Definitively news worth dissecting in our customary style – the press release can be found here:
WALLDORF — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced a jump-start enablement program for its Internet of Things (IoT) innovation portfolio. The program is intended to help customers connect the emerging world of intelligent devices with people and processes to achieve tangible business outcomes.
MyPOV – States well what the news is about. IoT is probably the most complex next generation application scenario we are tracking, given data volume, costs, connectivity and sheer number of things.
Following through on SAP’s 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.
MyPOV - Good reminder on the 2B Euro investment commitment (announced back at the IoT event in Naples / Rome – see here). Good to encompass the integration aspect into the SAP enterprise applications.
Named SAP Leonardo, SAP’s IoT portfolio takes its name from a figure known for ushering in a groundbreaking era of science and discovery. For more on the SAP Leonardo brand, please see here.
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| SAP Leonardo Marketecture |
“Moving from things to outcomes is about new business processes such as Industry 4.0, new business models and new ways for people to live and work,” said Dr. Tanja Rueckert, executive vice president, Digital Assets and IoT, SAP. “With SAP Leonardo, we connect ‘things’ with business processes that are instantaneous and proactive, and with people who can manage more effectively with augmented intelligence and autonomous systems. Our SAP Leonardo IoT portfolio delivers on SAP’s commitment to produce superior business value through enterprise IoT innovation.”MyPOV – Good quote by Rueckert – emphasizing the bottom line for enterprise application vendors like SAP – connecting the Things with the People. Not to forget that the IoT applications by themselves must be at least good enough to get enterprises to adopt them.
Easier IoT Adoption: Jump-Start Pilot Program and Introductory PricingMyPOV – Always good to see when vendors help enterprises adopt new technology. Design Thinking has proven itself as a powerful methodology to have enterprises create the new best practices needed in IoT deployment scenarios. It speaks of SAP’s scale that it has a worldwide focus from the get go. And as with all break through innovations that effect business best practices – it is important to conclude this phase with working, minimum viable pilots – so enterprises and CxOs can see the impact, applicability and feasibility of the follow up projects.
SAP is introducing a jump-start program to help organizations identify and validate IoT pilots and use cases. 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 Service and SAP Asset Intelligence Network. By setting a defined price for services and key solutions in the SAP Leonardo IoT portfolio, the introductory offer provides transparency and eliminates budget uncertainty, enabling customers to establish IoT pilots with clear scope, length and pricing. More information on the jump-start program and pricing offer can be found here.MyPOV – Good to see SAP bringing together the sprawling IoT portfolio with Leonardo. Cross IoT solutions integration needs will be expected to be addressed – so this is an area to watch. And well done by SAP to reduce the commercial uncertainty of early versions and pilots.
A Unique Ability to Connect People, Things and BusinessesMyPOV – Good to see SAP mentioning the integration scenario, which matters for most existing customers. Ultimately IoT automation affects humans, needs to be serviced and sold by humans, it is the interface between the things and humans which are a substantial use case for IoT that SAP is addressing here.
SAP Leonardo reaffirms an innovative value proposition, extending from SAP’s enterprise core into automation and intelligence at the edges where IoT data is created. With SAP HANA Cloud Platform, SAP Leonardo offers intelligent IoT applications, business services for development, technical services for processing high-velocity data and an intelligent edge to process information at the device level. SAP Leonardo combines SAP’s unique strengths, including 45 years of business process knowledge across 25 industries and leadership in Big Data management, in end-to-end offerings addressing the following areas:
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 industriesMyPOV – Good to see SAP offering the ‘Connected’ product / services family to integrate IoT solutions with its enterprise applications. This business area alone will be substantial business for SAP and significant piece of mind for SAP customers… assuming SAP build, prices and delivers these offerings successfully.
Connected assets to track, monitor and 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 (such as vehicles, robots, fork lifts and 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
Connected markets to enable new production, and business models of local relevance and at the right timing for customer and marketing insights, digital agribusiness, smart ports and smart cities
Connected people for more insightful, collaborative work roles, health management and smart home environments connecting people and communities and providing better, more personalized lifestyle experiences
SAP Leonardo EventMyPOV – New products need new events, good to see for SAP to have a separate event for IoT, still spaced away enough from Sapphire, in the heartland of most IoT interest, in Germany. Picking KAP EUROPA, the first congress center to be awarded the platinum certificate by the German Sustainable Building Council, makes appetite for a great event. SAP has big shoes to fill as it had a great, smaller scale IoT launch event in fall 2016 in Italy together with Vehicle Management customer Treni Italia (read here).
SAP also announced plans for its first global SAP Leonardo event. Bringing together SAP customers, partners and IoT experts, the event will showcase the latest in IoT innovations and effective business strategies. The event will take place from July 11–12, 2017, in Frankfurt, Germany, at the KAP EUROPA. More information about the event, including the agenda and registration details, will be disclosed in the coming weeks.
Overall MyPOV
Good to see SAP packaging up its IoT products and offerings under an umbrella brand, Leonardo seems to be a good choice. More importantly helping customers to come to terms with IoT with the help of Design Thinking lead workshops is key to help enterprises get up to speed and live with IoT projects. Equally good to see SAP thinking about the pricing challenges that are important to address commercial viability of IoT projects… as well as the connectivity between the existing enterprise applications and IoT projects. And lastly it is positive to see SAP announcing a dedicated IoT event – at a IoT rich location with KAP EUROPA in Frankfurt.On the concern side, SAP needs to find ways to scale and grow its IoT portfolio which has done well in 2016 and now needs to be taken to the next level. SAP’s salesforce is kicking off the sales year as you read this, and we expect SAP to spend ample room on pushing SAP IoT. It is crucial to get create additional value from the traditional SAP manufacturing install base, often around the Industrie 4.0 moniker. To be fair SAP has positioned the IoT offering well, last but not least with this announcement, now it must execute in 2017.
What’s your take on SAP IoT? Please share, we will be watching.
Check out my colleagues Chris Canarakus and Andy Mulholland here.
