Microsoft Azure is a leading cloud platform for organizations running SAP, helping them succeed through a deep strategic partnership with SAP itself and pioneering cloud innovations and technologies. As cloud gains an increasingly central role in how businesses operate, more and more organizations are migrating their critical systems there.
But migration is only the first step in a continuous cloud transformation journey for modern enterprises. The real opportunity is in improvement and innovation—the ongoing effort to earn the highest possible ROI from running SAP and enterprise workloads on the cloud.
Extending the use of cloud services on Azure drives innovation to help to achieve this goal. In this guide, we’ll detail why optimizing SAP cloud ROI is a competitive imperative, plus 5 strategies to do it effectively in the modern cloud business landscape.
Quick Takeaways:
For SAP customers that have still been unsure about migrating to the cloud, the time is now to take the leap. By 2025, 80% of enterprises will have migrated to the public cloud, and nearly three-quarters of SAP customers will deploy SAP S/4HANA on the cloud by the same time.
In other words: The cloud is no longer just about advancing technology, but a fundamental part of the way companies operate and build strategy. For SAP customers, the cloud is creating new opportunities to implement the kind of streamlined and collaborative operations large enterprises struggled to achieve for decades.
That means the standards for innovation and agility from large enterprises are higher than ever, and will only continue to grow. SAP organizations need a cloud strategy that can help them overcome traditional barriers to transformation caused by complex legacy ERP systems.
Microsoft Azure has the capabilities needed to help SAP organizations achieve this goal, delivering critical benefits to SAP clients that include:
The first step to successfully embarking on an Extend and Innovate journey with Azure is to find a trusted SAP cloud migration and modernization service provider, like Protera. Let’s walk through key steps in the Extend and Innovate process as it’s implemented for Protera clients.
At Protera, we follow a proven process for cloud modernization journeys that aims to customize solution plans for each unique client while staying rooted in industry best practices and technologies. Steps in the process include:
During the first step in the journey, the Protera team engages in immersive and interactive conversations with the client team to learn about their current SAP systems. Often, Protera is given direct access to these systems in order to gather firsthand insight on how they’re running.
Together, Protera and the client team explore questions such as:
After a complete discovery assessment, the Protera team delivers initial insights in these and other key areas of the client’s IT operations, setting the initial direction for strategies on how to leverage Microsoft Azure services to drive business desired outcomes and innovations.
Next, Protera works with the client to develop well-defined goals. They look for both low-hanging fruit or quick-win opportunities to transform, as well as longer-term objectives that require more comprehensive approaches. Together, the teams document these goals and begin to form a plan.
Each client’s execution plan outlines exactly how their transformation goals will be achieved. Just like migration execution plans, plans for extending and innovating on Azure serve as a roadmap and guide to facilitate successful implementation and high accountability from all involved.
Transformation and innovation execution plans typically include:
A client’s execution plan serves as the most central resource for all involved in the project to understand its scope at a high level, and be able to zoom in on particular aspects of it as needed.
Protera makes it a priority to deliver frequent and detailed progress updates on projects, communicating with the client on successes as they happen, and quickly identifying and addressing issues when they do occur throughout the process.
This allows organizations to remain informed and agile throughout the entirety of an initiative to extend and innovate, make quick adjustments as needed, and keep project plans running smoothly, even when unexpected events occur.
Today, businesses never stand still. When an initial modernization and/or innovation journey is completed, Protera works with the client to identify new goals and transformations to be tackled next or taken on in the near future.
This helps clients adopt a forward-thinking mindset that prioritizes continuous improvement. They can adjust to new market conditions seamlessly, and adopt new technologies quickly to stay a step ahead of competitors in their industries.
Evaluate your organization’s readiness to extend and innovate on Microsoft Azure with a fully funded advanced Migration Assessment at no cost to you. Work with Protera and Microsoft to gain valuable insights in weeks, not months, into your IT landscape.
With Protera and Microsoft’s support, this fully funded assessment will get you there in 4-6 weeks.
Our Cloud Assessment Reports include: