Balancing economic pressures, organizational complexity, and compliance risks demands a clear, structured, and strategic approach to operational resilience.

In response, businesses have accelerated digital transformation programs to ensure long-term competitiveness, agility and continuous innovation.

RISE with SAP empowers organizations to secure the success of their digital transformation programs by focusing on measurable value realization and execution agility. Through its composable architecture framework and pre-packaged, ready-to-deploy services, SAP RISE enables iterative, modular delivery that reduces complexity and ensures alignment with business milestones.

However, while CxOs recognize the many compelling reasons to move forward, their ambitions for transformation are often tempered by some common challenges. Here, we’ll explore some of the key elements for leadership to consider when navigating the digital transformation journey, and how RISE with SAP can help.

Securing transformation success

Large-scale digital transformations are central to modernizing operations, securing continuous innovation and gaining a competitive edge. However, these initiatives often struggle to stay on track, due to scope inflation, misalignment with business objectives, or overlooked complexities. Failing to deliver on transformation promises can erode both organizational trust and strategic momentum. There are four key challenges for CxOs. 

Achieving program ambitions  Transformation programs may deliver below expectations, leaving value on the table. Ambitious outcomes require clear objectives, continuous alignment with business needs, and the ability to course correct during execution.   Adhering to program plans  Digital transformation programs often face delays due to scope creep, technical misalignment, or changing business priorities. This erodes trust in the transformation program and adds to economic pressure.   
Maximizing investments   CxOs must ensure that each investment yields maximum strategic benefit. Repeated cost overruns can overshadow potential returns, fueling skepticism about large-scale transformation efforts. Achieving return on investment requires transparent governance, a robust performance framework, and clear linkage between expenditures and tangible business outcomes.Underestimating long-term change  Many programs overlook the sustained effort required to embed change, leading to skill gaps, resistance, and adoption fatigue over time.   

How RISE with SAP helps reduce transformation risks

With data quality securing industrialized AI, cloud-based scalability, and resilient business applications available through SAP Business Suite, RISE with SAP minimizes operational risks and enhances program governance with clear accountability, ensuring organizations maintain alignment with best practices and remain agile for future innovations. This approach allows CxOs to execute with confidence, deliver ambitious transformation goals, and maintain control over scope, costs, and timelines. 

Escaping the IT debt trap 

Technological debt is a silent inhibitor of business agility and innovation. As legacy systems age, maintenance costs escalate, integration grows more complex, security vulnerabilities increase, and teams spend more time sustaining the past than building the future. Without a clear strategy, IT remains trapped in a reactive mode, holding back agility and consuming budget that could otherwise fuel strategic growth.

How RISE with SAP helps improve cost effectiveness

RISE with SAP helps organizations improve cost effectiveness by modernizing their IT landscape and streamlining operations through automation, data intelligence, and clean-core ERP principles.
By reducing manual effort and eliminating inefficiencies tied to legacy systems, RISE helps free up resources that can be redirected toward innovation and growth.

  • Clean core. SAP’s clean core monitoring tool enforces modern architectural principles by tracking five key dimensions: process, data, extensibility, integration, and operational excellence. This keeps complexity in check and fosters continuous innovation. 
  • Debt reduction. RISE with SAP equips businesses with tools and strategies to confront technological debt at its root, cutting unsustainable maintenance costs while unleashing new growth avenues. Through clean-core ERP, organizations can replace rigid legacy systems with a modular cloud architecture that not only lowers overhead but also accelerates adaptability. 
  • Automation and AI. Augmenting routine IT tasks with agentic AI and generative AI enables intelligent agents that can autonomously perform complex tasks across systems, reducing manual effort and enabling more efficient use of funds. Instead of budget being consumed by legacy operations, investments are redirected toward value-generating initiatives that enhance competitiveness. 

When implemented by Capgemini, RISE with SAP delivers enhanced business transformation outcomes, leveraging our deep industry expertise and proven methodologies. 

Ensuring agility for long-term growth 

Today’s solutions must evolve with tomorrow’s needs. Obsolescence risks are high in an environment where business dynamics, market conditions, and technological advancements change rapidly. Agility is essential to support business growth, and there are four challenges in this area.  

