Digitate, a leading provider of SaaS-based enterprise software for IT and business operations, today released a study conducted in partnership with ASUG, America's largest network of SAP customers, partners, and professionals, probing the issues that are top-of-mind for SAP users. The results revealed that 90% of the SAP users experienced SAP application downtime. Furthermore, two-thirds of respondents report that they spent up to 25% of their daily time resolving these unpredictable issues.

SAP dominates the enterprise resource planning (ERP) market and its ability to automate, optimize, and analyze a vast range of business functions makes it the first choice for many organizations. Yet SAP solutions can be complex and challenging to administer, particularly as users are being encouraged to migrate to SAP’s latest cloud-based S/4HANA platform.

The survey, Evaluating Automation and SAP Transformations, polled SAP power users and administrators from more than 150 different organizations in North America spanning industries ranging from manufacturing to retail to utilities. The goal of the study was to better identify how they experience SAP operational transformations, business process redesign, and automation at their organizations.

While internal downtime impacts were said to be experienced much more than external impacts, business user impacts due to SAP downtime were, unsurprisingly, the overriding concern for respondents, with 39% noting a direct impact on customers. Integration challenges were identified as the top contributor to unplanned downtime. In fact, almost all respondents (95%) reported facing integration issues, with data inconsistency representing the most widely experienced challenge.

“Users across the SAP landscape are looking for technology optimizations to reduce their challenges of scale, speed, and performance – and this is confirmed by the findings of the survey,” said Ugo Orsi, Chief Customer Officer at Digitate. “We have applied AI/ML and automation to SAP operations across the IT and business landscape and helped enable digital transformation across many of the major global enterprises.”

Keys findings of the survey include:

• Impacts of downtime
  • For the majority of respondents (66%), up to one quarter of their time is spent on unpredictable issues that affect SAP application downtime.
  • Overwhelmingly, business user impacts are the top concern/impact due to downtime. Internal downtime impacts are experienced much more than external impacts, though 39% still noted direct impact to customers.

• Leveraging SAP automation solutions
  • Leveraging SAP automation solutions represents uncertainty as almost half of respondents were unable to assess this at their organization.
  • That said, when they were certain, the largest share (42%) feel their organizations are not leveraging solutions as much as they could. Overall, more openness and efforts to adapt new technology, back-end support, and automation across systems are needed to realize benefits.

• Transforming SAP operations
  • Given the anticipation for automation to reduce the amount of time spent on manual patch upgrades, reducing manual processes is the top-ranked initiative needed to improve SAP operations.
  • Data analytics/dashboard insights and supply chain optimization are other leading technologies/initiatives needed. More than half also selected automation.

• Usage of AI/ML and monitoring tools
  • Though just 15% are currently using AI/ML, 33% are considering it in the future.
  • The majority of respondents are using up to 20 tools to monitor different elements of their SAP systems.

• Operational KPIs and ticket resolution
  • The KPI of resolving tickets without human intervention is still a distant goal for many; only 41% said they often met it. The largest share of respondents said 10% or less of tickets are resolved automatically. 29% had no tickets resolved automatically.

It’s clear from the survey that automation and SAP S/4HANA are top-of-mind for customers. While some respondents are eager to move from their legacy systems to S/4 to take advantage of new capabilities/features, quite a few others must migrate their legacy systems to S/4HANA as a mandate.

President Nimesh Davé Named to PRovoke Media’s 2023 Innovator 25 Group in the Americas, GlobeNewswire Ranked as Market Leader in G2’s Fall 2023 Grid® for Press Release Distribution Software

Notified, a globally trusted technology partner for public relations, investor relations, and marketing professionals, today announced that President Nimesh Davé has been named to PRovoke Media’s 2023 Innovator 25 Group in the Americas. Davé is honored for his commitment to ingenuity within the communications industry, pioneering the development and launch of GlobeNewswire’s AI Press Release Generator – the first AI-powered press release generator launched by a newswire service – in March of 2023, as well as filing a patent for its Smart Press Release solution in July of 2023.

“At Notified, we’re passionate about Artificial Intelligence, and how it can empower PR pros to work smarter – not harder – to tell their stories,” said Nimesh Davé, President, Notified. “I’m honored to be recognized by PRovoke Media, on behalf of the entire Notified team, who has shown immense dedication and passion for developing transformative AI solutions. We remain committed to driving innovation that leads to a more efficient, secure and tech-enabled future for all communicators.”

