SAP made the announcement at Mobile World Congress, held in Barcelona this week.

“Since the launch of our PaaS offering three years ago, it has evolved to become the digital enterprise platform of choice that enables customers, partners and developers to build differentiating solutions that intelligently connect people, things, and businesses,” said Bernd Leukert, member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, Products and Innovation.

“To represent its bread of capabilities, it has been rebranded as SAP Cloud Platform. This platform creates digital differentiation by connecting a rapidly growing number of smart devices and machines with people and processes to achieve superior business outcomes.”

Among the new services added to the platform are:

• SAP API Business Hub, which provides a catalogue of APIs for SAP applications, such as new APIs for the S/4HANA Cloud suite, SAP Mobile Service application, and SAP Localisation Hub, tax service.
• SAP Cloud Platform Workflow service, which will be generally available by March 30, will quickly and easily connect enterprise business functions within a graphical interface for business analysts to create new composite workflows for business processes.
• SAP Cloud Platform IoT services, which is now available in a beta version with more than 40 device protocols. The new release will integrate IoT services with the SAP Cloud Platform Streaming Analytics service for faster processing of streaming data.
• SAP Project Companion mobile app, which is planned for release on March 30. It is a native iOS app that its to provide integration through SAP Cloud Platform with the S/4HANA Professional Services Cloud solution.
• SAP Cloud Platform Big Data Services (formerly Altiscale) will offer Hadoop in the cloud.
• SAP Cloud Platform Virtual Machine service, which was introduced in the EMEA region last November, will be offered in the US in Q1 2017. The service helps customers complete their solution landscapes by adding workloads based on existing on-premise software or languages and runtimes that can run directly on SAP Cloud Platform.

SAP will also be adding new data centres to support the Cloud Platform in Japan and China, with full local
language support.

Over 1000 applications have now been built by SAP and its partners on the SAP Cloud Platform.

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New offerings are intended to enable self-registration, device onboarding and automatic creation of digital twins to enable more cost-effective asset performance and strategy management for SAP customers.

“We are activating the network to provide the collaboration platform and the business context for new IoT innovations that will transform asset management and process automation,” said Tanja Rueckert, executive vice president, LoB digital assets and IoT, SAP. “We are growing the powerful ecosystem of technology companies that will enable new levels of business outcomes from smarter factories and production processes.”

For process industries, SAP is collaborating with partners to provide best-in-class IoT solutions from field devices to the enterprise. Partners include measurement instrumentation leader Endress+Hauser, industrial communication solutions provider Hilscher, sensor technology leader Pepperl+Fuchs and process control solutions provider SAMSON.

Endress+Hauser is enabling customers to gain valuable insights for process monitoring and predictive maintenance from data gathered from IoT-enabled devices, while Hilscher is providing connectors and edge gateway technology to enable track and trace and out-of-the-box connectivity to SAP AIN. Pepperl+Fuchs is providing sensors and accessories for connected asset lifecycle management as well as system integration components for IoT process automation, and SAMSON will contribute predictive diagnostics and digital twin development and dashboard definition for process industry IoT.

For factory automation, SAP is collaborating with Hilscher and Pepperl+Fuchs to increase IT and IoT integration, enabling tracking of the machine lifecycle as well as condition monitoring and predictive maintenance. SAP is also collaborating with open automation systems provider Beckhoff Automation in factory automation for out-of-the-box IT/OT connectivity, to contribute the robot cell technology used in track and trace systems.

SAP AIN provides a single, secure, cloud-based global register of model and equipment information for consistent and efficient inter- and intra-company data sharing and a secure cloud platform to enable collaboration among multiple business partners. At the core of the network is SAP HCP with IoT application services to help customers and partners develop IoT solutions efficiently.

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Using a network built on the SAP HANA Cloud Platform, SAP Payment Engine and Ripple’s enterprise blockchain solutions, ATB transferred CA$1000 (EUR667) to ReiseBank. SAP also provided a mobile user interface for demonstration purposes.

The transaction, which typically would have taken between two and six business days to process because of requirements such as settling with the counterparty bank and reconciling accounts, was completed in around 20 seconds.

The blockchain was originally created as the foundation for trading digital currency bitcoin, and is a distributed ledger that allows a network of computers to settle transactions securely and almost instantly.

SAP and Ripple worked with a team at ATB Financial to design and build a proof-of-concept prototype based on the technology in nine working days.

“Although we are very much still in the early stages of blockchain adoption, it was highly encouraging to see in a true demonstration the potential it has in transforming cross-border payments, making them almost instantaneous and reducing potential errors,” said Curtis Stange, chief strategy and operations officer, ATB Financial.

“Using SAP HANA Cloud Platform, we’re able to experiment and be nimble with emerging innovations like blockchain. The next stage for us, working with SAP and Ripple, will be to understand how the front-end experience should work for the benefit of our customers,” Stange added.

The test transaction demonstrated how banks can improve the efficiency of cross-border payments to enhance their global networks.

“Banks like ATB that take a positive and proactive approach to blockchain now can position themselves advantageously for when the technology enters the mainstream,” said Bernd Leukert, member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, Products and Innovation. “ATB’s blockchain transaction underscores the value of running a business on a full-fledged digital core so it can react quickly to emerging possibilities and avoid the threat of disruption.”

In 2011, ATB Financial successfully migrated its entire legacy banking system to a major new core system built using SAP solutions.

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The application provides a range of services, including data analytics about fleets, vehicle diagnostics and mobility-as-a-service scenarios. Companies can use information about entire fleets and car-specific key data like gear recognition, fuel stops, scores for economical driving or heat mapping, to conduct predictive maintenance, thereby reducing costs, and improve overall fleet management.

The Vehicle Insights solution can combine the data generated by connected vehicles both with a company’s existing business data and other external data.

