digital core
Digital core is the technology platforms and applications that allow organizations to transform into digital businesses and meet the new needs of the digital economy.
The digital core includes next-generation technologies like advanced analytics, IoT, AI, and machine learning that are not generally suited to run on legacy IT infrastructure. Instead, they require flexible, scalable platforms that are integrated in the cloud. The digital core is key to allowing organizations to implement digital transformation initiatives that can improve existing business processes or develop new business models. One example is a customer experience management application that provides faster and better insights into customer behavior and enables event-driven decision-making.
Transforming an organization's IT infrastructure to center on a digital core is almost always a complex project that requires extensive planning and a clear strategy. A digital core project generally includes re-structuring business practices and processes; implementing the digital core platforms; and transforming corporate culture through change management practices. Most projects require extensive involvement from platform or technology vendors and implementation partners, along with the development of new advanced skill sets.
Benefits of the digital core
One of the main benefits of the digital core is that it allows organizations to integrate business process and transactional data from back office ERP systems with massive amounts of structured and unstructured data from various sources. Advanced analytics can then be embedded in the data from the digital core enabling the organization to derive new insights, such as predicting outcomes or proposing new actions. Many of these processes or actions can operate automatically in near real time.
Digital core providers
SAP is one of the most prominent vendors claiming to provide digital core technologies. The foundational SAP digital core platforms are the SAP HANA in-memory database and SAP S/4HANA and S/4HANA Cloud, the next generation ERP systems that are based in SAP HANA. Much of the integration between the SAP digital core and other systems and applications is done through SAP Cloud Platform.
Oracle also offers digital core services through its various Oracle Cloud SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS platforms and applications. For example, Oracle CX is a cloud-based customer experience platform.
