Ask Approyo: How is Artificial Intelligence impacting businesses right now?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is an area of computer science that emphasizes the creation of intelligent machines that work and react like humans. The massive amount of data produced by our devices, sensors, and the Internet of Things (IoT) continues to grow. Turning this data into actionable insights and reaching new levels of sophistication and efficiency will require artificial intelligence (AI).

Now is the time to start to implement AI solutions at your business. Here are just a few examples of how AI is impacting the day to day operations at companies around the world.

Automating customer interactions
Most customer interactions, such as emails, online chat, social media conversations and telephone calls, currently require human involvement. AI, however, is enabling companies to automate these communications. By analyzing data collected from previous communications it is possible to program computers to respond accurately to customers and deal with their inquiries. What’s more, when AI is combined with machine learning, the more the AI platforms interact, the better they become.

Data Mining
Cloud-based AI apps are so advanced that they can quickly discover important information and relevant findings while processing big data. This gives businesses insights into previously undiscovered information, which gives them a major advantage in the marketplace.

Reducing Human Error
Robotic process automation (RPA) can help businesses avoid costly human errors. Each year human errors cost SMEs millions of pounds. RPA tools are designed to continually collect, analyze and learn from large amounts of data. As such, robots are far more effective at standardizing processes than human employees.

Businesses around the world use RPA software across a range of industries and purposes. For example, making logical and consistent marketing decisions, avoiding expensive fines from mistakes within compliance reports, and using set protocols to reduce injuries at work.

Automation
Since the industrial revolution, the rise of technology has gone hand in hand with the automation of work. From tractors, to automated hotel bookings and advanced robots working in manufacturing factories, the theme remains constant. As far as the introduction of artificial intelligence is concerned, the only difference is where it works. There’s a growing trend towards the automation of routine work. Artificial intelligence is quickly automating routine processes, the same way industrial era machines automated physical labor. Not only are these technologies extremely capable, they also don’t require coffee, lunch or smoke breaks.

Breaking the language barrier
At one time or another, we’ve all used Google Translate to simplify our communication with someone, understand a text in a foreign language, or as a part of our work. While the initial translation solutions might not have been the most efficient, Google has implemented machine learning to teach their digital translator to improve on the go. Now, it delivers highly realistic translations, despite their complexity or colloquial nature.

However, AI has gone a step further, and we now have devices that can instantly translate speech into a variety of languages as you enjoy a conversation with someone who doesn’t speak your own native language.

Read the full blog post at www.approyo.com

Key Benefits of Outsourcing your SAP Basis Support

SAP Basis refers to the administration of SAP system that includes activities like installation and configuration, load balancing, and performance of SAP applications running on Java stack and SAP ABAP. This includes the maintenance of different services related to database, operating system, application and web servers in SAP system landscape and stopping and starting the system.

SAP Basis support is a critical aspect to organizations running SAP Solutions and companies looking to get the most out of these solutions. In-House support teams are most likely severely overburdened and can’t give Basis the attention it deserves. Many companies have faced a large turnover of SAP professionals, requiring them to scramble just to keep SAP running. Or, many organization can't find the expertise needed to manage these solutions. So, they do what they can to keep SAP Basis running — for now.

Key Benefits of outsourcing SAP Basis Support:

• No need to hire, train or retain SAP staff
• Help you stay focused on your core competencies
• Costs reduction with predictable SAP support costs and improved operational efficiencies
• Improved reliability, availability and performance of the SAP infrastructure
• Quality monitoring to boost system availability and capacity

View the full blog post on www.approyo.com

The Intelligent Enterprise powered by SAP HANA

The SAP HANA business data platform is unrivaled, combining a robust database with services for creating innovative applications. It enables real-time business by converging transactions and analytics on one in-memory platform. Running on premise or in the cloud, SAP HANA untangles IT complexity, bringing huge savings in data management and empowering decision-makers everywhere with new insight and predictive power.

Accelerate with Simplicity
An intelligent enterprise requires a business-ready data platform that helps you find the signal in the noise and unleash your data’s potential for better business outcomes. The SAP HANA business data platform provides the next-generation data management foundation for all of the industry-leading SAP® solutions. It also enables development of cutting-edge applications to deliver intelligent solutions for the enterprise quickly.

