SAP has spent the last 18 months or so developing its IoT (Internet of Things) strategy and is now looking to ramp up sales and customer projects with a new "jump-start" program. Here are the key details from its announcement:
Following through on its recently announced commitment to invest €2 billion in IoT over five years, the IoT portfolio combines adaptive applications, Big Data applications and connectivity in packaged solutions across line-of-business and industry use cases ranging from connected products, assets and infrastructure to vehicle fleets, markets and people.
A consultative service staffed by SAP line-of-business and industry experts, the jump-start program is a multiphase engagement featuring design thinking to match IoT innovations with customer strategies and objectives in achievable pilots with a clear path to business value. Available worldwide, the jump-start program is intended to ease the first steps of the IoT journey, producing pilots that define business cases for full scale IoT strategies and further deployment.
SAP is also introducing promotional pricing for the IoT jump-start program featuring a simple, fixed cost for software and services to cover the pilot and first year of usage for SAP Leonardo IoT solutions including SAP Connected Goods, SAP Vehicle Insights, SAP Predictive Maintenance and Services and SAP Asset Intelligence Network.
The fixed-cost pricing arrangement should help customers more freely define pilot IoT projects, says SAP, which is now calling its IoT product portfolio Leonardo, after the renowned polymath.
SAP is in an advantageous position to capture enterprise IoT spend and mindshare given the pervasiveness of its ERP software in companies around the world. It's coupling the ability to harness all that transactional data with technologies such as HANA, the in-memory platform that underpins the bulk of its current software development efforts.
To help its ERP installed base get moving on IoT projects, SAP has defined a set of scenarios that have immediate relevance to customers across industries. Among them are the following:
· Connected Products for new insights into lifecycle management, sourcing, response and supply, and digital supply networks; and the design, manufacturing and delivery of smart, connected products across all industries
· Connected Assets to track, monitor, analyze fixed assets, including manufacturing and maintenance business processes to reduce costs and increase equipment uptime
· Connected Fleet to enable businesses and public service organizations owning moving assets (for example, vehicles, robots, fork lifts, autonomous vehicles) to improve services and safety, visibility to logistics and service quality.
· Connected Infrastructure for new digital operational intelligence from physical-infrastructure systems, construction and energy grids enabling improved service, efficient operations and compliance and risk mitigation.
It's worth noting that SAP isn't trying to boil the ocean with the jump-start program. It will involve a one-day IoT design thinking session geared toward executives, followed by a one-week rapid prototyping workshop aimed at pinpointing a use case that targets one core business process. Then the next three months would be dedicated to a "sprint zero" implementation resulting in a live pilot of the prototype. There are four options available at launch: Connected Goods, Vehicle Insights, Preventive Maintenance and Asset Intelligence Network.
The timing of the announcement is no accident, coming just days after the start of SAP's new fiscal year, and one day before its field kickoff meeting in Las Vegas. Attendees of the event for SAP salespeople and partners will no doubt get an earful about Leonardo and the jump-start program.
On its face, SAP's announcement hits the mark, says Constellation Research VP and principal analyst Andy Mulholland. "SAP has seemed, at least from an external perspective, to be a slow mover in an IoT market that has seen a great number of announcements and marketing messages over the last year," he says. "This annoucement shows that SAP in keeping with its reputation, and Germanic engineering roots, it is has been steadily gaining deployment experience and building a cohesive set of solutions."
"Even better, and to make the focus clear, SAP has introduced strong branding to bring together the disparete elements that make up an IoT solutions," he adds. "SAP customers should set aside the time to study SAP Leonardo carefully as it may be the catalyst they have been waiting for to kickstart their own entry into enterprise IoT."
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