Revisiting SAP’s OnDemand-related job offers - new M2M Global Business Incubator projects and more

[richard_hirsch]

Every quarter, I like to revisit SAP’s Career Center  take a look at the new OnDemand-related job offers and analyze what the relevance of such offers to SAP’s overall OnDemand strategy.

The Global Business Incubator’s OnDemand projects

Two job offerings for Global Business Incubator (GBI) projects show SAP’s OnDemand efforts are moving beyond Line of Business (LOB) applications.

What is the Global Business Incubator?

The Global Business Incubator at SAP® is a global organization dedicated to developing innovative businesses targeted at meeting the needs of new market opportunities. Each initiative is structured like a start-up company, consisting of a small team of individuals responsible for all aspects of the firm – from strategic planning to tactical implementation – for all functional areas. Where possible, the team identifies and leverages resources and technologies already available within SAP’s expansive global infrastructure. However, independent of the source, the team must be self-sufficient, since an initiative’s success is measured solely by the achievement of defined performance goals within aggressively-defined timelines. [SOURCE]

Besides the two projects which I will describe next, the GBI was also associated with the Apollo initiative which is the foundation for the NetWeaver Cloud-based Precise Retailing solution which just went public. 

Recently, I blogged about a new project called SAP for Utilities Cloud EV Readiness Package that I described as industry-specific, problem-specific design pattern. The first GBI job offering for Connected Car General Manager (GM) - Initiative Lead is for a new OnDemand solution for the automobile industry that demonstrates that this design pattern wasn’t isolated but is being used in multiple projects.

The Connected Car initiative is a new Global Business Incubator endeavor seeking to help Auto Manufacturers maximize the revenue and customer potential of their vehicles. Today Auto Makers are starting to provide more services to vehicle owners, helping them drive safely, with more information and entertainment. With the world becoming more connected, vehicles are now able to receive and share key performance, directional and entertainment information like never before. By having a real-time connection with smart vehicles, Auto Manufacturers can increase revenue opportunities, while lowering the costs required to provide great value to the driver. We anticipate the connected car business will be run via a cloud model, where Auto Makers may “white-label” the services, and pay a subscription and usage fee, to provide car owners key information and services in real-time.

I’d be curious as to which components from the EV Readiness Package will be reused by this solution.

I was also reminded of Salesforce’s solution for Toyota – Toyota Friend.

I liked this idea, because it focuses on end-users and is also an excellent of SAP attention to the Internet of Things and M2M efforts.

Speaking of M2M efforts, the second GBI job offering for a M2M Initiative Lead demonstrates that a more fundamental framework is being examined / developed.

The Smart Asset Management initiative is a new Global Business Incubator endeavor seeking to help Enterprises maximize the revenue and customer potential of their global assets. Today many Enterprises have minimal visibility of their field-based assets, mainly because those assets are not connected, and thus do not provide information to the owners. With the world becoming more connected, assets are now able to share valuable information with the Enterprise to help with inventory levels, maintenance management, customer preferences and location management. By having a real-time connection with smart assets like vending machines, vehicles, production equipment, etc., the Enterprise can increase revenue opportunities, while lowering the costs required to maintain, and stock the asset. The business will be run via a cloud model, where Enterprise customers will pay a subscription and usage fee to gain access to the analytics, reports and updates.

This project represents a framework of functionality that could be used by a variety of future projects.  I also found it interesting that the subscription fee will be based on analytics, reports and updates – a perfect match to HANA functionality.

Note: I have no idea where these projects will be hosted but I assume that they will be based on the NetWeaver Cloud.

I’ll be closely watching the GBI to see what other interesting projects emerge from it.

Upcoming solution: Product Verification OnDemand

In this job offering, there is a description of a new solution called “Product Verification OnDemand”. Unfortunately, there are no further details to the offering but I did find an old description from SAP Research that may provide some indication of what this offering might entail:

The project PROduct VErification (PROVE) developed a system to provide the ability to distinguish between genuine goods and counterfeits, and to identify tampered, stolen, or diverted products at any stage of their life cycle.

Job offers that grew up

In a previous blog from April 2012, I described job offers related to a new Content as A Service solution – SAP EHS Regulatory Content OnDemand.

In the mean time, the solution has matured and is a now full-fledged OnDemand offering.

Congratulations.

For me, this evolution demonstrates the value of analyzing SAP’s job offers to provide a heads-up about future developments in this area.

Regional Cloud Consultants

This job offering for a HCM Consultant for HCM Cloud for Latin America focuses on a specific market  and is another sign that SAP views the cloud market globally and is not just focusing on the major markets in EMEA and North America.

TIP Core and the HANA Application Cloud

I’ve blogged often about the HANA Application Cloud. Despite all the attention that I paid to this entity, I was never really certain where it actually fit into SAP’s organization.  Was it associated with the HANA teams or more the Cloud teams?

A new job offering for a HANA Cloud Development Engineer (located in Palo Alto) shows exactly where the HANA AppCloud is located in SAP’s organization:

The Technology and Innovation Platform (TIP) Board Area is responsible for the platform foundation, new technologies and new applications at SAP. The purpose of the HANA Cloud Engineering Team within TIP is to conceptualize, design and deliver the application cloud to using SAP's new in-memory technology. The key objective of the HANA application cloud engineering team is to define, design and build the common services/components needed to deploy and operate applications on the HANA cloud in a cost-effective, flexible and maintainable manner.

Thus, it appears that the HANA App Cloud is associated more with the HANA team than the NetWeaver Cloud team (TIP CORE). This knowledge is important when describing how the HANA App Cloud relates to SAP’s other OnDemand efforts.