Quickly benefiting from next-generation, industry best-practice application services without building them from scratch
Look no further, it’s already in the catalog. The cloud has brought a brand-new generation of Software- as-a-Service (SaaS), mobile, and task-oriented applications. And they are not just off-the-shelf versions of software you used to build yourself. They typically contain industry best practices and new functions from which your impatient business can immediately benefit. All of this with a top-of-the-bill user experience, flexible APIs, and mobile-first apps. Even your legacy applications can be turned into easy-to-access catalog items. A growing catalog of next-generation applications is waiting to kick-start your digital journey. Open it up today and start exploring!
WHAT
- SaaS applications: born-in-the-cloud applications that deliver innovative, next-generation business functionality in areas such ERP, CRM, SRM, and HRM; also covering task-oriented areas such as team collaboration and project management.
- AI applications: turnkey AI functionality without the need to get into the data science or platform engineering, often even without the need for supplying lots of training data due to pretrained, industry-strength models (“small data”).
- App Store-style navigation and availability of business applications and application services.
- APIs and web services provide an easy way to create business access to application functions, not only for next-generation cloud applications, but also for catalog-based access to existing, legacy applications.
USE
- While re-implementing an ERP system, a large manufacturer decided not to go for the standard “one ERP” approach, but split the functionality in cataloged services to provide more speed and agility for the business.
- A European high-tech company changed its formerly requirements-driven approach to defining value cases and impact assessment to working with catalog-based cloud applications, speeding up both selection and implementation.
- A large US company created a so called “logo-based architecture”: an architecture in which the business functions are covered by SaaS applications only, supported by a single orchestration platform.
IMPACT
- Quick access to next-generation business functionality and even advanced AI without large, upfront investments and having to build new skills.
- Standardization while still providing agility and autonomy for the business through APIs.
- Mixing core enterprise applications with agile and catalog-based solutions.
- Speed up application selection and implementation by applying a catalog perspective instead of requirements specification.
TECH
- SaaS solutions
- CRM: Salesforce
- HRM: Workday, SAP Succesfactors
- ERP: Oracle Netsuite, Kenandy Cloud ERP
- Task-oriented: Concur, Asana, Trello, Microsoft Yammer, Slack
- AI solutions
- IBM Watson Health, iManage RAVN for legal and contract management, Commerce.ai for marketing, Area for supply chain
- App stores
- Salesforce AppExchange, SAP App Center, Microsoft Azure Marketplace