12 tech startups from across the globe, including Singapore’s Portcast, have been selected to join one of the largest SAP.iO accelerator programmes hosted by SAP.iO Foundries Munich and Telaviv. As tech startups that specialise in the field of supply chain and logistics, the cohort will be developing innovative technologies that would enhance supply chain operations by harnessing SAP and Accenture technologies and expertise.

“A resilient supply chain, with risk strategies in place, predicts, responds, and recovers from unanticipated events by either returning to its original state or morphing into a state that is even better at profitably meeting customers’ needs. It is about using the right tools to make the right business decisions, even under pressure,” said Jan Gilg, President and Chief Product Officer SAP S/4HANA. 

SAP has been at the forefront of supply chain innovations since the pandemic disrupted the world and forced businesses across all industries to step into unchartered territory and face unprecedented global supply chain challenges. Planning as a service with the SAP Integrated Business Planning for Supply Chain solution and Qualtrics Supply Continuity Pulse solution are some of the free offerings that the German software giant launched during the onset of the COVID-19 health crisis in 2020.

SAP and Accenture Supporting Supply Chain-Oriented Startups

Sharing a common goal, longstanding partners SAP and Accenture have been driving innovation across various industries worldwide harnessing both of the companies’ market-leading technologies and services. Part of SAP and Accenture’s series of initiatives is supporting tech startups to scale innovation and business growth through the SAP.iO programme. In 2021, the two multinationals teamed up for two SAP.iO programmes centred on sustainability – the SAP.iO Foundries North America cohorts for sustainable solutions in the consumer and retail industry and the joint programme by SAP.iO Foundries Berlin and Munich for innovative solutions that would deliver environmental and societal impact.

This year, SAP and Accenture are once again joining forces to help startups advance their innovation and expand market presence under the joint virtual accelerator programme of the SAP.iO Foundries Munich and Tel Aviv themed “Resilient Supply Chain”. The 12 tech startups from four supply chain domains have been selected by a jury of experts from SAP and Accenture, SAP partners and SAP customers.

Under the domain of Business Planning & Resiliency are tech startups Bringoz, Craft.co, numi solutions GmbH, and Tacto. MIXMOVE AS and Portcast are tagged under the Transportation Management domain.

Five tech startups are categorised under the Warehouse and Fulfillment domain namely, CognitOps Inc., Logidot, Magazino Gmbh,Picavi Gmbh, and Verity. Lastly, startup Milkman Technologies represent the Last-Mile Delivery domain.

For 14 weeks, the supply chain cohort will have the opportunity to learn from SAP experts through curated mentorship, have access to SAP technology and application programming interfaces (APIs) as well as collaborate with SAP and Accenture customers.

Singapore’s Logistics Tech Startup

Singaporean tech startup PortCast, one of the 12 SAP.iO supply chain cohort, offers logistics companies a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that enhances demand forecasting and real-time vessel and container tracking to help them achieve better profitability, the total cost of operations and enable decarbonisation. Led by Founders Nidhi Gupta and Dr. Lingxiao Xia, who have extensive logistics backgrounds and deep tech research and PhDs, PortCast is backed by a group of data scientists, software engineers, and logistics domain experts as well as tech investment firms.

In September 2021, the logistics tech startup has raised US$3.2 million in a pre-series A round from early-stage venture capital firm Newtown Partners, Wavemaker Partners, TMV, Innoport, and SGInnovate. The new investment is focussed on expanding the company’s global footprint by doubling its manpower and transitioning to a prescriptive AI approach from predictive AI.

“We believe that companies with predictive visibility on cargo movements have a significantly higher preparedness to downstream planning and customer service,” Nidhi Gupta, CEO and co-founder of Portcast, earlier stated.

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Indonesia’s supply chain sector has been strongly hit by the impacts of COVID-19 mainly because the nation still heavily relies on human factors rather than automation. As the lockdown and social distancing measures continue to be implemented, Indonesian organisations are forced to accelerate their supply chain digitalisation and leverage technologies to be able to deliver essential goods and services within and outside the country.

