Digitization will reinvent the world economy; individuals, businesses and societies are becoming interconnected in real time, leading to a new Digital Economy that is more collaborative, intelligent, responsive, and efficient with dramatic increases in productivity and economic value.
The Digital Economy will transform the way we live and work, how business runs, and how society functions – and do this in a time frame that is radically shorter than any other major economic transition in history.
Over the past few years, networks have evolved that have connected individuals, groups and organizations. We started with “People Networks” like Facebook and linked in. This was followed by “business Networks” such as the Ariba business network. The IoT made these networks even more connected by bringing connectivity to literally “everything”.
This has resulted in a new digital economy where:
- Everything is becoming digitized
- Everything, and everyone is connected
- Everything is being shared via the cloud
- Everything is now personalized
- Everything is directly available
There are many examples in business today:
- Uber is the world’s largest taxi company but owns no taxis.
- Airbnb is the largest accommodation provider but owns no real estate
- Alibaba is the world’s largest e-commerce company but owns no inventory
- Netflix is the world’s largest movie house but owns no cinemas
- Apple is the world’s largest music distributor but owns no music
- Amazon is the world’s largest book distributor but owns no books
To be in a position to capture and create these opportunities, companies must develop an environment in which they can manage information and processes across the extended supply chain.
This new evolution of supply chains are more connected, more intelligent, more responsive and more predictive. This transformation has, and will continue to, transform the business processes and systems that are required to remain competitive. It will change how we design, plan, respond, make, ship and operate our products and assets.
SAP is conducting a research study to determine where companies are in their journey to "Digitize the Extended Supply Chain" with the goal of determining how companies can capture and leverage big data to determine:
- How far is your enterprise with the Digital Transformation?
- Where do you get started?
- What benefits do you expect?
The findings results will be published in December.
To take part in the discussion click here.
