In the SAP world 2016 is all about the ‘Digital Enterprise’ and in my opinion one of their most interesting innovations in this area is the Digital Boardoom.
The concept is pretty simple – using SAP’s reporting and predictive analytics platforms to report and summarise data at the right level to support the strategic process. It is ‘executive level decision making based on solid, real-time data’.
I was lucky enough to get a sneak preview of SAP’s Digital Boardroom at FKOM conference in Barcelona last month and I think it is a really exciting development. At first glance it looks like something out of Minority Report. Three interactive screens with graphical representations of real-time of data from across the business. Executives are able to interact with each screen and through a series of intuitive sliders and buttons they can see the impact of various different scenarios on each part of the business. The board have three giant iPads at their disposal and they are connected to every part of the business.
With my Risk Management hat on I can see plenty of opportunity to surface risk relevant data in order to bring the concept of ‘Risk Adjusted Decision Making’ to reality. Summarising relevant risk management information to the right level and with the ability to analyse the risk impact of various scenarios SAP’s Governance, Risk and Compliance tools could play an important part in bringing the Digital Boardroom to life. And for us as Risk Management professionals this will bring topics such as the organisation’s risk management activities and the cost of control into the boardroom.
Personally, I am looking forwards to further developments in this space and can see a lot of opportunities for the convergence of SAP GRC products and data to support strategic decision making in the boardroom.
