German software company SAP has added 18 new strategic partners to its IoT roster to help roll out its Leonardo IoT Accelerator packages.
SAP has been an IoT player (the company likes to say ‘specialist’) for some years now. The SAP exhibition stand at the annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, in particular, has been used to showcase SAP IoT initiatives from connected Formula 1 racing cars and intelligent vending machines to the data analytics functions used by the World Cup winning German soccer team.
All these smart ‘things’, it seems, run on SAP.
Now looking to enhance, extend and elaborate its IoT offerings across the vertical industries into which it splices the business world, SAP is extending its IoT partner network, so that third parties increasingly provide implementation services for SAP Leonardo IoT accelerator packages.
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Intelligent applications
For the record, SAP Leonardo has been described by SAP co-founder Hasso Plattner as a “bounding box,” or a set of tools used to build intelligent applications that will run on SAP S/4HANA Cloud. It is, if you will, a means of consuming (and implementing and architecting and deploying) the increasingly complex total stack of SAP software products in a more compartmentalized, containerized and altogether accelerated way.
“Smart devices and digital technologies are transforming the way we live and work in industries and geographies around the world,” said Dr. Tanja Rueckert, president of IoT & digital supply chain at SAP. “Together, SAP and its partners are removing barriers to entry and making IoT-driven digital innovation rapidly achievable for our customers around the world.”
The new partners delivering services include Accenture, Bristlecone, Capgemini, CSTI Corp., Deloitte Consulting, Exed Consulting, Fujitsu, GoSCM, HCL Technologies, IntechPro, Intrigo Systems, KPIT Technologies, Movilitas, Process Technologies, Rocket Consulting Ltd., Tech Mahindra, Vesta Partners and Westernacher Consulting.
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Automated IoT accelerators
In corporate-speak, SAP says that its Leonardo IoT accelerators provide an open, flexible path to digital innovation for customers in multiple industries. In reality-speak, what this refers to is the work that SAP has done to quantify and classify IoT application architecture formats, code execution playbooks and data analytics workflows from customers it can comapartmentalize into either specific use case types or specific vertical industries – or, indeed, both.
What SAP then carries out is a process of de-duplication, validation, obfuscation and anonymization on those blocks of data and application logic, so that they can be used as so-called IoT accelerators to get new customers running faster. You could call this the development of higher level reference architectures, you could call them blueprints, you could call them silver linings playbooks… or you could be all corporate and fuzzy and call them SAP Leonardo IoT accelerators.
SAP and its partners will support customer deployments of 10 SAP Leonardo IoT accelerators including packages for the SAP Predictive Maintenance and Service solution, SAP Asset Intelligence Network, SAP Connected Goods software, SAP Vehicle Insights application, SAP Global Track and Trace solution, and SAP Leonardo IoT Foundation and SAP Edge Services. The accelerators follow a fixed-scope engagement with explore, design and deliver phases completed in less than 10 weeks.
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What customers think
“Many businesses are seeing their industries change around them as IoT-enabled devices improve capabilities around data, supply chains and advanced operating models taking root in the market,” said Tom Wetsch, chief innovation officer at Pregis, a protective packaging company that is working with KPIT Technologies. “IoT is no longer a question of when, but how soon? We are well positioned to provide enhanced solutions for customers and partnering with SAP Leonardo.”
“In just a matter of weeks, we were able to pilot and demonstrate tangible value with SAP Leonardo IoT accelerator packages,“ said Jeff Mueller, chief information officer at Pregis. “SAP Connected Goods and SAP Edge Services allow us to enhance customer solutions and achieve greater productivity for improved customer satisfaction.”
SAP uses the ‘Run Simple’ marketing strapline to promote its technology, but also to express the layer of automation it is working to engineer across data environments it seeks to serve with its technology.
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