SAP HANA is one of the first data management platforms to handle both transactions and analytics in-memory on a single data set. It converges a future-proof database with advanced analytical processing and capabilities for application development, data integration, and data quality. Embedded in a robust, state-of-the-art security framework, it supports compliance with the latest security standards and data protection regulations. You gain a single secure environment for all your mission-critical data assets. You can manage large volumes of structured and unstructured data efficiently, leveraging the value of your business data while improving total cost of ownership (TCO).

Reimagine the Database
SAP HANA is built on an in-memory columnar store that is optimized for both transactional and analytical workloads, enabling the benefits of multicore processing, modern storage technology, and the single-instruction, multiple-data instruction set. It’s fully compliant with requirements for the atomicity, consistency, isolation, and durability (ACID) standards.

Intuitive modeling tools and preconfigured function libraries let you run complex business logic directly inside the database. That means you avoid latencies from moving data between the database and application server tiers.

Multitenant databases can be managed as one while maintaining their isolation from one another. The data tiering capabilities of SAP HANA, such as extension nodes, allow you to maximize your value by balancing performance and cost of data storage. This enables administrators to control which data is kept in-memory and which is kept in alternative persistent data storage. At the same time, the multistore tables in SAP HANA mean that where and how data is stored is completely transparent to consuming applications.

Act with Live Intelligence
SAP HANA provides next-generation hybrid transactional and analytical processing (HTAP) with the broadest advanced analytics capabilities to help business leaders understand information in context and achieve situational awareness to act in the moment. This includes native high-performance predictive and machine learning algorithms and integration with TensorFlow and R to reveal meaningful patterns in data and build applications that can learn and automate manual business processes. Text analysis and search capabilities help extract real insights from unstructured textual data in many different languages. Administrative boundary content, advanced services such as geocoding, and spatial services available in the cloud help accelerate development of location-aware business applications.

SAP HANA can store and query streaming data from sensors, plant equipment, and Internet of Things devices; time-series data such as price fluctuations and information on machine efficiency; and highly interconnected graph data. It also provides a JSON document store. These powerful capabilities can be leveraged with standard SQL, enabling data to be combined from standard relational databases, spatial and graph data, and data stored in a JSON document. A wealth of new possibilities helps you reimagine business models.


Innovate with Confidence
To achieve business insight in real time, SAP HANA helps you innovate with confidence. You can analyze sensitive data while effectively aligning with compliance requirements with real-time data anonymization. State-of-the-art techniques such as k-anonymity and differential privacy render personal data disconnected from an individual. This empowers business users and data scientists to “know without seeing” and explore new business opportunities for data as a service.

SAP HANA connects with existing applications using open standards and offers a choice of ways to build applications that are Web based or based on microservices. SAP Web IDE for SAP HANA offers a comprehensive lightweight tool set for data modeling and application development. Complex security authorizations can be easily shared between native applications and extensions running on SAP HANA and SAP business applications.

Read the full blog post on www.approyo.com 

Mirror Review Recognizes Approyo as one of The 10 Most Agile SAP Solution Providers To Keep An Eye On In 2019

Mirror Review has listed Approyo among the top SAP solution providers in its latest magazine, “The 10 Most Agile SAP Solution Providers To Keep An Eye On In 2019”

The magazine has recently published its special issue, in which it has featured the most prominent companies that empower their clients with the most advanced SAP solutions and tools for enterprise operations.

Today, SAP is leading the world with industry expertise in providing high grade enterprise solutions. It is the unique characteristic of SAP that enable a strong digital core and an easy-to-use system that supports innovations planned by companies. Tools provided by SAP are helping businesses transform themselves and take themselves towards success, without jeopardizing the daily business operations.

