SAP Modernization: The Azure Way

In the fast-paced and competitive business environment of today, organizations need to stay ahead of the curve to thrive. SAP Modernization presents a game-changing opportunity for businesses utilizing SAP applications to revamp their operations and unlock new levels of efficiency, agility, and innovation. This blog highlights the challenges and key reasons why SAP Modernization is crucial for businesses, from enhancing scalability and reducing costs to improving user experience and enabling seamless integration with emerging technologies. You will also discover how MSRcosmos delivers value to SAP customers through a three-step modernization approach.

Risks of Non-Modernization: Challenges Faced by SAP Customers.

If SAP customers do not embark on the path of modernization, they may face several challenges that can hinder their growth and competitiveness in the evolving business landscape. Some of the key challenges include:

• Outdated Technology: Without modernization, SAP customers may find themselves trapped with legacy systems and outdated technology infrastructure. This can limit their adaptability and hinder their ability to leverage new features and functionalities.
• Inefficient Processes: Legacy SAP systems often lack the flexibility and automation capabilities that modern solutions offer. This can result in manual and time-consuming processes, leading to inefficiencies, errors, and increased operational costs.
• Limited Scalability: As businesses grow and expand, their SAP systems need to scale accordingly. However, without modernization, scaling can become challenging and costly. Legacy systems may struggle to handle increasing data volumes, user demands, and integration requirements, leading to performance issues and scalability limitations.
• Inadequate Data Insights: Legacy SAP systems often lack advanced analytics capabilities, making it difficult to extract meaningful insights from data. This can hinder the ability to make informed decisions, identify market trends, and seize growth opportunities.
• Reduced Competitiveness: Without SAP modernization, organizations may struggle to deliver superior customer experiences, innovate at the speed required, and differentiate themselves in the market. This can result in lost opportunities, customer attrition, and a decline in market share.
• Higher Maintenance Costs: Legacy SAP systems require ongoing maintenance and support, which can be costly and time-consuming. As these systems age, finding skilled resources to support them becomes more challenging, leading to increased maintenance costs and a drain on IT resources.

Embracing SAP modernization is essential for organizations to future-proof their operations, drive innovation, and stay ahead in the dynamic business landscape.

Key Reasons for SAP Modernization on Azure

By embracing SAP Modernization, organizations can harness the power of cutting-edge technologies like cloud computing, data analytics, and AI to drive digital transformation and gain a competitive edge. Let’s look at the top reasons one by one.

