Organizations are increasingly seeking more choice and flexibility as they modernize their mission-critical workloads. But each organization is at a different point and has different goals when transforming their businesses and modernizing their SAP environments. Some organizations are looking to improve business operations by moving from legacy ERP to SAP S/4HANA®, SAP’s next-generation ERP software, while others want to replace manual processes with AI and automation.

SAP, the leader in enterprise application software solutions, recognized the need for a flexible cloud-based solution and introduced RISE with SAP to help organizations modernize their ERP, accelerate business transformation and drive innovation. Launched in January 2021, RISE with SAP is a subscription management solution that packages software, cloud platform, innovation and SAP expertise to help simplify, modernize and transforms client’s processes and operations using SAP.

To complement and help maximize the value of RISE with SAP, IBM introduced BREAKTHROUGH with IBM for RISE with SAP, a portfolio that draws upon advisory, implementation, application and technical management services from IBM Consulting™. These services leverage IBM Consulting’s deep industry expertise and experience to offer clients a simplified and unified approach toward modernizing their operations using rich data and integrating powerful AI technologies to deliver better business outcomes.

In addition to the leading management and consulting services of IBM Consulting, the company’s 50-plus year partnership with SAP makes the BREAKTHROUGH portfolio unique in:

• Helping existing and potential SAP clients, no matter where they are on their journey
• Accelerating and amplifying RISE outcomes that are specific to client needs
• Supporting clients throughout their SAP modernization journey with IBM Consulting professionals, services and solutions
• Advancing cloud migration, operational efficiency and continuous improvements

All companies need to develop new business models to stay ahead of market disruptions and improve automation, so they can innovate and create business value. Here are three considerations for adopting RISE with SAP and BREAKTHROUGH with IBM for RISE with SAP.

Consideration 1: A strong business case

An actionable business case creates a clear roadmap for achieving your company’s goals and demonstrating value. This starts with looking at your individual business function and considering what areas need improvement. What are your current business process and operational challenges? Are there tasks that can be automated to increase efficiency and productivity? Do you need to move data to the cloud while ensuring its integrity, security and compliance?

One universal concern for companies is dealing with technical debt. In a McKinsey study, 30% of CIOs believe that more than 20% of their technical budget for new products is diverted to resolving technical debt. The adoption of cloud-based services provided by RISE with SAP creates an opportunity to reduce technical debt by consolidating resources so companies can scale.

With assets spread throughout India, Virescent Infrastructure was looking at ways to improve manual processes across functions for stock reports and inventory management, procurement and vendor management, pricing and tax calculation, and more. The organization also required a centralized and consolidated view of the entire operations to make faster business decisions with more insights.

To achieve its goals, they partnered with IBM Consulting to embark on a hybrid cloud journey using RISE with SAP, bringing in automation and improved governance across multiple levels of the organization in just seven months, thus streamlining the efforts of its employees who can now focus on core business goals.

Consideration 2: Business change management

Transformation is often seen as bumpy road rife with costs and business slowdowns. It doesn’t have to be that way. When designed and carried out well, a change management strategy keeps the business engaged and will mitigate the challenges with adopting the RISE framework.

Driven by the need to modernize processes and deliver better insights to support clients running in the cloud, IBM undertook its own business transformation with the RISE with SAP solution. As part of their expanded partnership with SAP, IBM is migrating to SAP S/4HANA to perform work across more than 120 countries, 1,000 legal entities and numerous IBM businesses supporting software, hardware, consulting and finance. 

This business transformation will eventually move more than 300 SAP instances and consolidate 500 servers with the RISE with SAP solution on IBM Power on Red Hat Enterprise Linux on IBM Cloud. As a result, IBM will be positioned to provide the highest value of support and flexibility to its clients, allowing them to simplify and accelerate their business transformations while benefitting from the full value of RISE with SAP.

Consideration 3: The impact of RISE with SAP and BREAKTHROUGH with IBM for RISE with SAP on an IT Operating Model

To truly transform, companies need a holistic approach that leads to more sustainable outcomes and solutions. This is where the true value of IBM and SAP’s ecosystem partnership lies.

To help support clients with IT change management, SAP recruited IBM as its premium service provider for its RISE with SAP offering. The BREAKTHROUGH with IBM for RISE with SAP, Premium Supplier Option expands upon the BREAKTHROUGH with IBM portfolio of solutions, offering clients the choice of one partner—IBM—to manage everything within RISE with SAP, from software, support and infrastructure (IBM Power in IBM Cloud) to technical managed services.

As the first-of-its-kind business transformation as a service (BTaaS), RISE with SAP is impacting IT culture by offering companies the opportunity to holistically transform their businesses at their own speed and terms, regardless of their starting point. And BREAKTHROUGH with IBM for RISE with SAP provides the stewardship that helps clients recalibrate their IT models to maximize the value of RISE with SAP while preparing the IT organization for the possible impact to their processes.