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How simple is the technology you use in your business? On its own, you may say, each piece of technology is simple enough.

But what if you work for a global enterprise? Even if it’s just an average-sized one, your business is likely to use more than a thousand applications. As simple as each application may be on its own, complexity becomes a factor at that scale. How do applications connected to the same process work together? How do users share data across applications? Can employees even access the right applications at the right time?

It’s not surprising, then, that 60% of respondents to a recent survey[1] said technology complexity has inhibited the ability of their business to meet goals. 74% said complexity in business processes and decision making did the same.

But complexity isn’t just an unmeasurable nuisance – it hits the bottom line, and hits it hard. One study found that complexity caused 200 of the largest companies in the world to lose over $200 billion a year in profit.

Complexity slows the flow of information

One of the most pernicious examples of complexity affecting business results is when it involves collaboration.

When a business has many applications, it often also has many separate silos of collaboration. Stakeholders can collaborate within each application, but if a business process involves multiple applications, the flow of information slows. Users resort to pulling documents, data, files, and screenshots out of one application and sharing them in another – or often by email. Sometimes the information is out of date, and sometimes it simply never gets shared even though it should.

Imagine how that can impact business results: Fewer new ideas area shared. New hires take longer to get up to speed. Customer service resolution times slow down. The time it takes to close new sales deals increases.

Simplify collaboration for better business results

But what if you could implement a single, unified platform for collaboration across your business processes and applications? That act of simplifying collaboration would have sweeping results for your business. You’d have a single, clear channel of communication to help keep everyone on the same page and committed to the right goals. Employees would be able to find experts, exchange ideas, share knowledge, and develop skills more effectively. By providing for open, rich dialog directly in the context of business data such as sales opportunities, service tickets, marketing campaigns, and business intelligence results, you’d speed business, reduce errors, and improve performance.

An independent study[2] confirms the results. Better, simpler collaboration does lead to better business performance. The study’s findings show that a typical organization using SAP Jam – a secure, cloud-based social software platform – can experience:

  • An average revenue increase of $9.63 million. Over three years, a typical organization can reduce the time to close new business by more than nine percent, leading to additional revenue opportunity of $9.63 million.
  • Recouping of employees time valued at $7 million. With SAP Jam, companies experienced a 14% decrease in time to access information and expertise, providing a more than $7 million gain.
  • Savings of more than $1.6 million in training and onboarding. Organizations reduced costs to train and onboard new employees by 13 percent, saving more than $1.6 million.
  • Savings of more than $1.1 million in serving customers. Companies resolved customer service issues more quickly with SAP Jam, leading to more than $1.1 million in savings.

If you’re interested in how your business could benefit from shorter sales cycle times, decreased time to access information and expertise, and lower costs associated with common business processes such as onboarding new employees, join our webcast on April 29.

1. Simplifying the Future of Work, Knowledge@Wharton

2. The Total Economic Impact of SAP Jam, a March 2015 commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of SAP


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