In the first part of this series, we showed how business models, processes, and technologies in the life sciences industry are changing and why SAP S/4HANA plays a crucial role as the digital core. But digital transformation is not a one-off project. It only unfolds its full potential when it is understood as a continuous cycle of innovation, process optimisation, and data-driven control. This principle can best be described using the concept of a flywheel: a mechanism that is set in motion with a clear structure and accelerates with each subsequent step.
In this article, we show how companies in the life sciences sector are setting their digital transformation flywheel in motion and how this is creating a sustainable, self-reinforcing cycle of innovation.
What is the Flywheel of digital Transformation?
The term flywheel originally comes from mechanics: a flywheel that, once set in motion, stores its energy and runs more efficiently with each rotation. Applied to digital transformation, the flywheel describes a cycle in which innovation, process optimisation and data-based decision-making interlock and reinforce each other.
Leading consultancies such as McKinsey and BCG show that companies that understand transformation as a continuous cycle are more successful and resilient. In the life sciences sector, this means first establishing a stable digital foundation (e.g. with SAP S/4HANA), then optimising and standardising processes. Finally, data and AI applications flow back into value creation. This creates a self-accelerating system – the digital flywheel for sustainable transformation.
Digitisation and automation: increasing efficiency with modern ERP systems
The first step in the flywheel is to create a stable digital core. The life sciences industry is characterised by regulatory requirements, strict validation processes and a high degree of complexity. This is precisely where SAP S/4HANA, as a central ERP platform, provides the necessary stability and transparency.
Automation and standardisation – for example in production or quality management – can be used to tap into efficiency reserves while also meeting regulatory requirements. This frees up resources that can be invested in research and innovation. The digital core is thus the flywheel’s driving force: it provides the momentum to keep the transformation moving forward.
Compliance and quality assurance: Adaptation to new regulatory requirements
Digitalisation is followed by the next lever: the consistent anchoring of compliance and quality assurance. In the regulated environment of life sciences, validatable processes and auditability are key success factors.
A modern ERP system supports this with integrated audit trails, electronic signatures and documented workflows. This turns compliance from a mandatory task into a strategic competitive advantage. Tenthpin, one of the global SAP partners specialising in life sciences, emphasises in its blog that ‘standardised and digitally validated processes significantly increase the speed of transformations and reduce regulatory risks’.
In the flywheel concept, this phase ensures that the movement remains controlled, reproducible and trustworthy – essential for building long-term momentum.
Cloud computing and IT infrastructure: the foundation for digital innovation
The flywheel requires a scalable infrastructure to achieve speed and flexibility. Modern cloud architectures enable life sciences companies to securely link production, research and delivery data while ensuring compliance.
The SAP Industry Cloud is a key component here. It offers industry-specific enhancements – from laboratory integration and serialisation to supply chain transparency – and combines cloud innovation with validated processes. According to SAP, this combination is ‘crucial for optimising clinical processes and bringing innovations to market faster, more securely and more sustainably.’
Data and analytics: Decision-making through AI and data analysis
Im Kern des Flywheels steht der intelligente Umgang mit Daten. Unternehmen, die Daten aus Produktion, Forschung, Supply Chain und Marktanalysen konsistent verknüpfen, schaffen die Grundlage für prädiktive Analysen und automatisierte Entscheidungsprozesse.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning are transforming the way life sciences companies plan, research and produce – from real-time quality monitoring to smart trials and real-world evidence. Each cycle in the flywheel generates new insights that feed into the next optimisation step. A cycle of learning and acceleration.
Sustainability as an integral part
The integration of ESG criteria into processes and strategies has long been more than just a regulatory requirement. Companies that digitally map and measure environmental, social and governance aspects not only create transparency, but also differentiation.
ERP systems such as SAP S/4HANA enable ESG reporting and CO₂ monitoring along the entire value chain. This makes sustainability an integral part of the flywheel. It is an element that addresses regulatory requirements as well as market and reputation advantages.
How adesso business consulting supports companies with flywheels
adesso business consulting supports life sciences companies at all levels of the flywheel – strategically, technologically and regulatorily. By combining in-depth industry knowledge with SAP expertise, adesso helps customers build validatable ERP architectures, optimise processes, develop data and AI strategies, and integrate modern cloud solutions via SAP BTP and Industry Cloud.
We support our customers not only with the introduction of SAP S/4HANA, but also with the long-term design of a sustainable innovation cycle with clear governance, measurable business impact and validated, auditable operations. This not only gets the flywheel started, but also keeps it accelerating. Read more about this in another blog article hier.
Outlook: From flywheel to the business suite of the future
The digital transformation does not end with Flywheel – it continues consistently in the new SAP Business Suite strategy, which SAP is currently rolling out globally.
In the upcoming third instalment of this series (‘The new SAP Business Suite strategy – the foundation for the flywheel of innovation’), we will examine how SAP is laying the groundwork for a new generation of integrated enterprise software with S/4HANA, the Business Data Cloud, Joule and the Business Technology Platform (BTP). We will show how this strategy architecturally maps the flywheel model and why life sciences companies in particular benefit when stability, data intelligence and innovation are brought together in a cycle.