To further the advancement of Indonesian businesses’ supply chain, global IT solutions and services provider YASH Technologies and SAP Platinum Partner Soltius Indonesia joined forces to bring SAP Digital Supply Chain solutions and services in the region. The strategic alliance focuses on key areas such as IBP (Integrated Business Planning), IAM (Integrated Asset Management), DRCM (Digital R C M), Industry 4.0, and EHS (Environmental Health and Safety).

Sharing about the collaboration, Siddhartha Bose, VP Asia Pacific at YASH Technologies said:

“We are delighted to partner with Soltius Indonesia, one of the reputed technology service providers in Indonesia. The partnership will focus on helping our joint customers reimagine and transform their global supply chains and become resilient by taking advantage of the SAP Digital Supply Chain Solution suite.” 

He stressed that, together, YASH technologies and Soltius Indonesia will enable Indonesian organisations to achieve more tangible business value from their SAP DSC deployments. Both companies will be able to amplify their SAP capabilities by integrating their expertise– YASH’s predictive analytics, automation, and IoT and Soltius Indonesia’s strong market footprint in the region.

Merging Expertise with SAP Digital Supply Chain Suite

Both known for their best-in-class methodologies and process consulting capabilities, YASH and Soltius Indonesia will be able to help organisations streamline supply chain processes, drive business performance, and cost optimisation by delivering the SAP Digital Supply Chain Suite and services.

SAP’s global Supply Chain Management (SCM) software is an integrated portfolio that includes predictive analytics, automation, and IoT with industry expertise to execute and act.  It offers intelligent solutions and tools for Supply Chain Planning, Supply Chain Logistics, Manufacturing, Product Lifecycle Management, and Enterprise Asset Management.

“We are excited to partner with Yash Technologies, a global SAP service provider with a strong footprint in the digital supply chain area. They bring SAP Qualified pre-configured packaged solutions and rich implementation experiences across the US, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East,” stated Andreas Gunadi, Director of Soltius Indonesia.

YASH Technologies brings into the fold two decades of experience and technical capabilities to deliver successful transformational global IT solutions and services. It is one of the most trusted business transformation partners for global organisations with SAP-centric landscapes. YASH delivers an end-to-end SAP portfolio with the help of its team of over 3,000 consultants worldwide. As a long-time SAP partner and niche player in the environment, health and safety (EHS), and sustainability solution space, YASH’s Safe@Work solution has been recently recognised as an SAP-qualified partner-packaged solution.

Moreover, the strategic partnership will be able to leverage the Soltius Intelligent Enterprise portfolio to enable the rapid transformation of data into insight. Soltius Indonesia offers end-to-end business solutions such as Digital Platform, Digital Supply Chain, Process Automation, IoT integration, and Application Managed services to small and medium enterprises (SME) to large-scale enterprises (LSE) across major industries. The company is recognised as a PLATINUM Certified SAP Channel Partner & Value Added Reseller and a certified SAP Value Added Reseller Support Centre.

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The deepened relationship between the two global business solutions providers aims to create a new era of digitally connected global value chains and deliver automated business solutions to support a remote and connected world.

The unprecedented emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted societies all over the world to transform digitally in a short period of time. With the massive challenges the pandemic has created, businesses, governments, and communities have had to adapt and utilize technologies in new ways to ensure continuity and keep economies running smoothly. 

NTT Corporation and SAP have been supporting the needs of business enterprises and driving customer success for over 30 years. The two companies share a common vision around solving not only business problems but also social challenges and improving people’s lives. According to the two companies, their newly expanded alliance will bring innovative value chain solutions to help support a wholly digitalized society and increase business resiliency and agility, especially during this time. 

President and CEO of NTT Corporation, Jun Sawada said:

“Together, we will drive more innovation by combining NTT’s full stacks of capabilities, including consulting [services], industry solutions, IoT, and global infrastructure with SAP to provide a connected value chain. I believe this collaboration is necessary to create reliable, connected value chains that will benefit our clients. I expect our collaboration will make both companies and clients substantially stronger than ever before.”

Christian Klein, CEO of SAP, shared his vision for the deepened relationship between SAP and NTT:

“By combining both our companies’ global reach and scale, we truly can turn some of the world’s biggest challenges into our greatest opportunities. Both we at SAP and NTT are deeply committed to supporting companies with their digital transformation, which is more relevant today than ever before.”

