SAP expands innovation footprint in APJ with Leonardo Centre Singapore

By Digital News Asia May 9, 2018

Aims to foster a collaborative environment for businesses to experiment and innovate
Serves as a hub for SAP’s broader digital technology ecosystem

SAP expands innovation footprint in APJ with Leonardo Centre Singapore

SAP SE on May 8 announced the launch of the SAP Leonardo Centre Singapore, established to help customers, partners and the broader ecosystem of universities and start-ups across the Asia Pacific Japan (APJ) region to deliver faster innovation with less risk.

This launch expands SAP’s innovation footprint in the region, adding to the three Innovation Centres and four SAP Labs in APJ. Globally, SAP spent 3.35 billion euros (US$4 billion) on Research and Development in 2017.

According to World Economic Forum, Singapore is the most competitive economy in Asia Pacific and third globally. The SAP Leonardo Centre Singapore is the fifth in the global network of SAP Leonardo Centres.

It is designed to serve as the “front-end” for APJ customers and partners to accelerate their digital innovation journeys using the capabilities of SAP Leonardo and Design Thinking.

SAP Leonardo brings together Internet of Things (IoT), Machine Learning, Blockchain, Big Data, Analytics and Data Intelligence on SAP Cloud Platform.

It also applies SAP’s leading technology capabilities and deep knowledge of 25 industries, in a live technology-delivery environment to deliver the Intelligent Enterprise for every customer.

“The SAP Leonardo Centre in Singapore will showcase the art of the possible in digital innovation and help our customers scale quickly, easily and effectively,” said SAP APJ president Scott Russell (pic, above).

“Together with our customers and partners, we aim to leverage the SAP Leonardo Centre Singapore as a think tank to drive purpose-led innovation that will ultimately improve the lives of one billion people and deliver the Intelligent Enterprise for over 70,000 customers in APJ by 2022.

“The SAP Leonardo Centre in Singapore will play a key role in realising our growth strategy and drive customer success in the new Intelligence era.”

Collaborative business environment

SAP expands innovation footprint in APJ with Leonardo Centre Singapore

The SAP Leonardo Centre Singapore aims to foster a collaborative environment for businesses, start-ups, small and medium-sized enterprises to experiment and innovate.

One of SAP APJ’s first SAP Leonardo customers in Korea is Hanon Systems. Headquartered in South Korea, Hanon Systems is a global leader in automotive thermal and energy management solutions, and an early-adopter of SAP Leonardo in APJ.

With insight into the benefits of digital manufacturing, the company identified manufacturing performance and equipment health as areas of measurement to pilot the Leonardo platform at one of its plants in Europe.

Robert Oh, chief information officer and business transformation executive at Hanon Systems, believes a supplier’s ability to compete in today’s automotive market is no longer measured by just its product offering.

“At Hanon Systems, we believe our digital transformation can change the way we manufacture in a positive way to improve our productivity, increase our overall efficiency and further strengthen our customer relationships.”

Hub for ecosystem

The SAP Leonardo Centre Singapore also serves as a hub for SAP’s broader digital technology ecosystem including universities, startups, tech communities and accelerators.

SAP APJ prepares the next-generation innovators with knowledge and skills for the digital future through the SAP University Alliances programme, which exposes 1.7 million students in educational institutions in APJ to innovative technologies.

SAP APJ has established 13 Next-Gen labs in APJ with plans to open more in the future.

SAP India designed a modular offering called i360 for Ajeenkya DY Patil University, which includes SAP Leonardo IoT, SAP Leonardo Machine Learning and SAP Open SAP Learning. India has seen an increase in the uptake of modular offerings that focus on Industry 4.0 and Smart Cities.

Demand for talent in India with skills in IoT, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and Big Data and Analytics is high. Educational institutions have found merit in collaborating with technology firms to close this gap.