In its published story, Chris Carter, the CEO and Founder of Approyo shares his journey from starting Approyo to leading it to a successful SAP solutions provider company. Currently, in the leadership of Chris, SAP solutions by Approyo help businesses to unlock the full potential of SAP technologies. Mayur Shewale, Assistant Editor of Mirror Review shares, “SAP HANA and SAP Cloud Platform are useful to build intelligent applications and analytics solutions across various industries which greatly assist in streamlining business processes. However, the emergence of challenges like technological differences, integration difficulties is an essential part of their implementation. Such challenges are the prime motive behind the need for quality SAP solutions providers who can integrate SAP with leading systems like CRMs, Supplier, or third-party purchase order systems. Chris and his team at Approyo have recognized these challenges and are helping customers to develop a fully operational SAP HANA solution in the cloud to gratify the needs of their customers.”

“We are excited to be part of this great list of companies" said Christopher Carter, CEO of Approyo. "This achievement continues to validate our success in the SAP and Cloud marketplace.”

View the full profile: https://www.mirrorreview.com/approyo-moving-sap-applications-to-the-cloud/

The 10 Best Performing SAP Solution Providers list: https://www.mirrorreview.com/the-10-most-agile-sap-solution-providers-to-keep-an-eye-on-in-2019/

About Mirror Review
Mirror Review is a magazine company that unwinds the untold stories of Enterprises and their Founders, VPs, CEOs, CXOs, etc., while focusing on the unique services offered by them. As this is a platform for technologists and business people, the company keeps its audience informed with all current affairs in the market. The magazine company focuses on technology sectors such as Big Data, Cloud, IoT, Mobility, Networking, Security, Software, and Virtualization, and has issued numerous successful projects.

Unlocking the Benefits of the Internet of Things (IoT)

The Internet of Things is a network of physical objects – vehicles, machines, home appliances, and more – that use sensors and APIs to connect and exchange data over the Internet.

IoT platforms and architecture

• Cloud-based IoT platforms and architecture connect the real and virtual worlds. They help companies manage IoT device connectivity and security – as well as collect device data, link devices to backend systems, ensure IoT interoperability, and build and run IoT applications. 
• Harnessing the IoT data explosion - Smart devices generate a massive amount of IoT data that needs to be analyzed and leveraged in real time. This is where predictive and Big Data analytics come into play. Machine learning is also used to add context to data – and trigger actions without human intervention.
• The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) & M2M - In manufacturing, the IoT becomes the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) – also known as the Industrial Internet or Industry 4.0. The IIoT uses machine to machine (M2M) technology to support everything from remote monitoring and telemetry to predictive maintenance.

Major Benefits of deploying an IoT Strategy

• New business models and revenue - Automatic product replenishment? Subscription services? Apps? The IoT is disrupting traditional business models and creating massive opportunities for companies to create new services based on real-time sensor data and information.
• Operational efficiency - One of the biggest benefits of the IoT is the efficiency it can offer. Many companies are using it to automate business and manufacturing processes, remotely monitor and control operations, optimize supply chains, and conserve resources.
• Workforce productivity - Wearables and other IoT-enabled devices are boosting workforce productivity and job satisfaction in many verticals. The technology is helping employees improve decision making, automate routine tasks, fast-track communication, and more.
• Enhanced customer experiences - From integrating customer care with actual product performance and usage to delivering highly personalized products and services, the IoT offers many ways to create more compelling customer experiences across digital and physical worlds.

Read the full blog post on www.approyo.com 

Understand your path to SAP S/4HANA (updated)

By 2025, SAP will no longer support SAP ECC 6, the core component of SAP ERP. This means you will need to upgrade your SAP systems. But what are your best upgrade options?

There are three basic SAP cloud migration paths. Companies that want to start off slowly can undergo a traditional SAP cloud migration, moving their assets into the cloud without moving to SAP HANA at all. This allows you to show ROI quickly from running in the cloud while minimizing initial disruption and lets you wait for the major SAP HANA and S/4HANA upgrade for a later date.

Another option is migrating to Suite on HANA — with SAP ECC 6.0 Enhancement Pack 7 running on a HANA database. This gives you all the incremental benefits of HANA, such as faster performance and compatibility with newer applications and will get you close to a full S/4HANA landscape.

