As an SAP Global Strategic Services Partner for over 25 years, HCL Technologies Ltd. has established an SAP practice that seamlessly integrates across the entire SAP portfolio and the Indian multinational company’s Digital Consulting, engineering services, IoT WoRKS, and cloud infrastructure practices.

Long-standing SAP service and license resell partner HCL Technologies Ltd. has announced its latest innovation partnership with SAP that advances the Industry 4.0 by harnessing the power of the smart Internet of Things (IoT). Globally recognised as one of the leading companies with IoT expertise, HCL Technologies has collaborated with the German software enterprise giant to deliver new IoT packaged offerings and services led by its dedicated IoT business IoT WoRKS.

Sharing about the latest SAP – HCL Technologies collaboration, Sukant Acharya, Senior Vice President, IoT WoRKS, HCL Technologies, said:

“We are proud to be collaborating with SAP to create the next generation of intelligent warehouse offerings and services. HCL Technologies’ experience in enabling Industry 4.0 and connected business transformation programs, when paired with SAP’s expertise in supporting IoT applications during development and implementation, stands to benefit our customers in driving sustainable business transformation and growth.”

Reflected by the Noida, India-based Information Technology services and consulting firm’s vision “to be the best modern-SAP consulting partner in the industry”, the company’s SAP practice operates within its integrated solutions and services portfolio centred around deep technologies such as Digital, IoT, and Cloud as well as Infrastructure Management, and Engineering Services, among many others. HCL Technologies has more than 10,000 SAP consultants across the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa to support its worldwide customers’ complex SAP transformation. The consulting firm was one of the early adopters of RISE with SAP and has also been recently named a leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Supply Chain SAP Ecosystems Services 2021 Vendor Assessment.

HCL Technologies Ltd. Latest IoT Offerings

In the most recent collaborative partnership of HCL Technologies with SAP, HCL’s IoT WoRKS has introduced new service offerings that help accelerate next-generation intelligent warehousing. IoT WoRKS supports customers’ IoT transformation across different IoT adoption levels through service offerings anchored around ‘Define, Build, and Run’.

Harnessing the smart sensing capabilities and IoT edge of SAP IoT, IoT WoRKS packages IoT-led warehouse processes and offers the option to add relevant hardware like RFID devices or gateway servers for a seamless transformation. SAP IoT, part of SAP Business Technology Platform, enables customers to embed in and extend business processes leveraging IoT-enriched business insights to achieve transformative results.

Here are the two latest service offerings of HCL Technologies:

IoT-led Warehouse Processes 

Leveraging SAP IoT, this service offering enables companies to drive efficiency and optimise their digital supply chain by automating the identification of handling units through radio frequency identification (RFID), validating the data, and posting business context information to SAP S/4HANA or other SAP warehousing solutions.

Remote Monitoring of Edge Hardware 

This scalable offering harnesses HCL’s IoT and monitoring expertise, which helps customers achieve real-time monitoring of edge devices that, ultimately, results in lower downtime and drives productivity. The solution also provides a single UI to enhance the management of clusters and configurable alerts.

Priya Wenzel, SAP Global Vice President, Partner Ecosystem Success, Digital Supply Chain, expressed that SAP is looking forward to partnering with the Indian multinational to deliver Industry 4.0 solutions and technology powered by IoT. She derailed:

“While SAP offers the solutions and connectivity, enabling data-driven processes across the end-to-end supply chain, HCL Technologies delivers business and product expertise, coupled with an implementation approach focused on accelerating time to value with minimal effort and investment. Together, our goal is to deliver a connected, resilient and sustainable supply chain to our customers.”

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Many organisations today are gradually recovering from the pandemic shake-up. SAP has been enabling enterprises through intelligent solutions to mitigate disruptions in their supply chain, operations, and overall performance. Through SAP.iO Foundries, SAP’s global network of top-tier startup programs, the software giant is able to identify and support new companies that offer innovative solutions to help businesses run better even during these unprecedented times. 

At SAP.iO Foundry Tokyo, the recent focus is on supporting B2B startup companies that offer solutions to accelerate customer experience (CX) and digital supply chain transformation. Last year, more than ever, the supply chain has experienced debilitating challenges that greatly affected the global exchange of goods and services, and, consequently, customer experiences.

SAP Japan President and Representative Director Hirofumi Suzuki said:

“At SAP, we enable our customers to become intelligent enterprises by integrating data and processes, building flexible value chains, and innovating with industry best practices. 

The goal is for them to grow more resilient, more profitable, and more sustainable, particularly in light of the current COVID-19 pandemic. This program will enable our customers to realise digital transformations with new technologies brought by cutting-edge startups.”

Backing Robotics and AI Technology Companies

In October 2020, SAP.iO Foundry Tokyo featured consumer-products-focused B2B technologies. This year, the Foundry selected five early-stage startups that offer digital supply chain and customer experience B2B technologies to join the open innovation model and zero-equity-ask program. 

Below is the cohort for the first half of 2021 with the theme of “Intelligent Enterprise”:

Adacotech has developed a solution that offers anomaly detection AI software to the manufacturing industry. The Tokyo-based startup created an original AI technology that operates with four types of inputs– image, video, sound, and sensors– for the detection of abnormalities. Some notable clients of Adacotech include DENSO Corporation, Honda Motor Co., Ltd., and Toyota Motor Corporation.