“Vehicles and, to an increasing extent, machines need to be integrated in digital business processes. Whether it is a truck on the road, a forklift at the warehouse or an excavator at a construction site, everything needs to be operated in the most efficient way possible. We help customers not only to rapidly develop and implement these scenarios for their businesses, but also to validate them in the market and scale them accordingly over a short period of time,” said Stephan Brand, senior vice president, products and innovation Internet of Things (IoT) and moving assets, SAP.

The applications for the solution could include conventional areas of logistics optimisation as well as management of commercial fleets, which are able to use vehicle data like geo-positions, load weight, temperature or the estimated time of arrival. Additional services for geo-fencing or speed-limit analysis could also support new business processes and models in the fields of digital farming and telematics for insurance.

SAP Vehicle Insights is based on the SAP HANA Cloud Platform, and collects, stores, maps and analyses real-time sensor data from vehicles and equipment. Standardised web-enabled services with open integration allows the solution to be connected with existing systems with minimal disruption, enabling reduced costs through improved operations, planning and control.

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The fresh food supply chain is complicated by a multitude of players, stringent regulatory compliance, and lack of end-to-end visibility, which leads to high wastage and product ageing by the time the produce reaches consumers.

Built on the HANA Cloud Platform, the Fresh Produce End to End Digital Supply Chain (FEEDS) will help producers to maintain product quality and freshness while providing a 15 to 20 per cent reduction in losses and wastes, according to Tech Mahindra.

The FEEDS solution is a product of collaboration between Tech Mahindra and the SAP Co-Innovation Labs, and is integrated with SAP’s ERP system to utilise digital levers including mobility, Internet of Things and big data.

Global produce supply chains, large retailers and food manufacturing clients are expected to be key customers of the solution.

“Freshness is a key differentiator for fresh produce as it impacts the consumer perception of the brand. The lack of holistic visibility breeds inefficiencies in the complex modern day food supply chain. Our rich domain expertise combined with the strong technology prowess of SAP digital platform provides an ideal combination to deliver unique and unparalleled benefits to our clients,” said Rohit Khanna, senior vice president, global retail and CPG, Tech Mahindra.

“Tech Mahindra has invested in multiple industry-specific cloud platforms using SAP Digital and IoT stacks. FEEDS is our flagship digital offering for retail and CPG sector. Built on ‘mobile first’ strategy, high emphasis has been laid on the usability standards achieved through Design Thinking. Similar offerings are being launched in other sectors to help clients bridge gaps in their digital strategy to execution,” said Krishna Kumaraswamy, senior vice president and global head – SAP practice, Tech Mahindra.

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The app, which was developed at SAP Labs Berlin/Potsdam, Germany, pulls data from core financial reporting systems to provide instant access to data that was previously inaccessible and actively manage budgets and actual spending.

“This app uses the cloud to innovate on top of our finance core and provides line managers and others with budget accountability the tools they need to make sound spending management a real-time activity across the entire enterprise,” said Thack Brown, general manager and global head of LoB Finance, SAP.

SAP RealSpend connects to the S/4 HANA Finance solution in real time without having to replicate data, and also works with other data from SAP and third-party sources.

The app has detailed drill-down features that make it possible to perform a fine-grained analysis of actual and future spends, as well as related forecast and budget plans. Managers can also simulate the influence of certain decisions into budget factors including sales, marketing, travel, hiring and equipment investment.

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SAP Health Engagement, which has been built on the HANA Cloud Platform, will allow health providers, health insurers and pharmaceutical companies the ability to build custom applications to help patients track their health through goal-setting and personalised assessments for chronic diseases and conditions.

By linking patients to healthcare professionals through real-time data and high-speed analytics, the technology will also physicians and health program managers to implement early interventions to improve health outcomes and lower healthcare costs.

The solution grew out of a partnership between SAP and Roche Diabetes Care Germany, which saw the creation of the SAP Heath Link solution, for the prevention of diabetes. SAP Health Link facilitated connections through digital services between healthcare professionals and patents at risk of developing type 2 diabetes, to encourage lifestyle changes.

SAP drew on the insights from this partnership as well as feedback from other customers to structure SAP Health Engagement as a flexible development toolkit that can be used to create applications tailored to any chronic disease or conditions. These applications could also be used to engage patients in clinical trials, and provide personalised home care.

“In principle, this platform has the potential to improve and individualise the cooperation between physicians and patients for any kind of chronic disease,” said Dirk Uebelhor, head of Roche Diabetes Care Germany.

Customers can be onboarded for the solution by scanning a unique QR code, which then allows data to be pulled from the back-end database into their mobile device. SAP Health Engagement can also patient-generated and wearable sensor data in the mobile application.

Program managers can create customised wellness programs, delivered through a mobile healthcare consumer application, and patient data can be collected and stored securely in order to be utilised for research. The solution gives patients full control of their personal health data and access privileges for this information.

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The packages, which are priced per user for production, offer a convenient and fast way to create enterprise-grade apps, enabling organisations to buy them in minutes using a credit card.

SAP offers a single application edition per user per month for US$43, and a multiple application edition for US$130 per user per month. There is also a professional edition at US$22 per user per month.

Organisations can also trial the user-based packages for SAP HCP in a free edition, which allows developers to start immediately building an app for productive use, with no risk or upfront investment required.

SAP also has starter editions of the SAP HCP available on the SAP Store, providing a dedicated instance of SAP HANA and other key services, with pricing ranging from US$439 (32GB) to US$549 (64GB).

SAP recently announced that live credit card transaction capabilities for the SAP Store would be expanded from 32 countries to over 100 countries by the end of 2016. Other solutions available through the Store include SAP Digital CRM and SAP Lumira (standard edition).

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