However, most companies will benefit from moving directly to S/4HANA. In most cases, a complete upgrade and migration will be less disruptive and less costly than several smaller upgrades and the new functionality will provide a major competitive advantage right away.

Deployment options for SAP S/4HANA

• Cloud - Public Cloud - SAP offers a pure Public Cloud option—Software-as-as-Service (SaaS)—such as SAP Cloud, Google Cloud Platform, AWS, or Azure, to name a few, which hosts and manages the entire HANA infrastructure, including the quarterly upgrades. This option can also be managed through the public cloud provider, internally or by an SAP partner like Approyo. 
• Cloud - Private Cloud - Under a private cloud setup, the HANA infrastructure operates on a private cloud exclusive for the use of an organization. This scenario can be managed internally or by a third-party and can be hosted internally or externally. It works best for companies looking for on-demand scalability, complete management control, and security prioritization for their IT assets while combining both on-premise and cloud solutions. 
• Hybrid Cloud - The Hybrid Cloud option involves using a cloud provider as either IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service) or PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service).  With either option, the organization must manage a portion of their on-premise assets and associated services while the rest of the portions are managed by the Cloud service provider.
• On-premise - On-premise deployment is hosting SAP S/4HANA in your own data center, which isn’t mandated by SAP’s upgrade cycle. Under this scenario, the HANA appliances are hosted on partners/customers’ existing data centers. 

Read the full blog post on www.approyo.com 

SAP Announces new SAP Leonardo Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities

SAP unveiled SAP Leonardo Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities, the all-encompassing technology that generates and drives digital transformation for Industrial IoT and Industry 4.0.

In addition, SAP announced the cloud-to-cloud interoperability of SAP Leonardo IoT with Microsoft Azure IoT Hub, providing customers a choice of connectivity and device management. SAP is committed to a strong ecosystem for IoT and understands the value its partners can bring to joint customers. This announcement was made at MWC being held February 25–28 in Barcelona. Below are some of the highlights from the announcement:

SAP is uniquely positioned to bring IoT data together with business processes. SAP Leonardo IoT will help customers increase productivity, redefine their customer experience and grow their revenue streams. It will enable customers to embed IoT into line-of-business (LoB) solutions, enhance business applications with IoT technology and develop new business models based on the new data the IoT solutions generate.

“SAP delivers valuable insight and drives business results by embedding IoT data into business processes,” said Elvira Wallis, senior vice president and global head of IoT at SAP. “With the launch of SAP Leonardo IoT, SAP solidifies its commitment to the IoT, and in particular Industrial IoT. The combination of IoT and our depth and breadth of high-value industry and application expertise helps customers gain greater business value and a stronger competitive advantage.”

SAP Leonardo IoT will allow customers to innovate and enhance business processes using data-driven intelligence and operational context from machines, products, supply chains, consumers and partners. SAP Leonardo IoT will offer three paths to innovation for customers based on their specific business needs, including:

• Combining IoT data with business process data to enable IoT-embedded business applications and accelerate adoption to give customers the ability to innovate quickly from within business applications – including SAP S/4HANA, the SAP C/4HANA suite, SAP SuccessFactors solutions, SAP Ariba solutions and the SAP Digital Supply Chain portfolio.
• Extending existing SAP IoT applications for better business value
• Building new intelligent IoT solutions using SAP Leonardo IoT to create unique and differentiated offerings

Interoperability of SAP Leonardo IoT and Microsoft Azure IoT Hub
The new collaboration plans to offer customers the possibility of using Microsoft Azure IoT Hub as the connectivity and device management layer for IoT telemetry data, which is seamlessly relayed to SAP Leonardo IoT.

In addition, SAP Leonardo IoT Edge aims to give customers the option to extend support for their business processes locally on top of Microsoft Azure IoT Edge runtime. Essential business function (EBF) modules based on SAP Leonardo IoT Edge are also planned to run in containers on Microsoft Azure IoT Edge, reducing customers dependency on latency, bandwidth and connectivity.

Read the full announcement on www.sap.comhttps://news.sap.com/2019/02/mwc-sap-leonardo-iot-shape-intelligent-enterprise/