Even in this day and age of automation, the logistics and supply chain process of distributing surgical kits to hospitals remain a challenge. Since medical devices are manufactured and delivered across the globe, the turnaround time of delivery and sterility of products while in transit are always at high risk, usually incurring a cost.

Tata Consultancy Services, a global leader in IT services, consulting, technology and digital solutions based in Mumbai, India, has partnered with SAP to launch an Intelligent Field Inventory Management (iFIM) solution, powered by SAP Leonardo. Medical Device manufacturers can now streamline their logistics and supply chain management of surgical kits with iFIM solution that leverages the Internet of Things and blockchain. iFIM solution will utilize IoT in the traceability of inventory and blockchain for greater visibility.

Vikram Karakoti, Head, Life Sciences Business Group, TCS, has emphasized that they have been capitalizing on their deep domain and expertise in digital technologies in their partnerships in the medical devices and life sciences industry. In a Business 4.0 environment, TCS technologies help organizations reimagine key elements of their value chain and launch innovative products that give them competitive differentiation.

“The iFIM Solution leverages SAP’s intelligent enterprise portfolio to utilize IoT and blockchain to help our customers digitally transform their loaner and consignment kit business models and deliver superior outcomes for all stakeholders in their ecosystems”, said Karakoti.

TCS’ Business 4.0 provides an integrated and holistic framework to help customers address issues and focus on growth in an agile manner. The manufacturing industry is now transformed to “Smart Factories” with Industry 4.0, utilizing the Internet of Things, cyber-physical systems, cloud computing, and cognitive computing.

Akhilesh Tiwari, Global Head, Enterprise Application Services, TCS, said:

“TCS’ iFIM solution supports our life sciences customers in accelerating their Business 4.0 digital transformation journeys.”

He added that TCS partnership with SAP would strengthen their brand as a preferred innovation partner building innovative industry-specific solutions leveraging the power of new-age technologies.

From the perspective of SAP, Carol Mackenzie, Global Vice President, Life Science Industries, SAP SE, said:

“We are excited to partner with TCS on this solution for the medical device industry. By leveraging TCS’ industry expertise and commitment to quality delivery and customer focus, we are helping life science businesses make the transformational move to an intelligent enterprise.”

One of TCS’ life science offerings is the Life Sciences Innovation Lab, a part of TCS’ Co-Innovation Network (COIN), which enables their customers to foresee emerging trends, develop proofs of concept and co-innovate on industry-leading solutions.

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Designed to extend and complete SAP’s portfolio of on-premise manufacturing solutions, the cloud suite is available in different packages to serve manufacturers of varying sizes in both discrete and process industries.

Customers can choose from the SAP Digital Manufacturing Cloud solution for execution, which provides all solutions in the manufacturing cloud portfolio, and the SAP Digital Manufacturing Cloud solution for insights, which focuses on performance management and predictive quality.

As a whole, the suite aims to help manufacturers optimise performance, elevate production quality and efficiency, and ensure worker safety, with features such as paperless production capability, component and material-level visibility for single and global installations, and a cloud-based collaborative platform integrated with SAP Ariba, to connect customers with manufacturing service providers.

“Manufacturers in the era of Industry 4.0 require solutions that are intelligent, networked and predictive,” said Bernd Leukert, member of the executive board, SAP SE, products and innovation. “Our manufacturing cloud solutions help customers take advantage of the Industrial Internet of Things by connecting equipment, people and operations across the extended digital supply chain and tightly integrating manufacturing with business operations.”

The solutions are expected to be available by the end of the second quarter of 2018.

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“The offerings provided by Vodafone Business Services are truly complementary to the SAP Leonardo portfolio – our enterprise-grade offering for digital innovation,” said Neeraj Athalye, head, innovation and digital strategy group, SAP Indian Subcontinent, adding, “We aim to equip our customers with end-to-end solutions that will shift business value from things to outcomes.”

SAP Leonardo, currently billed as a “digital innovation system”, combines advanced technologies such as machine learning, AI, IoT, blockchain and analytics on the SAP Cloud Platform using design thinking to enable enterprises to quickly solve their business challenges.

“Working in collaboration with SAP, we offer an end-to-end partnership across IoT and analytics which enables meaningful insight and focused outcomes,” said Nick Gliddon, director, Vodafone Enterprise Business.

