How to Boost Your Cloud Adoption

Companies across all industries are meeting the moment by rethinking their business operations. Could this be the year that one of those promises is boosting cloud adoption?

Considering global business spending on cloud computing infrastructure is set to soar to an astounding US$1 trillion in 2024, it could be. But the motivation behind this surge isn’t just about saving money or time; it’s a quest for accelerated innovation, greater agility, and increased productivity.

SAP customers at the forefront of embracing the cloud are adopting emerging use cases for generative AI, industrialized machine learning, applied automation, and many more innovations. However, fulfilling these cloud ambitions requires expertise to navigate potential hurdles, especially data protection and integration.

This is precisely where two of SAP’s offerings – SAP Preferred Success and SAP Learning Hub – can step in, providing the guidance and training essential for unlocking the full business value of the cloud.

Get Ready to Break Down Barriers

While technology is a crucial aspect of cloud adoption, true success depends on organizational transformation driven by the software – from the user experience to the underlying processes.

Regrettably, most businesses have yet to connect their cloud strategy with the challenges faced by employees expected to use cloud applications to complete their work. The cloud may bring new processes and applications that differ in appearance and functionality from the on-premise software used in the past. However, much more must be done to make people’s everyday work experience more productive, efficient, and effective.

Many SAP customers are finding that the answer to overcoming this common obstacle revolves around four key elements:

• Access to expertise whenever and wherever required
• Continuous learning to empower productive use and optimization
• A comprehensive plan aligned with immediate, short-term, and long-term business needs
• Advanced support for solution administrators

Transform Meaningfully with SAP Preferred Success

One challenge that most organizations face is incomplete familiarity with cloud solutions, even if their IT team is well-versed in them. SAP Preferred Success and SAP Learning Hub can empower our customers to close that gap with guidance, helping to overcome any barriers and optimize the bottom-line value of their cloud investment.

SAP Preferred Success can enable line-of-business users, key users, and administrators to build and maintain their knowledge about the cloud with continuous training. It helps establish an ongoing learning ethos that can give employees the confidence to adopt new cloud innovations and put them to good use to support the business as part of a center of excellence.

By enhancing their proficiency in using cloud applications, employees can handle daily tasks productively and navigate transitions and business changes efficiently. This dual advantage makes employees feel more comfortable with new processes, different approaches to work, and new terminologies that can collectively accelerate business transformation.

As a result, the transition to the cloud is smoother. SAP Preferred Success can facilitate comprehensive planning of transformative projects, guiding organizations throughout implementation, go-live, and adoption phases. Some of our customers have sought this level of support when deploying relatively new solutions to optimize their solution road map, including formulating best practices to align their business processes with their new cloud architecture.

For example, dedicated release management guidance and best practices can free administrators from the burden of sifting through new features and deciding whether and how to leverage them. So instead of sentiments such as “Our go-live was 12 months ago. Now what?” SAP Preferred Success customers can knowledgeably and confidently optimize the use and performance of their cloud investment.

Prepare Technical and Functional Teams with SAP Learning Hub

SAP Learning Hub is a gateway to premium, guided learning resources across the SAP solution portfolio. The digital learning solution offers technical and functional training for IT teams, starting long before implementation and extending into the future of learning.

With smooth access to self-paced and guided resources, learners can follow journeys tailored for their specific roles and skill levels to upskill in SAP solutions. They can also access guided learning resources to deepen their knowledge, such as expert-led live sessions and hands-on practice opportunities on preconfigured training systems.

Acquiring an SAP certification is another way to help boost cloud adoption, and SAP Learning Hub can provide the necessary enablement for learners to become certified. Subscriptions to SAP Learning Hub are available as standalone offerings or can be part of the SAP Preferred Success plan. Learn more about the enhanced SAP Learning Hub program and how it can help you transform your workforce and drive business success.

Rely On a Personalized Partnership for Cloud Success

As with any technology strategy, insight and guidance are vital for a successful cloud adoption. It’s similar to enrolling in an online course to learn a new skill or hiring a trainer to prepare for a marathon. Whenever we commit to change, we want the full advantage of expertise, solutions, and technologies to improve continually and achieve our goals. This same principle applies when aiming to boost the adoption of an existing cloud solution or one you plan to procure within the next 12 months.

Wherever our customers are in their cloud journey, SAP Preferred Success and SAP Learning Hub can offer the guidance and support necessary to help maximize the value of their cloud investment. Even with clear goals and specific objectives, customers can benefit from leveraging comprehensive expertise and identifying approaches and best practices that have proven successful or should be avoided.

Through a personalized road map covering workflows, user experience, and organizational culture, our customers can access insight-driven recommendations essential for aligning with corporate priorities and goals. But more importantly, they gain access to a customer success partner that can assess their operations and provide guidance to immediately use the cloud effectively – creating a journey of continued business growth and evolution.

Discover how you can boost your organization’s adoption of cloud solutions from SAP.

Chad Crook is chief innovation officer of Cloud Success Services at SAP.