Focused on accelerating and expanding startup innovation as well as incubating employee initiatives, SAP’s strategic business unit SAP.iO aims to bring new collaborations and products to the German enterprise software giant. By working with startups, SAP.iO Foundries are able to access new technologies and ideas that can be integrated into existing products or used to create entirely new solutions. This focus on innovation ensures that SAP stays ahead of the curve and remains at the forefront of the tech industry.

This month, SAP.iO Foundry Tokyo — with its emphasis on Business to Business (B2B) Enterprise Software as a service (SaaS) — welcomed the first cohort of participants for its “B2B Enterprise SaaS” startup program. In total, four startups operating in a broad range of markets and industries have been chosen to participate in the program. The initiative’s goal is to deliver innovative solutions to SAP’s local and international customers through seamless integration with SAP’s portfolio-wide offerings.

For the benefit of SAP customers, the goal of the equity-free initiative is to speed up innovation and promote the development of novel business models. Additionally, the 13-week digital program provides startups with personalized mentorship, access to SAP’s technologies and application programming interfaces (APIs), and the chance to work with SAP’s existing client base.

Commenting on the latest startup program, Hirofumi Suzuki, President and Representative Director, at SAP Japan, shared in a statement:

“SAP has been shifting to a cloud-centric strategy and collaborating with a variety of cloud-native external startups enables us more to provide our customers with even more flexible, extendable, and innovative products in the cloud. At the same time, it helps them to realize their digital transformation. This program will encourage our customers to utilize a variety of new solutions or technologies with SAP systems brought by cutting-edged startups.”

The following companies are part of the “B2B Enterprise SaaS” cohort:

• A1A, a cloud-based manufacturing and procurement systems provider, offers SaaS solutions for direct material ordering in manufacturing units, with a focus on analyzing quotation data to find opportunities for cost savings.
• OPRO, a startup that provides cloud report services, helps businesses digitize their paperwork by providing them with customizable online forms in the cloud.
• SmartShopping aims to make it easy for customers to automate inventory and order management, in addition to optimizing stock and streamlining the supply chain with Internet of Things (IoT).
• Techtouch provides a SaaS-based digital adoption platform in the cloud that facilitates the use of technological tools by the company’s clientele.

In 2020, the first accelerator program at SAP.iO Foundry Tokyo was also geared towards B2B technology for consumer products. The selected businesses are all in their early stages of development and work in the retail, consumer products, and distribution sectors.

Promoting Innovation with SAP.iO Foundries

At the SAP.iO Foundry Shanghai, SAP also just introduced a new startup program aimed at developing consumer and retail technology that will positively impact the future of retail. Technological and digital transformation have been expedited by the global COVID-19 pandemic, and its effects can now be seen in every aspect of society. Massive shifts in consumer behavior have opened up new avenues for commerce in the consumer goods and retail sectors. 

Seven businesses were chosen to participate in the program and form collaborations with the German tech giant by a jury consisting of SAP specialists, other partners, venture capital firms, government innovation agencies, and SAP clients like Shui On Land. Sharing her thoughts about the new startup initiative, Sophie Zhang, General Manager of SAP Customer Experience (CX) at SAP Greater China, remarked:

“I am very happy that the new SAP.iO cohort can work with CX. We are always looking for innovative solution partners to expand our portfolio and deliver local SaaS solutions to CX customers.”

In order to better serve worldwide customers in consumer, catering, retail, hospitality, fashion, and other industries, SAP.iO Foundry Shanghai has established the “Future of Shopping” cohort to attract retail and consumer SaaS firms. Meng Xu, Vice President of Strategic Industry Consulting at SAP China, commented:

“The consumer, retail and fashion industries are the top priorities of China’s strategic industry group, accounting for 40% of our revenue. We pay great attention to the ecosystem of these industries. The seven startups we recruited this time can well meet the different requests of local customers.”

