Partnering to Leverage the Power of SAP Automation
As the CIO of Basis, I am continually pursuing partnerships with the best of the best in the enterprise software space. Collaborating with systems integrators and complementary technology companies helps us bring the highest quality software and delivery services to our global customer base.
One such partner, Accenture, invited me to attend their Technology Engineering Symposium in Berlin last week. I was asked to join a panel discussion on the future of automation, moderated by Kishore Durg, Senior Managing Director, Accenture Global Growth & Strategy Lead. A gathering for Accenture team members, customers, and partners, the focus of the event was automation, Agile and DevOps, and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Much of the panel discussion centered around what automation can offer to enterprise customers in the future, including some ethical queries on managing people with their potential “artificial” counterparts. The perspective I was able to bring was on automation for agile SAP change delivery and the growing market demand for software that can significantly reduce testing efforts and costs - like our Testimony solution for Robotic Test Automation.
Replacing Manual Effort with Automation
Automation is at the heart of everything we do at Basis Technologies and is one of the essential trending topics for companies running SAP. Customers realize the true value in automating common tasks that are monotonous and non-value add. This includes areas such as automated deployment, build, and testing. The growth of automation has put some companies on edge as they wonder what impact this more cost-effective, efficient approach could have on their business model.
Accenture is not one of those companies. Rather, they are committed to seizing the opportunity that automation presents. They realize they can capitalize on the business benefits of automation – and pass those benefits on to their customers.
One consistent theme during the Technology Symposium was the idea of leveraging DevOps practices to enable continuous delivery of innovation. This approach enables faster release cycles, higher quality deployment, and significantly lower risk. Enterprises can get what they need quickly (in days or weeks) and iteratively - rather than waiting months for new functionality. Slow delivery keeps companies playing catch-up as requirements and priorities are constantly changing. They’re forced to find short-term workarounds which often means once the functionality is finally delivered it’s no longer needed, or the overall strategy has changed.
This point especially piqued my interest because, for more than 10 years, Basis Technologies has been developing automation for continuous delivery and DevOps. It’s exciting that global enterprises and system integrators are increasingly realizing that our innovative approach has become critical to achieving true business agility.
Accenture Showcases Latest Offerings
In addition to keynote presentations and panel discussions, Accenture showcased their latest offerings, including myWizard and “Touchless Testing.” The myWizard platform has gained much interest of late, allowing enterprise customers to better understand the myriad tools that make up their IT landscape. The average number of applications used by today’s companies has skyrocketed as a wide variety of third-party software tools, applications, and infrastructure, support any number of business units and complex processes.
However, the challenge often lies in maintaining a clear picture of exactly what the tools are, how the outputs are being used, and whether they are delivering the expected results. The MyWizard platform has out-of-the-box integration with these tools to help manage and aggregate their outputs. With that, companies gain critical insight and understanding of how they are supporting the business.
There’s a lot of value in this technology, and it demonstrates Accenture’s commitment to continue innovating to drive customer success. It was valuable to learn how Accenture Technology is making leaps and bounds in their adoption of different ways of working and embracing new ideas and technologies.
In the same vein, Accenture and Basis are collaborating to deliver automation for DevOps and testing to the SAP customer base. We offer an innovative new approach to continuous delivery and are working jointly with Accenture – most recently at one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies – to help customers improve efficiency and lower risk with Robotic Test Automation for SAP.
I was thrilled to participate in the event, and the buzz around the potential and power of automation was tangible. Stay tuned for more on how we are collaborating with Accenture.
In the meantime, why not watch this recorded webinar to learn more about how automation can help you innovate at speed in SAP and how it enables greater business agililty.
