| | April 20168CIOReviewIn MyOpinionThe Digital Economy ­ A Business Imperative Think about how our world has changed in only a few years. We no longer hail a cab at the airport ­ we text Uber before we get off the plane. We don't visit the doc-tor to get a picture of our overall health ­ we use fitness apps that can tell us what we need to know, then we work with the doctor to man-age or improve our health. Driverless cars are on the horizon and the ramifications are huge. Manufacturing jobs are moving back to the US as robotics becomes the low-cost alternative to an offshore human workforce. The digital economy is here! But as we move to become digital, the rules of business change entirely. Digital technol-ogy opens new business models, which in turn give rise to new and disruptive market entrants. This shift is accelerating in eve-ry industry and compelling eve-ry established organization to transform itself into a "Digital Enterprise." All with the goal to not only survive, but thrive in this new social and business reality.While my job is all about helping create the technology that enables the digital enterprise, I ab-solutely believe that becoming a Digital Enterprise isn't something you do for technology's sake. It is the only way to produce better services, products and outcomes for your customers, much faster and of course at a lower cost. And no matter what, if you want to stay in business, you need to take the steps to become digital now. As organizations begin their digital trans-formation, I believe the unequivocal and natu-ral starting point and enabler for all of them is the core technology infrastructure upon which a company runs. The reason to begin at the core of your business is simple: organizations with a modern, digital enterprise platform will be more agile and responsive to their custom-ers than their competitors. Just consider: even the best cyclist in the world to-day can't win the Tour de France on a bicycle built ten years ago. Modern technol-ogy has advanced the sport far beyond the ability of the rider alone. This is also the case with businesses, technology, and the need for a Digital Enterprise Plat-form (DEP).Something to ask yourself: does my organi-zation spend more time integrating disparate technolo-gies or do I have the time to inno-vate, move for-ward, and disrupt my By Steve Lucas, President, SAP Digital Enterprise Platform Steve Lucas
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