These are the startups that are taking part in the “Future of Shopping” cohort:

• XForcePlus’s supply chain information collaboration services and VAT invoice management solutions are available to businesses of all sizes.
• With Freemud’s help, chain brand stores may quickly turn into “smart stores” and meet the difficulties of the digital era.
• Large consumer-facing brands can make use of Reabam’s scalable and configurable SaaS services for their chain brand businesses.
• Zjian provides businesses with in-house designed tools and shopping assistants to re-engage current members and enhance the purchasing experience for new ones.
• For businesses both at home and abroad, Shenyan Intelligent provides comprehensive data center and business center solutions.
• Qiyuesuo is a SaaS platform that allows users to digitally sign documents and save certificates.
• Apexdata’s services support clients in conducting insightful credit analyses and increasing the value of their credit profiles.

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To continue building an ecosystem that will power intelligent enterprises and spur digital transformation, SAP recently held its biggest and most open and inclusive pan-ecological in-person event yet. The conference, which took place in Yuxi, Yunnan, China, brought together numerous existing and potential partners. This highlights SAP’s dedication to working with others in order to create innovative solutions that will help businesses keep up with the ever-changing digital landscape. (InsideSAP Asia often references articles from websites in other languages to bring you as much information as possible.)

During the SAP Partner Summit, SAP Greater China President and Global Executive Vice President (EVP) Dr. Huang Chenhong said that this year commemorates SAP’s 50th anniversary of its founding, and the company has been firmly established in China for the past three decades. He added that SAP has never wavered from its commitment to the company’s founding principle of “in China for China.”

Additionally, Dr. Huang believes that only with the continuous backing of every partner can the company assist tens of thousands of customers in their digital transformation, boost China’s economy, and grow the local software ecosystem. He further explained:

“Under the new development pattern, SAP is willing to work with thousands of partners to create a win-win situation and common Empowering customers to become ‘new Chinese enterprises’ in the cloud era.”

Awarding Commendable Partners at the SAP Partner Summit

Moreover, SAP also awarded nine “Best Partners 2021-2022” awards to honor specific partners who have excelled in joint innovation and cloud business transformation, as well as providing exemplary customer service and support. The awards are the tech giant’s way of acknowledging the outstanding performance that these partners have done and continue to do in order to help businesses grow and succeed through digital transformation.

A total of 13 SAP partners were given awards at the event, including Deshuo, Deloitte, Haitong Anheng, IBM, Jada, Jingtong Technology, Lanying Lide, Maihui Information, Sixiang Network, Youdeyun, Xinhuaxin, Xintai Yihe and Chinasoft Yunzhi. These partners were singled out for their commendable work in helping to deliver successful SAP projects for customers across a range of industries.

Describing the event as “fun and engaging”, Christina Zhang, Communications Leader at SAP Greater China, also shared in a post in LinkedIn:

“The biggest and most inclusive Partner Summit in SAP Greater China. 300 existing and prospective partners gathered in beautiful Yunnan. Celebrating co-innovations, and sharing best practices. Building a robust ecosystem to support customers’ cloud transformation.”

In order to better serve customers and meet their needs, SAP will be carrying out more extensive and close cooperation with its partners through a sound ecosystem strategy. This enhanced level of cooperation between SAP and its partners is intended to create a “win-win” situation for all involved.

Announcing Major Initiatives to Support Chinese Partners

SAP also introduced a number of significant measures to help its partners speed up innovation and development, broaden their market, and boost their profits. Ultimately, it hopes to facilitate a cooperative environment where all parties benefit from one another and expand the range of enterprise-level cloud services and solutions it offers to its client base. With these measures in place, SAP’s business partners will be able to keep up with the company’s own progression as it transforms into a cloud software provider.

To help its partners create innovative solutions that add value for clients, SAP offers its open SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP). In addition, SAP customers may select, try out, buy, and update their applications through SAP Store, a global platform for cutting-edge app development. Fifty-five applications created by 36 local partners, including four from SAP-incubated startups, are available for download from the SAP Store right now.

As of last year, China is home to the SAP.iO Startup Accelerator, a program designed to accelerate the growth of early-stage business-to-business (B2B) startups, facilitate the integration of technology with SAP, and supply customers with novel software solutions. Presently, 14 startups have been nurtured by the SAP.iO Foundry Shanghai.