Vodafone and SAP plan to offer a number of packages comprising connectivity solutions, business application software, end-to-end device management and support services.

The announcement for India comes less than a month after the two companies announced the formation of the SAP IoT Foundation, featuring device connectivity management capability from Vodafone. The intent of the SAP IoT Foundation is to enable SAP customers to gain faster returns on their IoT investments.

The collaboration agreement will allow enterprises to use Vodafone’s IoT connectivity platform to connect and manage a range of devices and then to collect and move data from those devices into the SAP HANA Cloud Platform to support predictive maintenance among other important functions.

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The company will also implement SAP Cloud Platform, SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP Edge Services, with its initial milestones including transformation of its salesforce effectiveness, supply chain efficiency and manufacturing robustness. SAP deployment methodology and industry accelerators will increase the speed of innovation.

“The arrival of new-age technologies has given rise to an urgent need for digital innovation in the industry,” said Jason Gonsalves, VP – corporate planning, IT, HR and materials, KNPL. “We are aiming to boost our digital quotient with SAP. By being able to rapidly incorporate the next-generation technologies, we will be able to catalyse process innovation at every level of our organisation.”

“With SAP Leonardo, KNPL will be able to automate and augment existing processes while building a smarter business model,” said Subramanian Ananthapadmanabhan, vice president, enterprise business, SAP Indian Subcontinent. “As an early adopter of this revolutionary technology, KNPL is paving the way for the industry to go digital.”

KNPL has been a long-term SAP customer, and back in 2012, was the first company in India to enable greenhouse gas calculation through SAP ERP, following its implementation of the SAP Environment, Health and Safety solution.

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Currently, the average technical and commercial losses for state energy distribution companies hover around 25.3 per cent. The SAP Meter Data Management by Siemens solution is designed to address this issue by enabling energy distribution companies to harness the big data generated by connected meters and sensors to gain deeper insights and improved control.

“With energy demand expected to overtake supply, spiralling costs, and increasing pressures to reduce carbon emissions, the energy sector needs new ways to meet these challenges,” said Dr Harald Griem, executive vice president and head – Energy Management division, Siemens Ltd.

He said that the solution will provide energy distribution companies with real-time power quality analysis combined with customer analytics, helping the companies to both minimise losses and improve functionality.

“India’s energy demand is expected to increase manifold in the coming decade”, said Hemant Dabke, vice president, strategic industries, SAP Indian Subcontinent.

Dabke said that the longstanding relationships that SAP and Siemens have with utilities and municipalities in India will assist the energy sector on its path to digital transformation.

“By presenting powerful opportunities to leverage IoT capabilities we together will transform the landscape for current and future energy market players,” he said.

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Pitching to the right decision makers is a crucial step for all vendors but when it comes to IoT solutions, suppliers often have trouble identifying just who will be making the decisions. To assist vendors in fast-tracking IoT adoption, Ovum surveyed 480 enterprises that are in the process of rolling out IoT solutions in Australia, China, Japan, Malaysia, and South Korea.

The results clearly demonstrated that board/C-level leaders are the driving force behind IoT deployments in many APAC enterprises. Therefore, it is critical for IoT suppliers to ensure their pitch is delivered at the board/C-level, addressing high-level concerns including business benefits, rather than focusing primarily on the technology.

While the CEO is especially likely to be the leader in South Korean and Japanese enterprise decisions, for China, the key figure is the CIO or CTO. IoT suppliers must pitch accordingly.

In addition, it is imperative to ensure the head of IT is on board as the IT department is still the key IoT leader in many enterprises, and is the most common influencer named by responders throughout the region, except in China.

The study also identified a trend toward enterprises forming dedicated innovation departments or digital teams to advise and lead IoT strategy, implementation, and procurement. In the meantime, the one-two punch of board/C-level plus IT department engagement is the best bet for suppliers selling enterprise IoT solutions in the region.

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The new partners charged with delivering express innovation 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, Tech Mahindra, Vesta Partners and Westernacher Consulting.

With these partners, SAP will support deployments of 10 IoT-focused 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.

Each accelerator follows a fixed-scope engagement with explore, design and deliver phases completed in less than 10 weeks.

“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 and digital supply chain, 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.”

Protective packaging material provider Pregis worked with Indian IT consultancy KPIT Technologies to implement a number of the IoT accelerators.