Future-proofing solutions Solutions implemented today must not lock businesses into rigid architectures that cannot scale or evolve.    Enabling business growth  Systems must be agile enough to support changing business models, mergers and acquisitions, or market expansion.   
Balancing stability and flexibility  While operational stability remains critical, flexibility to innovate must be embedded into the system’s design.   Failing to embed a culture of adaptability  Without a mindset aligned with continuous learning and experimentation, organizations risk stagnation even with agile systems in place.   

How RISE with SAP helps accelerate growth at scale

Adopting RISE with SAP allows businesses to accelerate cloud ERP transformation while separating core functionality from modular innovations via SAP BTP. 

  • API-driven ecosystems. Modern architecture rely on APIs and integrations to enhance agility and extend functionalities without disrupting core processes. The API-driven ecosystem at the heart of SAP ensures seamless integration across distinct functions, facilitating rapid adaptation to new business models, mergers, or acquisitions.   
  • Cloud-native innovation. Cloud-native innovation supported by hyperscalers allows organizations to scale operations, adopt emerging technologies, and ensure flexibility to address unforeseen challenges. RISE with SAP provides the framework for agile systems, ensuring businesses remain adaptable. With composable ERP architecture on a Cloud ERP Private Package, RISE separates core ERP stability from modular innovations through SAP’s BTP, enabling organizations to scale and innovate without disrupting critical processes. 

Together, these capabilities empower CxOs to balance stability and innovation, delivering systems that meet today’s needs and evolve with market dynamics and technological advancements. 

Scaling as a data-driven company

Data is the cornerstone of strategic leadership.When decisions are grounded in verifiable, high-quality data, they drive better outcomes and bolster leadership credibility.

Beyond operational improvements, data is becoming a critical lever for risk management and regulatory compliance. Whether aligning with ESG reporting standards or navigating financial regulations, reliable data reduces exposure to legal risks and enhances governance.

The rise of new AI solutions has elevated the role of data even further. These technologies rely on robust, clean, and comprehensive datasets to forecast demand, personalize customer experiences, and detect inefficiencies and automating complex processes

Data also represents a new frontier for value creation through data monetization. By leveraging data sharing ecosystems, organizations can generate new revenue streams, foster innovation, and create competitive advantages in their markets. This shifts data from a passive resource to an active driver of business growth.

Despite recognizing data’s strategic importance, many enterprises struggle with:

Inconsistent data quality   Outdated or duplicated information undermines decision-making and slows adoption of advanced analytics.  Siloed architectures   Legacy systems store data in disconnected repositories, preventing real-time visibility across departments.  Weak governance   Without systematic governance, AI or Gen AI initiatives may yield inaccurate results or complicate compliance efforts, potentially leading to significant consequences.  

These issues not only dilute the impact of digital transformation but also jeopardize high-stakes decisions that rely on timely, accurate data.

How RISE with SAP helps build a data foundation with a clean core

To understand how clean core contributes to becoming a data-driven company and how the RISE with SAP framework helps to make it happen, it is essential to explore three key pillars that highlight its impact on data management and business agility.

  • Enhancing data consistency and quality. Clean core eliminates unnecessary customizations and enforces standardized data models. This ensures consistent, accurate, and reliable data across all business units: a fundamental prerequisite for advanced analytics, AI models, and regulatory compliance.
  • Activating composable ERP for business agility. By fostering data consistency, clean core enables modular API-driven ERP architecture. This composable structure allows seamless integration of analytics tools, AI models, and automation solutions, giving businesses the flexibility to innovate and adapt to evolving market demands without compromising data integrity.
  • Continuous monitoring with RISE. RISE with SAP includes a clean core assessment tool which continuously monitors and evaluates data management practices across five key dimensions – process integrity, data quality, extensibility, integration, and operational excellence – to ensure a durable data management framework and high standards of data governance.

As a RISE with SAP validated partner, Capgemini brings proven expertise to help organizations achieve their transformation goals.

Click here to learn how Capgemini can help you with your RISE for SAP journey.