Furthermore, SAP’s empowerment efforts extend to bolstering partners’ abilities in all phases of the business cycle, from pre-sales to post-sales support and everywhere in between. As a result of being given the tools they need, partners have successfully completed the transition to the cloud. According to the company, there has been a 60% annual growth in the number of cloud certified consultants, and more than 85% of all SAP cloud product deployments are now cloud projects executed by partners.

At the SAP Partner Summit, the company also revealed new incentives to significantly boost partners’ profitability. To improve business performance and acquire more cloud clients, SAP’s global ecological development will test out a new partner profit sharing model for cloud business.

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Eight tech startups have been selected to engage in the latest SAP.iO Foundry Shanghai Spring 2022 programme to develop solutions centred around The Future of Work in collaboration with SAP SuccessFactors, a major provider of cloud human experience management solutions. The accelerator programme cohort is comprised of companies that drive human resource management innovations in Greater China and are located in major tech hubs in Asia including Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

Launched in December 2021, the Foundry Shanghai reinforces SAP.iO’s mission to support tech startups around the world as well as SAP employee ventures scale growth leveraging SAP technologies and extensive exposure to the SAP ecosystem. SAP’s accelerator programme has empowered innovators to expand partnerships and accelerate product development to bolster customers’ journey to becoming best-run enterprises.

Shanghai’s Spring 2022 Tech Startup Incubator

The chosen tech companies in the HR domain have been evaluated by a jury of SAP experts, partners, customers, and investment funds and will be working around two themes– intelligent recruitment and talent management– to support The Future of Work. Here are the selected tech startups of SAP.iO Foundry Shanghai’s second cohort:

• AI RecruiTas: Subsidiary of a business design and innovation consulting service company specialising in AI recruitment Shanghai Jinyu Intelligent Technology Co., AI RecruiTas harnesses the JYI (JinYu Intelligence) Super Brain in delivering an intelligent talent acquisition management. The platform advances the traditional applicant tracking system by leveraging JYI, which applies holistic content and context semantics recognition along with an AI multi-modal algorithm designed for Human Resources capabilities. The company’s intelligent recruitment management system AI Dexian Recruiter provides customers with automated recruitment services and multiple AI recruitment service scenarios such as one-click publishing, AI resume analysis, remote real-time video interviews, AI video interviews, and AI interview chatbots, among many others.

• Cool College: Beijing-headquartered Cool College is on a mission to connect the top 500 empowered employees to the 43 million enterprises and organisations in China by leveraging its four-in-one product concept that integrates content operations to advance enterprise learning platforms and application scenarios. Designed to function as an enterprise-level SaaS learning development platform and a learning management system, Cool College accelerates business and talent development by providing customers with collaborative e-learning platforms and extensive training services to drive digital intelligence.

• Gaia Works: Suzhou-headquartered Gaia Works offers enterprises a cloud-based workforce management system with enhanced user experience. Leveraging machine learning algorithms, the platform covers a broad range of HR needs from workforce planning to labor supply and salesforce management. Gaia Works operates in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Wuhan, and Windsor, Canada. Some of the tech’s global clients include LVMH, 7-Eleven, Costco, Sodexo, Four Seasons Hotel, and China Railway Shenyang Bureau.

• Joyowo: The tech startup offers comprehensive HR digital solutions such as job, business, and recruitment process outsourcing, workforce management, commercial insurance risk control, and corporate consulting training. The Joyowo’s HR SaaS+AI three-dimensional capability advances enterprise talent management and digital intelligence by covering an employee’s entire life cycle.

• Mesoor AI: Shanghai-based Mesoor AI is the first talent intelligence platform in China. The platform has supported the HR transformation of medium and large enterprises including Geely, Taikang, Lenovo, and Unilever harnessing Mesoor AI’s capabilities to provide full-scenario data aggregation, ETL, and data transformation as well as self-developed AI platform and BI data lake system. The tech start-up offers a wide range of HR products and services including Resume Analysis, Talent Portrait, and Smart Interview.

