SAP America launches Reimagined Tour to visit 150 cities
NEWTOWN >> SAP is taking its show on the road.
In hopes of showing existing and prospective customers other ways to use their products, the software company launched a 150 American and Canadian city tour with a first stop at its North American headquarters while celebrating its employees after being named 59th on Forbes’ 100 Best Companies to Work For.
The 3,000 employees at the Delaware County campus were treated to cupcakes Tuesday as a way to fete SAP America’s inaugural placing on the esteemed Forbes’ list.
“That’s a big deal for us,” Dave Hutchison, senior vice president, marketing at SAP America, said. “It was the first time for us to be on that list. We’re number 59. We’re very proud of it. We know we can move up.”
The festivities were not limited to the magazine ranking as much attention was given to the expanded tractor trailer outside, touting the company’s Business Reimagined Tour and with it, all the ways SAP can help businesses improve efficiencies and operations.
“This is just trying to get the juices flowing about what the art of the possible (is), what you can do in these environments,” Hutchison said of the scenarios presented on board.
Greeting visitors to the Reimagined truck was Pepper the robot, a partnership between SoftBank who developed the robot and SAP whose technology made her engage with the public from dance selfie.
Inside the truck are examples of how SAP’s products can transform the business environment.
First, there is the threepanel Digital Boardroom, showcasing a fictional company’s website, information about its competitors, then a final board combining the two featuring real-time information, such as stock prices, and other multiple data sources.
“An executive could make decisions how to operate the business most effectively based on that data which is all being shown visually on the screen,” Steve Collins, SAP America’s head of media relations, explained.
Hutchison added that gone are the days of gathering 15 people in a room and asking for reports to be run moves to taking a for decisions to be made.
“Now, you give power to the leadership and the executives,” he said.
A popular feature is the beer wall in which someone could answer some questions regarding preferences like dark or light, alcohol content, etc., then have recommendations made that match those.
It also documents what any particular customer buys, where they buy it – online, on their phones, in a store – and when so marketing can be tailored to their wants and needs.
Hutchison explained this analytics is crucial in retail environments.
“You’ve got to keep that connected,” he said of the collected data. “Then what do you do with it? Information’s great but not for information’s sake. Information’s great for insight’s sake.”
And, that, he said is where SAP comes in – by providing insights about the customers and showing business how to cater to them and serve them in the future.
Examples of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality were also on display, one featuring an oil rig. Presenters explained that this technology can be used in challenging maintenance or repair situations as an operator can wear the device, then use a drone to go to the problem area and fix it.
The last display is an interconnected city using IoT, or Internet of Things technology, in which various structures and items like buildings or trains and buses are connected digitally and information is exchanged to a variety of sources.
In the tour’s example, they featured a disenabled train. The technology allowed the bus system to divert from the area, citizens to learn of the situation and make alternative plans, fire and emergency services to be deployed as necessary and the city manager to determine the level of traffic back-up based on the carbon dioxide output and respond with appropriate equipment and personnel – all at the same time.
Hutchison said all of these products are available now and the goal is to get business owners to see how to maximize potential.
“Everything is collecting information and everything is collecting data so the application of that and how you put that together to solve a customer’s business problem, that is the current order of the day,” he said, as he touted his company and their products as the best way to do so. “We don’t have all the answers but we know we can help them think through it and how it would benefit their companies.”
As that becomes realized, Hutchison said SAP will be on par in societal vernacular with other tech giants.
“This is the new SAP,” he said. “We should be thought of in the same breath as other innovators like Google and Apple. We are primarily a business-to-business company, I get that, but we absolutely are innovating in our own space and we are the company to partner with to help you transform your business into a digital business.”