Evolany is the creator of Anybot, a development-free mini-application construction platform. It is an omnichannel for automatic customer service that integrates LINE, Messenger, telephone, and email to help businesses engage directly with their customers. 

LINKWIZ enables manufacturing companies to automate and digitalise inspections with its intelligent robot system software. L-Qualify is a 3D robot inspection system for in-line that replaces visual inspection and enables high-precision 100{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} inspection. LINKWIZ’s other product is L-Robot, a robot control system with automatic teaching data generation/ correction function.

Sensyn Robotics is a Japanese startup focused on the development, application, and deployment of industrial drone services. The company tackles pressing social challenges by leveraging industrial drones and robots with automation software to enable inspection, disaster countermeasures, security, and surveillance for enterprises and municipalities. Last January, Sensyn Robotics unveiled “Sensyn Explorer,” a small drone about the size of the palm of one’s hand, designed to operate within tight indoor spaces.

SORA provides an AI-powered pricing platform to help hotels and their customers find optimal prices.

The Japanese startups will undergo a 13-week virtual program wherein they get access to curated mentorship, SAP data, technology, and application programming interfaces (APIs). They are also given the opportunity to collaborate with SAP customers during the program.

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In a recent interview by Paul Baur with Sam Li, Managing Director of SAP China, he shared the company’s initiatives, insights on what happens after COVID-19 and the strategy in dealing with the fallout from the pandemic in Mainland China including steps for economic recovery as the country slowly returns to normalcy. 

Li shared the general pulse of SAP’s employees today. He said:

“I believe the most difficult time for China has now passed. Our employees are in good shape, and although there are still many restrictions on business travel, which limits face-to-face contact with each other and with customers, we are managing to work productively together. For this reason, my confidence grows daily that we will master this crisis.”

At the onset of the pandemic, SAP China has taken immediate measures to ensure the safety and well being of its employees which resulted in zero cases of coronavirus within the organisation. A mobile app tracking employees’ status and health; hotline support; and provision of training courses for various collaboration and communication tools that support working remotely offered even to SAP partners and customers were among the initiatives that the company deployed upon realising that the epidemic was rapidly expanding in Hubei province and beyond. 

Now that the conditions in China have improved and SAP offices have opened on 17th February per government guidelines, the biggest challenge remains to be the travel restrictions limiting customer interaction and SAP’s provision of on-site support. Within the company, four out of five employees prefer to work from home and avoid commuting. 

“We expect this to last until the mid-year, so remote and onsite modes of working will exist side-by-side for the foreseeable future,” the director quipped.

“To help us reach customers remotely, we recently started a digital marketing campaign using online workshops. Based on the challenges posed by COVID-19 in various industries, we offer different suggestions and solutions. For example, we show customers how SAP SuccessFactors software can provide real-time monitoring of employees’ health and adapt employee goals to the current situation, “ Li detailed. 

SAP China in 2020

With regards to SAP China’s focus and strategy for 2020, Li shared:

“Our overall strategy won’t change much, but we are adapting our execution tactics to the situation. For example, we’ve put on hold addressing industries that have been impacted most by the outbreak because they first need to focus on survival and recovery before investing in digitalization. These include restaurants, wineries, retail with brick-and-mortar stores, and labor-intensive manufacturing.” 

Li said that the company is expecting increased investments in digitalisation from industries such as medical, biotech, pharmaceuticals, and logistics because the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on them was not as large. He said:

“Supply chain management, smart manufacturing and Industry 4.0, as well as and employee safety and health management are also areas of increased focus.” 

He also highlighted the Chinese government’s effort to offset the negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic as an opportunity for SAP China. Announced early in March, a total of US$4.8 trillion is allocated for a new round of infrastructure investments that extend beyond areas such as travel and transport to include technology investments for data centers, artificial intelligence, smart manufacturing, and 5G networks. 

“Such investments will provide us with a new growth engine for our business. We are currently adapting our operations to take full advantage of this opportunity for a new round of growth,” Li explained. 

According to Li, many customers are now showing interest in digital supply chain management and cloud computing solutions after experiencing the immediate impact of the pandemic in production with workers not being able to be in the factories. He said that these solutions would help companies predict bottlenecks and make their operations more resilient.

As for the expansion of offices to additional cities in Mainland China, Li said that the plan is still on but with reservations in the time plan, which depends on the speed of recovery in 2020.

Employees First

Many companies worldwide are still only at the outset of the invisible war with COVID-19. Li emphasized that organisations should always prioritise employees’ health and safety, whether at home, at the office or travelling. He added:

“Since the impact of COVID-19 will continue on for a while, we need to ensure employee mental health and well-being while helping them to maintain stability and normalcy in their lives.”

Encouraging and hopeful, the SAP China Director said:

“I believe we will win. The past two months were a very difficult for us, but today things are getting better and better in China. The rest of the world should know that things would also get better for them too.”

Currently, SAP China is helping the hardly-hit SMEs bounce back with two social responsibility campaigns in the country. SAP is donating software products and supporting services valued at more than US$2.1 million to help SMEs in Wuhan and Hubei to establish digital systems and achieve post-disaster reconstruction. The German ERP company has also donated US$843,000 to the Hubei Charity Federation to support five hospitals of the Hubei Epidemic Center. 

SAP Ariba Discovery, a solution that can help China’s SMEs maintain the reliability and transparency of their supply chains, is also made available to all of China’s enterprises for 90 days at zero cost in line with SAP’s worldwide offering. 

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