Launching in 2013, PRovoke’s Innovator 25 has established itself as an important barometer of global marketing and communications innovation – identifying 25 individuals each year in the Americas, EMEA and APAC who have elevated and evolved industry engagement and influence.

In tandem with launching groundbreaking AI solutions throughout 2023, Davé’s perspective on AI has been featured throughout key industry publications – encouraging communicators to approach the technology with confidence:

• PRovoke Media, Perspectives On The Impact Of AI On Communications And Storytelling, From A Lifelong Technologist
• IR Magazine, NIRI 2023: Nimesh Davé of Notified on how AI can elevate IR
• O’Dwyers, The Age of Intelligent Engagement

Contextual AI support and easier partner integrations can help enhance the learning experience

D2L, a global learning technology company, today highlighted enhanced Brightspace product features — developed over the past six months — that can help global learners and educators simplify the learning experience by bringing learning solutions together in one place. 

"I'm thrilled to share that D2L continues to invest in its existing solutions and broaden its portfolio of products, partner solutions and services to assist educators, organizations, and learners in their readiness for the future," said Rajesh Talpade, Senior Vice President of Product Management at D2L. "D2L's new and enhanced product features can make it easier than ever to offer effective learning in online and blended environments to help see  that learners have the opportunity to succeed."

Announced in September 2023, D2L introduced a new, all-in-one solution for businesses: D2L for Business. This integrated, easy-to-use corporate solution combines the benefits of an existing network of world-class education providers, skill development solutions, and expert consulting services as an learning experience platform (LXP).

Brightspace functionalities and offerings that can provide customers with tools and resources to help enhance outcomes and save time. Brightspace now offers:

• Even more Creator+ tools for educators, including: new accessible layouts, expanded types of interactive elements, and a fully accessible hotspot practice question type. This can help enable educators to continue building beautiful and instructionally sound content using familiar Brightspace workflows.
• An AI-driven, first line of contexual help and support embedded within Brightspace Brightspace Virtual Assistant.
• More datasets and improved data dashboards to help make it easier for educators and businesses to gain insights and understand metrics in their organizations.

Recent Brightspace updates continue to make workflows more intuitive, efficient, effective and consistent. This includes:

• An improved Quiz experience that can offer support for high-stakes exams with strict time limits, support for synchronous quizzing windows, and other improvements.
• A familiar and upgraded Discussion experience with workflows to help bring new functionality to educators.
• New content authoring functionality to help make it easier to manage both the required and optional course materials. In addition, enhancements to the Media Library are now more user-friendly, with new time-saving indicators to track progress and surface common actions. And, new changes to course merging options that can empower educators and save administrative time.
• New self-enrollment enhancements for Brightspace customers that offer professional development opportunities and allow educators to see that learners are enrolling in the right courses.

D2L has also enhanced its robust learning ecosystem by simplifying access to Brightspace and encouraging new interactions among educators, administrators, and learners. These updates, features and tools include:

• An easier, course registration process through Course Merchant, a modern e-commerce experience, whose front-end course catalog and payment and enrollment system is now offered as a D2L product after more than nine years as a key integration partner.
• Visualized Brightspace Analytics within Ellucian Experience, help advisors to quickly identify at-risk learners by aggregating Brightspace data with external data to holistically determine appropriate intervention.
• Early access to D2L Link, which can connect Brightspace with the systems of record clients use every day. The integrations enabled through D2L Link can help minimize manual tasks and see that data is synchronized between systems.
• D2L's new IntegrationHub, built on LTI 1.3. and launched as a new catalog site that lists partner solutions that are available for integrations with Brightpsace. The IntegrationHub makes it easy for Brightspace users to browse D2L's extensive list of integrated technologies and solutions, such as accessibility tools, student information systems, secure proctoring assessment platforms, and many other partner solutions.

Celebrates surpassing $1 B revenue milestone in a first-of-its-kind way

Persistent Systems, a global Digital Engineering and Enterprise Modernization leader, recently achieved three GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS titles for the Largest bicycle logo/image, Most live viewers of a cycling awareness video lesson on YouTube, and the Largest online video album of people riding bicycles to reinforce its commitment toward environment and employee health.

