SAP has just launched a new way for consumers to interact with businesses. enterprises interact with each other. Three months after its acquisition of Qualtrics, SAP has rolled out 10 new offerings that combine experience data (X-data) with operational data (O-data) to measure and improve the four core experiences of business: customer, employee, product, and brand. The rollout of this system sets a new standard in enterprise software.
The combination enables organizations to listen to the beliefs, emotions and intentions of customers, employees, suppliers, partners, and other stakeholders. These new offerings embed X-data directly into an enterprise’s applications (such as its CRM, ERP, or HCM systems) to drive continuous action and improvement.
“We want everyone to remember their Xs and Os,” says SAP Chief Executive Officer Bill McDermott. “Experience Management is the new frontier for the world’s best-run businesses. I have never seen SAP more fired up to help our customers be a driving force for growth, innovation, and optimism.”
Ryan Smith, co-founder and CEO of Qualtrics, says, “We live in the experience economy where organizations are either intentionally racing to the top or unknowingly racing to the bottom. The difference between the companies that will win is they understand how X-data and O-data work together to tell the story of what is happening in an organization, why it’s happening, and how to act in real time to deliver breakthrough business results.”
These new SAP offerings provide organizations with an end-to-end XM platform that uses X-data and O-data. As a result, organizations can:
- Centralize X-data from customers, employees, or any other stakeholder at every meaningful touchpoint on a single, enterprise-wide system. This makes it simple for organizations to listen to customers.
- Connect X-data to the operations and processes of their business to understand why things are happening and spot hidden trends. The leaders will then be able to make recommendations to help correct what doesn’t work and magnify what does.
- Act, which leads to customers who stay longer, buy more, and share with friends, and employees who deliver more, build a positive culture, and advocate for their brand.
For customer experience, SAP has introduced Experience Management to its suite of tools, creating powerful cloud solutions for sales, marketing, commerce, and service experience management. This provides an end-to-end customer experience platform, enabling organizations to listen, understand, and act on insights that will drive purchasing decisions and customer loyalty.
In terms of employee experience, SAP has introduced three Experience Management solutions that transform existing HR platforms into enterprise-wide systems of action. The solutions gather experience data from employees throughout the employee lifecycle and empower HR leaders and managers to understand their teams better. This will eventually enable organizations to attract, engage, and retain a world-class workforce.