The winds of change in the technology world are impacting the private sector as well as the public sector. Government, like the private sector, has been quick to notice the value of these new developments and is actively finding ways to leverage new technologies to produce better results for citizens. The confluence of existing systems and new technologies has also highlighted the need to simplify the Information Technology landscape to fulfill the objectives of running operations smartly, serving citizens better, and fulfilling mission needs.
It is obvious that public sector agencies must embrace technology and simplify at every level if they are going to compete with innovation driven private sector and also deliver the 24x7 convenience that citizens expect and demand in their lives.
SAP recently concluded its 2015 Federal Forum on "Simplify to Innovate" theme in Washington, D.C. The SAP Federal Forum is an annual event that brings together thought leaders from public and private sector to discuss and learn about topics relevant to federal civilian,defense and state agencies. It also provides a platform for SAP's federal customers to share their experiences on the innovative use of techonology, and help them in turn to gain from each other's perspectives. Judging by the feedback from the participants, the 2015 event was successful in fulfilling its key objective: "learning how to cast off complexity and drive unprecedented innovation in government".
The event featured leaders from SAP government customers who shared experiences and insights on how their organizations leveraged SAP technology to drive out complexity and run simple to innovate. The keynote speakers included leaders from US Army (Mr. Robin Swan), The State of Indiana (Mr.Paul Baltzell), and The USDA (Mr. Sean Britto) who narrated stories of how their agencies benefitted from SAP's solutions in ERP, Big Data Analytics, and Supply Chain Management respectively.
SAP sees simplification as a strategy that works at different levels. "Simplifying" the user experience of interacting with business systems is one aspect of it; and "simplifying" and thus better enabling the business functions and processes is another. There is also the dimension of "simplifying" IT tools and software. SAP has acted on all these dimensions, and its latest product launch of S/4 HANA is major step to simplify the user experience, business function as well as IT software.
The three tracks at 2015 Federal Forum followed the simplification theme:
- Finance Track: Ensuring sound fiscal stewardship, regulatory compliance, and audit readiness. This track contained discusions on SAP S/4 HANA Roadmap for Public Sector; and Accelerating Financial Reporting
- Human Resource (HR) Track: Managing people and talent to build a more agile workforce as employees continue to retire. This track included a presentation on SAP SuccessFactors Cloud offerings; and Integrated Talent Management in Government.
- Analytics Track: Leveraging instant insigts from Big Data to spark innovation and improve program outcomes. Topics included Safeguarding Citizen and Field Personnel with Real-time Situational Awareness; Sustainability; Data Mining and Data Analytics.
For any further information and accessing presentations at the 2015 event, please visit the Federal Forum Home Page (http://events.sap.com/us/fed-forum). Please feel free to ask any questions pertaining to this event or about SAP solutions by writing to our event organizers (margarita.castillo@sap.com; dante.ricci@sap.com) or to me (anil.joshi@sap.com).