When Persistent crossed the $1 billion annual revenue milestone in FY23, it decided to send a token of its appreciation to its global employees for their contribution to its continued success. Among the choices given to the employees were an electronic audio device, travel accessories, and bicycles. About 9,000 employees opted for the bicycle, which prompted Persistent to initiate the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title attempts and further encourage the fitness journeys of its employees.

On the records front, the Company created its logo with 704 bicycles, showcasing its dedication to employee wellness and symbolizing it by etching it in its brand identity. 7,348 employees and their families viewed the cycling awareness lesson live on YouTube to help them understand more about cycling best practices and safety. Further, to make cycling a movement and motivate employees to adopt environment-friendly transport, the Company built an online video album of people riding bicycles, with 5,098 individuals contributing to it.                                                                                                              

Sandeep Kalra, CEO and Executive Director, Persistent:

"Well-being of our employees is an essential part of Persistent's culture and has always been our priority. We were proud to see that most of our global team members chose bicycles as a billion-dollar gift, and what's better than creating a world record to celebrate this spirit. Achieving three GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS titles has encouraged our teams even more to focus on their physical and mental health. I want to express my gratitude to all the employees and their family members who contributed to setting this record and demonstrating their dedication to overall well-being #ThePersistentWay."

PRophet is the first to build and market a full suite of AI-driven tools that now span earned media, influencer marketing and news monitoring offerings.

PRophet also partners with EZ Newswire to bring affordable news distribution to trial and PRO customers.

Stagwell Marketing Cloud's PRophet, the first and only generative and predictive AI SaaS platform built by and for PR professionals, today unveiled two new platform capabilities – AI-driven influencer discovery and campaign management and machine learning-based news monitoring.

PRophet Earn, Influence, and Monitor are three offerings that can work together or as standalone solutions that exponentially increase the value and accessibility of the PRophet platform to communicators and marketers alike. The new offerings under the Earn, Influence and Monitor branding will be on display at Public Relations Society of America's (PRSA) ICON 2023 conference on Oct. 15-17 at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, Tenn., and will be fully available to users by the end of the year.

"These new tools will help agencies and brands now leverage our proprietary AI for influencer discovery and management and advanced news monitoring and analysis," says Aaron Kwittken, founder and CEO of PRophet, and CEO of Stagwell Marketing Cloud, Comms Tech Unit. "PRophet is the only marketing solution that combines this holistic but agile, customer-centric approach in an intuitive, measurable and affordable user experience."

PRophet Influence

PRophet Influence is a critical tool for brands looking to leverage the $21 billion influencer marketing industry more effectively. PRophet Influence combines generative AI, data analytics, and monitoring technology to create personalized influencer marketing programs by identifying, contracting, and collaborating with macro and micro influencers, finally empowering brands to increase awareness in a world where traditional media has been upended. PRophet Influence is powered by Koalifyed, an influencer discovery and campaign management platform currently being used by some of the world's largest CPG brands that merged into Stagwell Marketing Cloud's Comms Tech unit earlier this year.

PRophet Monitor

PRophet Monitor, powered by partner PeakMetrics, the leading machine-learning powered media monitoring and narrative analytics platform, introduces the ability to create personalized alerts across a diversity of media channels from within the PRophet platform. Alerts can be customized based on refined search criteria including a combination of keywords, organizations, and people, and users can then choose to receive regular email notifications to ensure they never miss a mention.

PRophet Earn

PRophet Earn builds on the existing PRophet platform, which uses a combination of AI, language processing and machine learning to generate, analyze and test new content -- from pitches to social posts, blogs and biographies -- to predict earned media interest, reach and sentiment. Users have access to the full suite of existing media relations tools including Taylor, the industry's first generative AI writing tool, the multi-pitch tool which can generate 25 personalized pitches in under three minutes, and biography and blog generators.

PRophet at PRSA ICON

PRophet will take center stage to unveil the new platform as the Titanium sponsor at the conference. Attendees will be able to connect with the executive team directly and receive first-hand demos of the new features and functionality.

