projects, effective collaboration between IT and business units, the need for flexible prototyping, ensuring there were\u00a0clear business cases, avoiding disconnected “islands of innovation”, and many more.<\/p>\n Reimagined\u00a0products and services.<\/strong>\u00a0The next step was to figure out how SAP could help customers overcome these non-technology factors. In looking at real-world customer implementations, SAP quickly realized that different business units around the world had pragmatically addressed many\u00a0of the key barriers to success. But there was a lot of variation as to how and when these methods were being applied. The answer was to include in SAP Leonardo the best practice activities — such as Design Thinking<\/a> workshops and the BUILD prototyping technology<\/a> — that had\u00a0been shown to work in the field and align them into a single coherent set of processes that could\u00a0be applied consistently.<\/p>\n New business models.<\/strong>\u00a0Digital transformation isn’t just about innovation, it’s about new ways of innovating. In particular, it requires a lot more experimentation, iteration, and flexibility. In\u00a0traditional business application implementation, the scope of potential benefits are relatively easy to calculate. But\u00a0when testing unproven new business models,\u00a0it’s hard for organizations to commit to large investments until prototypes have been proven to work with trial customers.<\/p>\n This drove changes to traditional SAP pricing and packaging models. SAP Leonardo is priced to be easily “consumable”. For example, there are fixed-cost Industry Accelerators<\/a> that include both technology and services allow customers to experiment quickly at a reasonable cost. SAP Leonardo projects\u00a0are designed to enable\u00a0real innovation in a particular business area in just a few weeks, while also\u00a0providing the foundation for more comprehensive, company-wide transformation.<\/p>\n New ways of working.<\/strong>\u00a0Successfully bringing all the elements of SAP Leonardo together from the customer’s point of view\u00a0required new ways of coordinating\u00a0SAP’s internal resources. Changes to SAP sales training and incentives were needed because digital transformation projects are often managed\u00a0very differently from core IT business application initiatives. And to truly\u00a0help SAP customers innovate at scale, new relationships were\u00a0needed across\u00a0the\u00a0ecosystem of SAP partners, including services providers such as Accenture<\/a> and Deloitte<\/a>, and other key digital transformation giants such as Apple<\/a>, Amazon<\/a>, Google<\/a>, and Microsoft<\/a>.<\/p>\n Iteration over time<\/strong>. Digital transformation is never “completed”, and so SAP Leonardo will also change over time. The system is designed to be flexibly updated based on the pragmatic experiences of what actually works. For example, it’s essential to make sure staff are\u00a0motivated\u00a0to help accelerate business model transformation, rather than resist it. And so, for example, it might make sense to\u00a0extend SAP Leonardo to include elements\u00a0of SAP’s SuccessFactors collaboration<\/a> and performance\u00a0management<\/a> capabilities. And because companies want to be able to quickly experiment with multiple technologies without being slowed down by complex contract negotiations, customers have asked about more flexible “fixed price menu” options, and\u00a0risk-based \/ profit-sharing options for new business approaches.\u00a0To help guide these changes, SAP has launched the SAP Leonardo International Focus Group community<\/a>\u00a0to allow customers\u00a0to give direct feedback.<\/p>\n From “Run” to “Win”.<\/strong>\u00a0The bottom line is that today’s enterprise business applications are no longer just\u00a0important for\u00a0efficiency and reliability. They are the core foundation and enablers\u00a0of the business models of the future. It’s not only\u00a0about running the business better, but also using the technology to transform customer experiences and win new market share within\u00a0rapidly-restructuring market boundaries.<\/p>\n SAP has long been known as a leader in providing organizations with the systems they need to take to\u00a0step up\u00a0their corporate growth. And now, by helping SAP\u00a0customers dramatically scale up\u00a0their\u00a0digital transformation efforts, SAP Leonardo is set\u00a0to help\u00a0SAP maintain leadership in\u00a0the fast-changing technology industry.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n