“In just a matter of weeks, we were able to pilot an demonstrate tangible value with SAP Leonardo IoT accelerator packages,” said Jeff Mueller, chief information officer, Pregis LLC. “SAP Connected Goods and SAP Edge Services allow us to enhance customer solutions and achieve greater productivity for improved customer satisfaction.”

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The center is the fourth globally, with others located in New York, Paris and Sao Leopoldo, Brazil. They offer businesses access to SAP’s industry knowledge and technology capabilities across 25 industries.

“As SAP’s largest Research and Development Center outside its headquarters in Germany and a part of a connected lab network of 20 labs in 17 countries, the launch of SAP Leonardo Center at SAP Labs Bangalore campus was a natural choice. SAP Labs India is an innovation center making significant contributions to SAP’s flagship products. It combines a high concentration of customers and partners with one of SAP’s largest market units,” said Dilipkumar Khandelwal, president, SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud and managing director, SAP Labs India.

The Bangalore campus will showcase digital transformation elements including Internet of Things, blockchain, analytics, machine learning, big data, data intelligence and SAP Cloud Platform.

“In today’s digital economy, technology empowers organizations to drive competitive differentiation, transform customer experiences, create innovative business models and achieve breakthrough business results,” said Bernd Leukert, member of the SAP Executive Board, products and innovation.

“Using design thinking and the capabilities of SAP Leonardo, our SAP Leonardo Centers provide a space for joint innovation.”

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Time is of the essence. “Technology is transforming at a far more rapid pace than ever and organisations can no longer afford to wait and watch how the digital technology innovations will change things – they need to take control of doing digital now,” said Deb Deep Sengupta, president and managing director, SAP India Subcontinent.

Sengupta said that SAP will assist Indian companies to drive value by achieving higher revenue and keeping costs low. “SAP recognises the urgency to fast track digitisation and with SAP Leonardo, we aim to help our customers drive business transformation.”

SAP Leonardo, which harnesses the power of machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, analytics and big data on the SAP Cloud Platform using design thinking services, is expected to accelerate the innovation efforts of Indian organisations, embedding digital innovation into all of their business processes.

SAP IoT Connect 365, which is a managed, cloud-based service that simplifies IoT connectivity, is expected to help Indian organisations to monitor and control diverse IoT objects quickly and securely, to ensure flexible yet simple connections that are both reliable and cost-effective.

The consortium led by SAP India is designed to power India’s digitalisation, delivering innovative capabilities and services that will be the foundation of the transformation. Collaborating partners encompass six focus areas: Connected Products, Connected Assets, Connected Fleet, Connected Infrastructure, Connected Markets, and Connected People.

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SAP plans to make the digital ledger system an integrated part of Internet of Things (IoT), manufacturing and digital supply chain solutions, and will work with customers and partners to validate use cases and business models for blockchain usage.

The SAP Leonardo Blockchain Co-Innovation program will explore applications including registering events to blockchain from product inception and design to manufacturing and logistics phases for product track and trace. The program also addresses parts serialisation and order validation for inventory management, as well as product providence and authenticity. The vendor is also exploring digital supply chain scenarios which would enable different suppliers to submit offers directly to blockchain to improve effectiveness across their business networks.

“In the digital economy, an iterative, fast-paced approach in close collaboration with our customers and partners is imperative,” said Dr Juergen Mueller, chief innovation officer, SAP. “With the blockchain service as part of the SAP Leonardo digital innovation system we are enabling an open collaboration around distributed business processes in peer-to-peer networks.”

SAP has also opened registrations for the SAP Leonardo Blockchain Early Access program, allow participants to get their hands on standard SAP products enhanced and augmented with blockchain functionality. Customers and partners can register until early Q1 2018, with more information available at SAP’s blockchain website.

With this program, SAP is particularly targeting industries such as automotive, aerospace and defence, discrete manufacturing and utilities.

“At Moog, we can see that distributed ledger technology will be a key enabler for more digital, connected and leaner workflows within the industrial, medical and aerospace businesses,” said George Small, chief technology officer, Moog Inc.

“We believe that shared, distributed legers are all about collaboration and openness. Our collaboration with SAP will accelerate the development of distributed ledger tools and infrastructure needed to realize our vision of the future.”

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