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With only one week from launching SAP Financials OnDemand at SAPPHIRE NOW in Madrid I thought it would be nice to discuss how this new cloud based solution offers a fresh option for companies struggling to settle on their overall strategy for updating and enhancing their core financial management system.  Certainly core financial management software isn't an area where organizations are looking to start from scratch.  You will be hard pressed to find a mid to large enterprise company that hasn't already invested heavily over the last 10-20 years in an automated financials system or customized their legacy environment to address their accounting and financial reporting requirements.

However, both CFO's and CIO's are now faced with impending expensive upgrade cycles combined with an intensifying need for information exchange and collaboration of an increasingly agile and mobile workforce.  So what are the options for finance and IT departments to address this situation?  Do they enter into a long and costly upgrade of their current software and in parallel start custom modernization projects to address mobility and collaboration? Can they rip and replace what they already have? Do they explore new vendor options and technologies?

 

Even more complex is how can they modernize the core financial system in a way that is non-disruptive to the rest of their business and IT environment?  Upgrading, enhancing and implementing a new financial solution typically have more dependencies and integration points to other line of business solutions than any other type of software due to the inherent fact that every aspect of a business has a financial impact. 

To address these types of issues for other lines of business such as HR, Sales and Procurement, cloud software has become main stream.  Even for smaller size companies cloud financial solutions are mature and dominating the market.  The next big wave of cloud adoption over the next 5 years will be financials solutions for larger enterprises.  Most analyst research shows the reason adoption of a cloud model for financials in the upper mid to large enterprise market has lagged is mainly due to lack of off the shelf options that can address complex global requirements and the ability to easily integrate with a very diverse IT landscape. 

Well with the launch of SAP Financials OnDemand companies now have a cloud option that combines breakthrough innovation on a proven core financial management system that has improved the operational efficiency and controls of over 23,000 companies globally.  For example built in controls and local country versions which thousands of companies have trusted SAP solutions to ensure that their financial books and reporting meets all local, national and international regulations is now combined with leading edge technology such cloud, embedded in-memory analytics based on HANA on a mobile device and enables collaboration in context.  All of these innovations are proven and adopted by our global customer base across a broad portfolio of line of business solutions and are now available in SAP Financials OnDemand.  Below is a video highlighting how this modern technology applies to our new financial solution.

             

Additionally it is designed with open interfaces and adapters that plug into a customer’s existing IT solutions whether they are on-premise, cloud based, multi-vendor or SAP applications.  In large enterprises with a diverse IT environements, it is not unreasonable to assume most companies won’t find it feasible to rip and replace their entire financial landscape on day one.  However our open architecture enables companies to run in parallel with existing environments or at divisional levels and we are inviting customers to partner and co-innovate with us so they can leverage this cloud solution and expand its usage across their enterprise. 

We are extremely excited to now offer an option that modernizes your core accounting systems by combining all of our financial expertise with our proven cutting edge technologies in our new SAP Financials OnDemand solution.

I encourage you to join us at SAPPHIRE NOW Madrid where this solution will be launched, discussed in detail and shown in action.