• Moka HR: One of the fastest-growing HR SaaS vendors in China, Moka HR offers enterprises data-driven intelligent HR SaaS products powered by cutting-edge technology to propel their talent strategies. The tech company has provided services to over 1,500 customers including Xiaomi, McDonald’s, Anta Group, and Shopee.

• Neufast: An award-winning HR tech company, Neufast’s technology is anchored in I/O psychology research and AI computing. It offers enterprises a cloud-based HCM SaaS with a proprietary AI-powered multi-lingual video interview talent assessment system, championing diversity and inclusion for the Future of Work. In addition, the company’s platform is complemented by a team of HR professionals and experts from major industries to support an organisation’s recruitment and talent management needs.

• ZMBeidiao: Headquartered in Beijing, Zhima background check is an SaaS platform that leverages big data to streamline job seeker information management.

For 16 weeks, the participants of the Shanghai tech startup incubator programme 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 customers. 

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In November, around the same month of the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) held in Glasgow, SAP launched three cohorts focussed on driving sustainability. SAP Foundries North America in partnership with Accenture selected 13 tech startups to develop sustainability solutions for the retail and consumer segment as well as for the energy and natural resources sector. Meanwhile, SAP.iO Foundry Singapore’s cohort comprised of six international startups will be working on solutions to accelerate sustainability in the Asia Pacific and Japan region to tackle climate action, contribute to the circular economy, and support ethical supply chains. 

This month, SAP.iO continues on its mission to support tech startups around the world scale growth leveraging SAP technologies and extensive exposure to the SAP ecosystem with the launch of the first accelerator program in China. The new SAP.iO Foundry Shanghai has selected the pioneer cohort comprised of five Chinese startups that specialises on intelligent manufacturing. 

Explaining about the latest SAP.iO Foundry’s focus on the manufacturing industry, Dr. Chenhong Huang, Global Executive Vice President, SAP SE, said:

“Intelligent manufacturing is not only the national policy of the Chinese government but also the only way forward for China’s economic growth and the transformation of manufacturing enterprises. Engaging with partners such as startups is critical to succeed in the rapidly growing enterprise software market. SAP.iO complements intelligent manufacturing software from SAP with startup innovation.”

Shanghai’s Pioneer 5 to Focus on Intelligent Manufacturing Solutions

Here are the selected tech startups of the SAP.iO accelerator program in China:

AI-LINK Network Co. Ltd. is a leading product and service provider that offers comprehensive solutions covering the 5G+Edge Cloud spectrum. Highly focussed on the industrial verticals, AI-LINK offers end-to-end 5G connectivity and lightweight intelligent Edge Cloud platform as well as applicable IoT use cases to local manufacturing, logistics, and energy customers.

TPSON harnesses cutting-edge big data analytics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and fingerprint technology along with its cloud computing capabilities to provide a full range of fire protection alert systems to various sectors including construction, rail transportation, and petroleum chemical industry.

SunwayLand is a Beijing-based product and service provider of intelligent solutions and industrial Internet system architecture for the manufacturing industry. The company’s product portfolio that drives automation and supports smart factories includes HMI/SCADA automation software, industrial Internet of Things platform, and mobile smart monitoring platform. 

HiScene is one of the first companies in China that specialises in augmented reality harnessing next-generation technologies such as AI core technology, AR terminal, and the AR cloud. Headquartered in Shanghai, the company has a market presence in Beijing, Guangzhou, Kunming, Zhaotong, and the United States.

Geekplus Technology Co. Ltd. is a technology company that specialises in smart logistics for warehouse and factory operations leveraging advanced robotics and AI. The company has a global presence spanning Europe, APJ, North America, and South America.

For 12 weeks, the Shanghai 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 customers. The 10th SAP.iO Foundry in China underscores SAP’s commitment to supporting the country’s rapidly growing digital ecosystem and demonstrates the German enterprise’s expanding network of tech startups in APJ, North America, and EMEA.

“We will be working hand in hand with these amazing startups over the next three months to help them integrate with SAP technology and deliver high value to our customers,” expressed Lalitha Bhaskara, Vice President, SAP.iO Foundries for Asia Pacific Japan & China, SAP.

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