SAP Brief SAP Extensions Retail Industry SAP Business Process Automation by Redwood Objectives Greater Continuity, Consistency, and Timeliness with Business Process Automation
Streamline critical enterprise processes Streamline critical enterprise processes CEOs expect their retail organizations to work smarter and simpler while holding the line on costs. They expect each department to contribute to and own the company s success. The SAP Business Process Automation application by Redwood automates business process execution across SAP and third-party software environments, helping retailers adapt to changing customer and market demands. Retailers are challenged by omnichannel fulfillment, where each customer s journey, from interest to purchase to possession, is unique and can happen anywhere. Retailers rely on transparency of data and events that impact consumer behavior from product data quality, consistent pricing, and reliable inventory availability, to a 360-degree view of the customer and a personalized experience. With all of these requirements to support, the ability to automate fulfillment and supply chain workflow while reacting in the moment to customer changes is essential. SAP Business Process Automation improves process quality, continuity, and consistency by connecting applications to the business processes they support. Through integration with solutions running on the SAP HANA platform, including SAP S/4HANA, this application helps you improve the speed and accuracy of your company s process execution. So you can respond to dynamic market conditions in an agile manner, based on real-time insights. 2 / 8
Harness real-time, event-driven process automation Harness real-time, event-driven process automation Centralize enterprise process execution Increase visibility with user-friendly management tools As retail business environments continue to speed up, organizations must act based on the latest data and respond quickly to new requirements. In-memory computing technology such as SAP HANA is transforming the speed at which organizations can process data and turn it into meaningful information. However, accurate process automation and execution is key to helping you leverage the full potential of these high-performance environments. SAP Business Process Automation can be deployed within SAP HANA, and it integrates with other applications that are running on the platform, including SAP S/4HANA. This enables you to harness real-time intelligence and accelerate process execution. With SAP Business Process Automation, you can manage routine and scheduled process execution as well as ad hoc tasks and unpredictable events. You can also set up if-then scenarios and multithreaded process dependencies, enabling the solution to dynamically determine the right time, place, and circumstances to execute complex business processes. Eliminate process execution bottlenecks and gain the agility you need to meet changing omnichannel demands. 3 / 8
Centralize enterprise process execution Harness real-time, event-driven process automation Centralize enterprise process execution Increase visibility with user-friendly management tools Growth, acquisition, and technology evolution can lead to complex process management issues. SAP Business Process Automation provides a central point of control for executing processes across retail companies, eliminating the need to manage multiple scheduling tools separately. This simplifies process execution management, reduces administrative overhead, and increases productivity. The solution provides comprehensive support for end-to-end process execution across both SAP and third-party environments. As well as taking data input directly from SAP applications, it can also retrieve data from Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. And it works with reporting tools such as SAP Crystal Reports software to provide fast, straightforward access to information as and when you need it. Combining SAP Business Process Automation with SAP HANA is a powerful way to synchronize every aspect of the retail value chain, automating insight to action and straight-through processing. The solution helps ensure your pointof-sale and ERP data is synchronized to optimize replenishment with the SAP Forecasting and Replenishment for Retail application. And with the Internet of Things and demand sensors triggering events, it is even more important to balance supply and demand and to simplify overall planning cycles, from trade promotions to waste reduction. 4 / 8
Increase visibility with user-friendly management tools Harness real-time, event-driven process automation Centralize enterprise process execution Increase visibility with user-friendly management tools SAP Business Process Automation provides comprehensive management tools to offer optimal visibility and control over retail business processes. A powerful visual editor allows you to quickly and easily define how you want your process to execute, increasing your business agility and decreasing response time across your enterprise. Meanwhile, visual status indicators help you track important updates, and live monitoring functionality flags all your key process milestones as they occur. The solution provides role-based interfaces for interactions such as approvals, decision checkpoints, and responses to alerts. The intuitive, Web-based interface provides business users with secure access from anywhere, at any time including mobile devices for remote support. In addition, a tab feature helps users monitor multiple processes at the same time, reducing complexity and helping to prevent any delays resulting from potential cross-process execution issues before they happen. Built-in playback and critical-path analysis features provide detailed insight into past process execution. This enables you to identify bottlenecks and quickly improve process flow throughout your retail business. You can also see historical process execution to determine which steps take the longest to complete and which processes can or should run simultaneously. 5 / 8
Harness real-time, event-driven process automation Centralize enterprise process execution Increase visibility with user-friendly management tools Business processes evolve so quickly that developing and maintaining applicationspecific connectors to support them is nearly impossible. To help you keep pace with change, SAP Business Process Automation enables a service-oriented approach to automation. With standards-based integration and inboundoutbound Web services support, the solution facilitates integration between legacy and serviceoriented architecture (SOA) environments. It also creates a central infrastructure for managing and integrating workloads for legacy, existing, and future applications by providing a common set of reusable, immediately available services for process automation. In addition, SAP Business Process Automation uses open standards such as XML, distributed systems standards such as.net, and enhanced Java integration to connect the widest possible range of process technologies. Embrace new application environments as they develop with SAP Business Process Automation. 6 / 8
Deliver business value Deliver business value SAP Business Process Automation provides a dynamic, event-driven architecture that enables flexible, real-time process execution. The solution helps you eliminate manual processes that can slow down in-memory computing environments such as SAP HANA. In addition, managing the process execution of applications running on SAP HANA, including SAP S/4HANA, can help you harness real-time intelligence for better decision making. SAP Business Process Automation readily enables the most complex retail process executions, reducing custom development requirements for complex processes. And advanced visual tracking tools help staff members manage by exception, freeing them to focus on more high-value activities. Automation helps you reduce errors and improves accuracy and process consistency, reducing costs and accelerating time to value. Meanwhile, complete process transparency and auditability helps you lower the risk of business compliance liability. Tailor your process execution to your immediate retail business situation with SAP Business Process Automation. 7 / 8
www.sap.com Objectives Summary The SAP Business Process Automation application by Redwood connects people, applications, and software systems to help you manage retail process execution effectively. Business stakeholders gain more visibility and control of processes, increasing efficiency, enhancing reliability, and reducing costs. Meanwhile, integration with solutions running on the SAP HANA platform, including SAP S/4HANA, helps you adapt quickly to changing business requirements. Objectives Support business strategy with optimum process execution Provide a central point of control for all business processes Lower costs with improved efficiency and balanced resource utilization Enable a dynamic response to real-time business challenges Centralized approach across business unit, application, and infrastructure boundaries Event-driven and parallel process execution and contextual process monitoring Support for service-enabled architecture environments and Web services Integration with both SAP and third-party software Achieve predictable and timely business outcomes with process continuity and consistency Reduce custom development requirements for business processes Accelerate time to value as a result of fewer errors and less rework Lower the risk of business compliance liability Learn more To find out more, call your SAP representative today or visit us at www.sap.com/business-process-automation. 8 / 8 Studio SAP 45215enUS (16/10)
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