by Simon Carpenter, Chief Technical Adviser at SAP Africa

SAP’s Strategy is predicated on leveraging 45 years of experience of helping to Run Businesses with Best Practices in the Mode 1 world (Digital Core) and combining this with the very latest in thinking and technology to enable any type of imaginative solution in Mode 2 (Digital Innovation System). Taken together these capabilities enable the Intelligent Enterprise.

And SAP’s unique competitive advantage is to do this on a single platform, in the cloud, so that E2E processes, new experiences, and new Business Networks and Business Models can be conceived, built, run, analysed and optimised on one trusted set of data.

The SAP Digital Business Framework

The diagram above shows how the SAP Digital Core solutions and the SAP Leonardo Digital Innovation System come together in a coherent Digital Business Framework that supports any organisation’s Digital Transformation journey no matter what their strategic imperatives or tactical priorities.

Very specific and well-proven services are offered to support quick and efficient adoption of Best Practices in the Mode 1 world while Design Thinking services help companies to reimagine the future and to experiment quickly towards success in the Mode 2 world

SAP Leonardo. SAP’s Digital Innovation System

The SAP Leonardo digital innovation system is designed with three clear principles and outcomes in mind:

·        Innovate quickly and effectively

·        Integrate these new innovations into the fabric of the business

·        Scale the innovations so that value is maximized

The SAP Leonardo digital innovation system leverages:

·        Analytics

·        Big Data

·        Blockchain

·        Data Intelligence

·        Internet of Things (IoT)

·        Machine Learning

SAP brings these tools together with design-led innovation and industry expertise to rapidly unlock breakthrough innovation at scale.

Unpacking the SAP Leonardo Digital Innovation System

SAP knows that companies have choices when it comes to technologies. But we also know that tackling technology-based innovation in a piecemeal fashion leads to complexity, can increase costs and risks for the organization and can be a nightmare to operate at scale. The advantages of the SAP Leonardo approach are Coherence, Capabilities, Integration and Cloud deployments.

At SAP, with SAP Leonardo we bring together the power of Big Data, Analytics, Machine Learning, Blockchain and IoT on the SAP Cloud Platform which complements these larger technologies with a host of additional value-added services an capabilities such as cyber-security, API management, User Experience tools, and much more.

The innovation ‘secret sauce’

The SAP Cloud Platform is SAP’s “secret sauce” when it comes to innovation because it provides 3 distinct capabilities:

1.      Development Platform

Firstly, it is a development platform, providing a comprehensive set of services and capabilities and supporting a variety of programming languages. The strategy of using open standards and open-source across the stack helps to leverage existing skills and assets to barriers to entry and the total cost of development low.

2.      Integration and Run-time Platform

Secondly it is a runtime platform that minimises the complexity of providing the services associated with enterprise-grade cloud applications such as; High-Availability, Cloud Scale, Disaster Recovery, Fail-over setups, and Security. It thus enables companies to focus on innovation and unique business logic and value of the application(s) being developed rather than having to sort out technical complexity. Thus, the SAP Cloud Platform is powerful productivity kick-starter. Unique in the Industry is SAP’s multi-cloud strategy whereby customers can choose to deploy SAP Leonardo and SAP Cloud Platform applications onto Infrastructure services (IaaS) from Google, Microsoft, Amazon and others.

3.      Distribution and Commercialisation Platform

Thirdly, the SAP Cloud Platform along with the SAP App Centre, is a delivery channel, addressing the distribution and commercial needs of a platform and providing access to SAP's ecosystem. Especially for partners, having the potential to sell into an installed base of >365,000+ customers is a key benefit of the SAP Cloud Platform.

Enabling your Digital Revolution

SAP Leonardo fuels your Exponential Growth with State-of-the-Art Digital Technologies, Integrated in a Platform and Ignited with Imagination

SAP Leonardo isn’t just about technology – it’s about business, design and innovation. It’s about the real power unleashed when these technologies all work seamlessly together to solve a business problem.

THAT is the power of Leonardo.

At SAP, we are proud of what our customers and partners are accomplishing with our platforms. But we know that the Digital Revolution changes everything. With SAP Leonardo, our customers have the capabilities to face those challenges and opportunities head-on to build a better future for all. With SAP and our Partner ecosystem they have access to the people and ideas that will help them create a better future.