Companies need a new way into the AI future

Dr. Krüger: We are facing a fundamental change. AI will significantly accelerate the development of software and at the same time take over increasingly more work that people today have to operate numerous applications for. This will change both the production of software and its economic value.

However, the requirements of a company remain unchanged. An order must be recorded bindingly, an invoice correctly booked, and an employee properly hired. For this, business functions, permanently stored data, traceable process states, permissions, and clear responsibilities are needed. In addition, there is the knowledge of the company, its special rules, and the numerous exceptions that shape daily operations. The future architecture must combine all these elements with the capabilities of AI. On this basis, a company can work increasingly autonomously.

Dr. Krüger: NEWWORK has created a shared technological foundation for this with Beyond. Beyond combines reliable business functions and persistent data with AI that can uncover patterns, plan tasks, and perform work. Our digital workforce works within this environment with the company's processes, knowledge, and rules.

This is precisely decisive in cases of exceptions. A process rarely runs exclusively according to an idealized schema. Documents are missing, information contradicts itself, responsibilities change, and decisions depend on the respective business context. The AI must understand these situations and be able to process them within clear authorities. Where a human decision is required, it is made and documented in the process. This results in an enterprise architecture in which human and artificial work are carried out and controlled together.

Dr. Krüger: Yes. Our claim is “The Enterprise System for Human and AI Work”. For this, Workplace, Office, Collaboration, Business Solutions and Digital Workforce all come together. An AI that takes over corporate work needs access to the business functions and the information from which this work consists.

That is why the breadth of NEWWORK is part of the technological concept. We create the environment in which a company can increasingly have its work carried out by AI – including the business capabilities required for this.

Dr. Krüger: Yes, of course. We have developed these business applications ourselves in our own NEWWORK world. This is also necessary because the AI otherwise does not have the complete business context. If it is to take over corporate work, it must understand how the different departments work together, which rules apply, and which business functions it can perform.

A customer order, for example, is related to availability, delivery, invoice, and payment. The AI must know these relationships and be able to work with the associated data and process states. Our business suite provides the technical substance for this: the business functions, the binding data, and the rules by which the company operates. Together with Beyond, this creates an environment in which the AI can perform work across the boundaries of individual applications. That is why the breadth of our applications is an essential part of our strategy.

Dr. Krüger: The number of specialized solutions will continue to grow because AI significantly facilitates the development of new functions. This presents a great opportunity: specialized knowledge can be translated into usable applications more quickly, and companies can create solutions for tasks that have previously been economically difficult to automate.

This raises an architectural question for the board of directors. Purchasing, human resources, finance, and administration access shared data and work together along interconnected processes. When each new application brings its own data ecosystem, its own permissions, and its own process control, the complexity of the overall system increases with each individual task solved. NEWWORK provides the common foundation on which this professional diversity can emerge and collaborate within the company. It is precisely the ease with which new applications are developed that increases the value of a reliable enterprise platform.

Dr. Krüger: This includes identity and permissions, data protection, client separation, logging, availability, data backup, monitoring, and a regulated handling of changes. In addition, there is the control of the AI: Which data may an agent see, which actions may it perform, when does it require approval, and how can its actions be traced retrospectively? These requirements must be implemented in ongoing operations.

In procurement, this becomes very concrete. An agent must know which supplier information he may use. He must record orders bindingly, observe value limits and approvals, and document his actions in a traceable manner. NEWWORK combines the technical task with the platform services and control mechanisms required for it. The customer receives a shared operational and security architecture that he can reuse for further applications.

Dr. Krüger: AI makes it easier to write an application. The responsibility for its operation, its security, and its integration into the company remains unchanged. If every department developed its own technical foundation, the same demanding tasks would have to be solved repeatedly and maintained permanently. Even specialized providers can meet these requirements; however, with a growing number of independent products, the company must organize their interaction.

With Create and Every Code, NEWWORK provides an environment where companies can develop their own applications and capabilities on an existing shared technical foundation. New solutions rely on shared services for identity, data, processes, and governance. As a result, technical specifications can be implemented more quickly, while operations and control remain integrated into a company-wide controllable architecture. The individual solution remains customizable; its technical foundation is shared.

