The digital economy is so disruptive it is being referred to as the fourth revolution in Germany, says Software AG CEO Karl-Heinz Streibich.
Streibich, addressing delegates at the company's Innovation World 2014 conference during his keynote address last night, said the fourth revolution would be more disruptive than the prior three, and addressed every business and country globally. He noted the future would be about sharing resources and assets, but that software would be needed to run business models and processes.
Digital enterprises would be disruptive because these companies are much more informed, and can scale much better, said Streibich. He cited the example of Apple being able to boost its production 300% from one quarter to the next in 2011 to keep up with iPhone demand.
Streibich noted traditional companies' ability to scale is generally limited to between 3% and 5% from quarter-to-quarter, while digital enterprises are able to scale at more than 50%. He said digital enterprises are able to take advantage of the masses of data available to them and act in real-time.
Digital enterprises are "real-time" enterprises, said Streibich. He noted digital companies are borderless, have infinite scalability and will eventually be the "winners". "The digital economy is an economy where the winner takes it all."
Steps to take
However, to become digital companies, several aspects are required, said Streibich. These include having a connected enterprise that integrates across all layers, and builds on the integration that has happened in companies already.
Companies also need to have an agile development and application economy so they can fulfil consumers' impatient demands for applications, said Streibich. Consumers were driving enterprise IT, an aspect Software AG could tackle through its agile software development platform.
In addition, said Streibich, companies needed to have the ability to analyse big data. He noted Software AG had spent three years and EUR300 million developing its streaming analytics platform, which deals with data on the move and allows for quicker decision-making.
Streibich told delegates Software AG has worked at developing middleware that would bridge the gap between back and front office software, regardless of the platform, to enable companies to become digital. He said this middleware would seamlessly connect software such as SAP with, for example, Salesforce.
In the future, such system-agnostic integration will be at the hub of the digital enterprise, said Streibich. He urged Software AG's partners to work together with the company, and share knowledge to create "value-based relationships" that can benefit from the shift to the digital economy.
* Nicola Mawson is in New Orleans courtesy of Software AG.
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