mySAP™ ERP For Dummies®

Chapter 14. Top Ten Ways to Enable Innovation

In This Chapter

• Creating a framework for identifying how a company should innovate

• Service-enabling applications to support the innovation process

• Sharing knowledge

A big benefit of mySAP ERP is the support you need to make your organization more innovative. But how does this work?

Innovation is something difficult to measure: For each company, it means something different. Try as it might, SAP can't supply an innovation button you can just click to innovate. Instead, SAP provides tools and services to support the innovation that each company needs for long-term survival.

Creating the Framework for Innovation

Most companies think that innovation is a dandy thing, but they need a framework for that innovation. A company has to set guidelines for which areas of the company should be innovating at any point in time. This, of course, differs from company to company. A toy company may look to new products or production as the primary area of innovation, whereas a bank might focus on new ways to offer financial services to its customers.

But no matter what your industry, any framework for innovation has to involve defining strategies, identifying key performance indicators, setting plans, developing budgets, and making sure everything operates according to these plans. When changes occur, this framework has to accommodate flexibility.

To set this framework for innovation, you need some sort of strategic management. The toy company management may set ...