• Scalability & Flexibility: SAP Modernization paves the way for businesses to harness the power of cloud computing, particularly through Microsoft Azure. By migrating SAP applications to the cloud, organizations can leverage the scalability, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness of the cloud platform. With Azure, businesses gain access to advanced infrastructure, cutting-edge services, and seamless integration with other Microsoft technologies, enabling them to optimize resource utilization and drive operational efficiency.
• Elastic Storage and Backup: Azure provides flexible and scalable storage options, allowing organizations to store and manage large amounts of data efficiently. Additionally, Azure’s backup and recovery services enable organizations to implement reliable data backup strategies, ensuring data protection and business continuity.
• Advanced Analytics & AI Capabilities: SAP Modernization empowers organizations to unlock valuable insights hidden within their SAP data. By leveraging advanced analytics and AI capabilities, businesses can extract actionable insights to drive informed decision-making. With powerful tools such as Microsoft Power BI and Azure Machine Learning, organizations can uncover trends, identify opportunities, and optimize business processes. Data-driven decision-making enables organizations to enhance customer experiences, optimize supply chain management, and drive overall business performance.
• Streamlined Operations with Intelligent Automation: Automation plays a pivotal role in SAP Modernization, enabling organizations to streamline operations and improve efficiency. By automating manual and repetitive tasks, businesses can eliminate errors, reduce costs, and free up resources for higher-value strategic initiatives. Intelligent automation technologies like RPA, AI, and ML empower organizations to automate complex business processes, enhance productivity, and accelerate time-to-market. Microsoft’s Power Automate solution is a game-changer for process automation. Additionally, OpenAI’s powerful GPT applications have the potential to revolutionize your business enterprise.
• Enhance Customer Experiences: SAP Modernization enables organizations to deliver exceptional customer experiences by leveraging advanced technologies. With seamless integration between SAP applications and customer-facing systems, businesses can personalize interactions, gain a 360-degree view of customers, and provide timely and relevant services. By harnessing the power of technologies like AI, chatbots, virtual assistants, and omnichannel engagement, organizations can elevate customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention.
• Improved System Availability: Azure’s robust infrastructure and high availability features help ensure maximum uptime for SAP applications. Organizations can leverage Azure’s built-in redundancy and disaster recovery capabilities to minimize system downtime and achieve higher availability levels.
• Robust Security and Compliance: Azure offers a wide range of security features, including encryption, threat detection, access controls, and compliance certifications. By migrating SAP applications to Azure, organizations can enhance data security, meet regulatory requirements, and protect sensitive business information.
• Future-Proofing & Readiness: In a rapidly changing digital landscape, SAP Modernization ensures that organizations are future-proofed and ready to adapt to emerging technologies and market demands. By leveraging Microsoft Azure’s ecosystem of services, organizations gain access to cutting-edge technologies like IoT, blockchain, and advanced analytics. This enables businesses to stay ahead of the curve, drive innovation, and capitalize on new opportunities, ensuring long-term success and sustainability.

Modernize SAP Applications in three simple steps

MSRcosmos, in partnership with Microsoft, offers a comprehensive SAP modernization solution (powered by Azure) that leverages the capabilities of cloud, data analytics & AI, and intelligent automation. With a three-step approach of Migrate, Automate, and Analyze, businesses can maximize the value of their SAP investments and drive operational efficiency. These are as follows

• Migrate: MSRcosmos simplifies the migration process by seamlessly transitioning your business-critical SAP applications to Microsoft Azure. MSR’s expert Azure team ensures a smooth migration while leveraging the scalability, security, and extensibility of Azure, allowing you to harness the full power of the cloud platform.
• Automate: With MSRcosmos, organizations can automate their SAP processes using intelligent automation technologies. Through Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and AI-powered bots, we streamline and optimize your business operations, reducing manual effort, eliminating errors, and improving overall efficiency.
• Analyze: MSRcosmos helps businesses unlock actionable insights from their SAP data through advanced data analytics. Our expertise in leveraging Microsoft Azure’s analytics services empowers organizations to extract valuable insights, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions that drive business growth.

A Customer Success Story

A leading provider of supply chain solutions and eCommerce sought to migrate their mission-critical SAP applications to a third-party data center as part of their digital transformation strategy. Recognizing the need for a hyper-scale cloud platform to support their business and IT systems, they chose Microsoft Azure. MSRcosmos was selected as the partner of choice due to its expertise in SAP on Azure migration and extensive experience with complex SAP architectures. The migration program involved a thorough assessment of the client’s SAP landscape, and MSRcosmos successfully migrated various SAP modules ahead of schedule, implemented disaster recovery solutions, and secured a multi-year application management services contract. The migration to Azure resulted in accelerated digital transformation, cost reduction, improved scalability, and resilient infrastructure for the client. You can read this complete case study here.

Conclusion:

SAP Modernization goes beyond being a buzzword; it is a transformative journey essential for organizations to thrive in the digital-first era. By embracing cloud computing, unlocking actionable insights, streamlining operations with automation, enhancing customer experiences, and future-proofing the business, organizations can unleash the full potential of their SAP applications. With the trusted partnership of Microsoft Azure and MSRcosmos, businesses can navigate the complexities of SAP Modernization and embark on a successful digital transformation. Embrace SAP Modernization today and unlock the power of digital innovation, agility, and growth for your organization.