Dr. Krüger: A powerful specialized solution can be integrated via Connect. NEWWORK enables you to integrate your results and functions into a larger business process and control the associated actions within the shared workflow. Which data and permissions an external solution receives are explicitly specified.

The NEWWORK Transformation Engine can take such applications and in-house developments into account when analyzing the landscape. In the NEWWORK Transformation Codex, their tasks, data flows, and dependencies become visible. This allows for determining which specialized solution is further utilized, which function becomes meaningful within NEWWORK, and where parallel structures can be simplified. The customer can leverage innovation from specialized providers while simultaneously maintaining control over their entire work architecture.

Dr. Krüger: The transition can be carried out with a single process. With NEWWORK Connect, we integrate existing systems and enable the digital workforce to work within this ecosystem. The customer can initially continue to operate their existing applications and already benefit from the new way of working.

An example is onboarding: NEWWORK coordinates the necessary steps between HR, IT, and the department, processes documents, tracks open tasks, and executes authorized actions in the connected systems. The customer thus experiences concretely what AI can do in everyday business life. From this experience, he can take over further processes and then decide which existing applications he still needs.

Dr. Krüger: We rely on the knowledge that is required for a transformation. In an established system landscape, it must first be understood how the company actually operates: Which processes exist? What variants and exceptions are there? Which data, applications, and rules are interconnected? A significant part of classic projects consists of gathering this knowledge through interviews, workshops, and manual evaluations.

For this task, we are developing the NEWWORK Transformation Engine. It enables the process and system landscape to be analyzed using AI, evaluates the available information, and integrates it into a coherent business model. The analysis work is therefore largely automated and can be continued during the transformation process.

Dr. Krüger: The NEWWORK Transformation Codex. In it, the current corporate structure and the future architecture are combined: processes, business functions, systems, data, roles, rules, and their dependencies. The Codex also describes which elements will be retained, which will be integrated, and which can be gradually taken over by NEWWORK.

This results in a concrete construction plan for the transformation. The company can identify where a meaningful starting point lies, what prerequisites are required for it, and how the next steps build on each other. The Codex is continuously developed during implementation and remains aligned with the actual progress.

Dr. Krüger: We are starting with a limited process that creates a recognizable benefit. This can be onboarding or offboarding, processing incoming invoices, a customer service process, or an administrative procedure. NEWWORK takes over this workflow while the rest of the system landscape continues to work.

With each successfully taken over process, the customer's experience grows. At the same time, we gain knowledge about how other processes can be implemented on the same platform. This way, a company can gradually change its architecture without drawing the entire organization into a comprehensive migration project at the same time.

Dr. Krüger: It applies to mature corporate landscapes overall. These can be SAP, Oracle, or Salesforce, as well as specialized procedures in an administration and individually developed applications. Our starting question is what work is performed in the company and how this work should be organized in the future.

For very old or manageable applications, a complete replacement may be advisable. For large mainframe systems, a sequential approach involving individual steps is often suitable. Connect, the NEWWORK Transformation Engine, and NEWWORK's development tools offer different paths for this on a common platform.

Dr. Krüger: Yes, fundamentally. As long as an alternative is hardly conceivable, investments within the existing provider architecture are planned. Then the next migration appears as the predetermined path, even if it ties up enormous resources.

NEWWORK opens up an additional strategic opportunity. The board of directors can align its future corporate architecture with the capabilities of AI and begin the transition through concrete processes. As soon as this alternative works visibly in the company itself, the view on long-term commitment to the existing systems also changes. The decision becomes adjustable again.

Dr. Krüger: Exactly. Beyond provides the technological foundation for business work in the AI age. The NEWWORK Transformation Engine unlocks existing processes and systems and prepares for the transition to the new architecture. Connect enables entry into the existing landscape, and the Digital Workforce takes over the work step by step.

These skills belong together. A company needs a compelling architecture for its future and a practical path to get there. At the same time, it needs a common foundation on which new AI solutions and its own developments can be safely operated and integrated with the rest of the business work. NEWWORK combines these tasks in an enterprise system for the work of people and AI. With each new capability, the system can grow, while the customer continues to manage its work as a whole.