• STL launches Estelan, its end-to-end passive enterprise networking solution portfolio, at GITEX 2023

STL, a leading optical and digital solutions company today, announced the expansion of its Enterprise Networking solutions portfolio with the launch of Estelan. Estelan, an end-to-end solution in fibre and copper cable connectivity, enables enterprises to modernise and digitise their large-scale network infrastructure.

Global enterprises will spend $3.4 trillion by 2026 in cloud services, cybersecurity, AI applications, robotics process automation, and Industry 4.0 to create new value sources through digital products and experiences. These digital transformation use cases require an overhaul of enterprise connectivity infrastructure to integrate power and data.

Estelan is an end-to-end enterprise connectivity solution that combines in-office and optical connectivity infrastructure. Its plug-and-play modular system is designed for easy installation and system upgrades and can handle multiple network ports. 

These solutions follow the highest health and safety standards and are certified by leading industry bodies like RoHS, ETL, UL, and CPR. STL's Estelan solution is tailored to suit the needs of multiple industries and offers high flexibility and scalability for their operational environment requirements, be it healthcare, education, retail, banking, oil and gas, and others. With Estelan, enterprises can achieve superior data transmission, upwards of 1000MHz bandwidth and 10Gbps speeds. These solutions have also been designed and developed with sustainable manufacturing practices, high optimisation, and minimal wastage.

This comprehensive solution enables use cases like multi-service premise connectivity, enterprise networking, Wi-Fi, surveillance, Intelligent building management and Power over Ethernet for up to 90W applications. The company has announced that it will go to market with this solution in its target regions of MEA and India.

Launching Estelan, Gavin Faulds, Regional Sales Head, APAC, and MEA, STL, said: "Enterprises are becoming more connected, intelligent, and agile by leveraging various digital technologies. Through Estelan, we offer customised end-to-end enterprise connectivity solutions that are optimised for their specific business needs. From conceptualisation to installation, we want our customers' experience to be seamless. Estelan will help them gain a competitive edge by making connectivity infrastructure competent enough for disruptive technologies and drive business transformation."

The landmark report directed by Wharton Professor Stefano Puntoni takes a closer look at generative AI adoption, perception and investment across industries, as well as emerging applications and barriers

Key Findings At-A-Glance:

• Generative AI investments are expected to surge 25% in the coming year across functional areas.

• 58% of enterprise leaders actively use generative AI – with 37% using it multiple times a week.

• 3 in 4 enterprise leaders are positive about generative AI's future, but reservations persist around accuracy, bias, privacy, cost, and integration challenges.

• Leaders hold mixed views about how generative AI will impact human talent. While 55% agree that it will enhance work quality, 36% expect it to replace employee skills for some tasks.

A new study by GBK Collective, a leading marketing strategy, insights and analytics consultancy, shows that generative AI adoption has reached a tipping point within enterprises. Not only do the majority of enterprise leaders now use generative AI – they are also planning a substantial increase in generative AI investments in the next 12 months.

Conducted with 672 senior leaders from U.S. enterprises, each with annual sales surpassing $50 million, the survey also offers some eye-opening insights on the adoption of generative AI by functional area, emerging applications and use cases by industry, as well as adoption drivers and barriers.

The comprehensive report was directed by AI expert Dr. Stefano Puntoni, Sebastian S. Kresge Professor of Marketing at The Wharton School and Faculty Co-Director of AI at Wharton, and Jeremy Korst, former technology executive at Microsoft and T-Mobile and now President of GBK. Dan Ives, Managing Director of Equities Research at Wedbush Securities, also collaborated on the report.

“The results of our study show that we’ve passed a critical tipping point with Generative AI,” said Prof. Puntoni. “This isn’t another metaverse. Enterprise decision makers across industries are adopting Generative AI in droves and the wave is only going to grow, with spending set to surge by more than 25% in the next 12 months.”

Summary of Insights:

Generative AI Usage Intensity by Industry and Company Size:

According to GBK’s study, the majority of enterprise leaders today have embraced generative AI, with 37% actively using it weekly and another 21% less frequently. Additionally, 8 out of 10 leaders (81%) confirm having an internal team of 10 or more focused exclusively on generative AI strategy.

Interestingly, small enterprises (revenues between $50M-$200M) lead the pack in frequent generative AI usage (57% at least once per week), while the most untapped potential exists among firms exceeding $2B in revenue—most notably in Retail and Manufacturing.

