Disruptive Technology, Innovation Destroy 52% Of 'Fortune 500 Firms'

Mr. Carpenter said, "By 2020, information will be used to reinvent, digitise and eliminate 80% of business processes from a decade earlier". He spoke on 'Digital transformation: the key to unlocking Africa's future', at this year's SAP Innovation Day in Accra.

He said the world is now at our finger tips, "The way people interact with the world is getting smarter now because one does not need a keyboard with things like Siri and Alexa" he said. Siri and Alexa are Intelligent personal assistants developed by Apple and Amazon respectively.

"This means people who are illiterate and can't read and write can still use technology".

Communication is continuing with the rise of social networks, he added. He also spoke on the age of hyper-connectivity and the prediction that there will be about 3 to 5 billion people on social networks by 2020.

Data, he explained is the' new oil in our digital economy' and the basis for "Digital" everything. Data is everywhere, with an estimation of a 4,300 per cent increase in Annual Data Production by 2020. This connects with new data demands such as real time streaming, high velocity, artificial intelligence, machine learning and a 40 per cent increase in labor productivity.

SAP is helping companies and cities manage with technology and data, example is the work they are doing in the Chinese City of Nanjing to manage traffic.

Pedro Guerreiro, Managing Director for SAP West Africa recounted SAP’s 45 year history and the development of centers, as well as 150 million subscribers in their cloud user base and more.

He gave details on SAP's three products offered for all company sizes. The first is the SAP Business One which provides ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) Software for small businesses that do not intend to expand and have few clients. ERP is a suite of business applications such as accounting sales pay role.

Speaking on Financial Services -and how the cloud opens the door to world class competitiveness for banks, Darrel Orsmoud (Head of Banking Industry Value Advisor) said the cloud has changed the way people think and that technology has made online purchases easier. He said that the cloud offers features like speed, sustainability, competitiveness, pricing models and skills to banks to improve their businesses.

SAP is an acronym for Systems, Applications and Products. SAP manufactures enterprise software that helps people manage and run their companies. "Our customers look to us to help them seamlessly connect people and technology in real-time. We help them re-imagine business and life to drive meaningful impact globally. With SAP HANA as the great simplifier, our customers are creating breakthroughs that solve complex, intractable problems.”

As the market leader in enterprise application software, SAP is at the center of today’s business and technology revolution. SAP helps streamline processes, giving users the ability to use live data to predict customer trends – live and in the moment across entire businesses.

The Fortune 500 companies is an annual list compiled by Fortune Magazine on the top United States Corporations according to revenue for their respective fiscal years example Walmart and Apple.