Klein also expressed his thoughts about the new collaboration with NTT. He said:

“We want to go with the best, and NTT is one of the best partners in our ecosystem. We have many projects together at a global scale in over 80 countries worldwide, and this is the reach that SAP needs. Together, we can make the holistic transformation work.”

NTT Corporation and SAP: Connecting Global Value Chains

NTT and SAP’s joint value chain solutions will bring together the best of SAP’s intelligent technologies—such as IoT, edge computing, and machine learning—with NTT’s industry-leading suite of information and communications technology (ICT) and hybrid cloud capabilities worldwide.

According to Klein, they have already developed solutions for five use-cases in the supply chain management space. He points out that NTT and SAP’s co-innovated value chain solutions will help support:

• connected sites to track value and equipment assets
• enhancement of workforce safety
• streamline business operations
• connected mobility to track moving assets for reliable logistics and secure transportation delivery
• connected product solutions for better traceability based on end-to-end visibility

In addition, Klein notes that these new solutions will ensure exceptional customer experiences. He said,

“The customer experience doesn’t stop at the frontline, it doesn’t stop at the shop. You have to make the distribution—the logistics—work and we can manage that end-to-end with NTT.”

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Early on, SAP has laid out its global initiatives to help businesses better manage and adjust to the changes that are happening inside their companies, with their customers, and with their supply chains in these unpredictable times. SAP offered select supply chain solutions at zero cost to help companies easily identify and address potential supply chain disruptions as well as pinpoint alternative sources of supply and move goods efficiently and cost-effectively.

The German company’s dedication and efforts to aid the global supply chain challenges have not gone unnoticed in the recent Gartner Magic Quadrant report. Gartner Inc. announced that SAP received several recognitions for its logistics, transportation, and supply solutions.

Outstanding Logistics and Supply Chain Management Solutions

Franz Hero, Head of Development for SAP Digital Supply Chain, commented that this year has disrupted the supply chain without warnings that may have immediate and long-lasting impact. Appreciating Gartner’s recognition for SAP, he said:

“Companies must operate resilient supply chains that are agile, predictive, and intelligent in order to make informed decisions quickly and confidently. These third-party recognitions show SAP’s leadership in helping organizations continue moving forward — even in times of disruption.”

According to recent Gartner reports, SAP has been:

• A Leader in Gartner “Magic Quadrant for Warehouse Management Systems” for the sixth time in a row

SAP Extended Warehouse Management (SAP EWM) helps companies reduce warehouse and distribution costs by improving productivity and visibility into processes, labor, and stock. It covers all the facets of warehouse and distribution management, including multichannel fulfillment and distribution, inventory management and control, cross-docking, labor management, and billing for companies of all sizes and industries.

Basic features of SAP EWM are included in SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management.

• A Leader in Gartner “Magic Quadrant for Transportation Management Systems” for the sixth year in a row

The SAP Transportation Management solution helps organizations optimize logistics and improve services by increasing visibility and control and streamlining goods movement, integrating fleet and logistics management.

In May 2020, SAP has released the functionality of Normalized quantity (NLQ) in embedded Transportation management (TM ) with S/4HANA 1909 release and in standalone TM with TM 9.6 release

• Ranked by Gartner as the number one market share leader in supply chain management software, worldwide, for the 18th year in a row

According to Gartner:

“The supply chain management software market grew 8.6{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} in 2019, exceeding $15 billion in vendor revenue. Cloud revenue grew 2.5 times faster than the overall market, accounting for nearly 34{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} of the market as all leading vendors transitioned their new product strategy to cloud.”

• Ranked by IDC as number one by market share for supply chain management applications

Published in April 2020, the “IDC Semiannual Software Tracker 2019H2” reported that SAP ranked number one in supply chain management revenue and overall market share.

Other Q3 2020 Recognitions 

September has just begun but SAP has already received several recognitions from Gartner and IDC in various categories this third quarter of 2020.

• A leader in Gartner “Magic Quadrant for Data Integration Tools” report based on its “ability to execute” and “completeness of vision.” 
• A Leader in Gartner’s July 2020 Magic Quadrant for Sales Force Automation for SAP’s completeness of vision and ability to execute.
• International Data Group Inc. named SAP Business One as Leader in the worldwide software-as-a-service (SaaS) and cloud-enabled small office ERP applications market.

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