By industry, Technology dominates with 60% of leaders frequently utilizing generative AI, followed by Industrial/Construction and Finance at 43% and 39%, respectively. Conversely, just 26% of leaders in Retail and 36% in Professional Services and Manufacturing engage with generative AI routinely.

“Our study not only shows rapid adoption of generative AI, but varying levels of maturity,” said Korst. “Some organizations are still in the exploratory phase, while others have seamlessly incorporated Gen AI into their daily workflow. We also see significant differences in usage, overall knowledge, and skills related to generative AI by industry and department.”

Triggers and Barriers to Generative AI Adoption

Three in four enterprise leaders have a generally positive outlook on generative AI, yet caution persists among all respondents, but particularly among those who use the technology less frequently.

The primary motivators for adopting generative AI include boosting employee efficiency, optimizing business operations, enhancing employee creativity, development of new products and services, and reaching new audiences or markets.

Conversely, concerns around inaccurate results, customer privacy, internal pushback, ethical issues and cost are the top barriers to adoption. Companies with $50M-$200M in revenue worry most about data confidentiality, with accuracy being the top concern cited by firms with revenue of $2B+ annually.

“While optimism about generative AI is prevalent, concerns around accuracy, bias, and AI's role in decision-making remain,” shared Prof. Puntoni. “Additionally, there's an underlying psychological concern by leaders around job replacement, especially among those who have yet to use the technology. As generative AI becomes increasingly ingrained across teams, striking the right balance with AI governance and employee education will be pivotal.”

Will Gen AI Replace or Augment Human Talent?

For the moment, the study shows that generative AI is seen as more beneficial to employees than detrimental. Senior leaders currently using the technology are more likely to state that generative AI will enhance employee skills versus replace them (48% vs. 36% strongly agree).

Moreover, most enterprise leaders don’t believe the technology can completely substitute human talent. It can, however, improve work quality (55% strongly agree that AI will enable higher quality with the same employees vs. 43% who strongly agree but with fewer employees).

“Generative AI, while revolutionary, is not immune to errors,” said Korst. “It's crucial for leaders to have strong quality control mechanisms in place to monitor and validate AI-generated output from data analysis to content. This not only ensures accuracy but helps to mitigate risks and maintain the integrity of the brand.”

Investments in Gen AI Poised to Surge

Despite the risks and challenges, investment in generative AI is on track for significant growth with companies across industries planning to increase investments by 25% in the next 12 months led by firms with revenues exceeding $2B (which plan a 28% uptick in spend). Industries currently lagging in generative AI adoption, such as Retail and Professional Services, anticipate the most significant investment increases, with projected growth rates of 27% and 28%, respectively.

Emerging Applications and Use Cases

“Use cases for generative AI continue to explode with enterprises across industries now viewing AI as a major strategic initiative in the coming years,” commented Dan Ives, Managing Director at Wedbush Securities and a collaborator on the report. “We continue to view AI as the most transformational tech trend since the birth of the Internet in 1995.”

When asked what use cases and applications would be most prominent for generative AI, enterprise leaders overwhelmingly point to a future where these AI models become indispensable co-pilots in the workplace. In the next 3-5 years, decision-makers across the board agree that generative AI will be broadly used for generating data analysis (89%), marketing content and creation (text, images, video) (87%), as well as researching customer & competitive insights (84%).

Other top applications include document editing and summarization (84%), customer support or internal help desk functions (82%), and automated email generation (82%). The least popular uses for generative AI are expected to be legal contracts (57%), recruitment (67%) and supply chain management (71%).

“The results of our survey show a dynamic future for generative AI, with investment and applications expanding rapidly,” notes Prof. Puntoni. “And yet not all approaches are created equal. While AI can analyze mountains of data in seconds, human oversight and asking the right questions is vital to ensure accurate and responsible use of AI-generated outputs.”

In some cases, generative AI investments will be prioritized differently depending on the size of the firm. Smaller firms ($50M-$200M) are heavily investing in generative AI for sales content (91%), while mid-sized companies ($250M-$2B) focus more on email generation and internal support (86%). This reflects not just varied priorities, but also the unique strategic challenges faced by companies of different sizes.