HANA 2012 InnoJam – The Finals

[RonaldKonijnenb]

Its 10:20pm Palo Alto time and I’ve just come back from the HANA InnoJam finals after having a great meal with the winners. It’s safe to say that this has been one of the greatest experiences in my life. Up against 6 great contestants (out of a total of 100) and team Logica finished in the top three.

The finals were all about truly remarkable people, presenting a very broad range of solutions which were developed in SAP HANA.  Every single one of them deserved a place in the finals. Each were competing with their own competitive edge being a virtual reality solution, solutions for retail, utilities and public transportation and even a solution to make this world a safer place.

A short recap of my day

The day started off with an interview with Jon Reed. Jon gave me the possibility to explain our solution which is directly taken from the Oil&Gas industry. Next to thisI got the chance to talk about our speech driven BI solution “Siri meets HANA”. I truly believe that speech as an interface will mature within the next couple of years as it has the potential to be a substitute for the interfaces we use today. I’m proud to have created the first steps towards a mature solution.

The afternoon was reserved for the demonstrations. What a great jury panel was present. Being already impressed by the competition, seeing all the leadership in the panel, really made me believe that being part of the InnoJam was something special. Top that off by Vishal Sikka dropping  by and you have the recipe for a great level of energy in the room.

Looking back

So how does being third make you feel? Pretty good! Ofcourse I am a titbit disappointed, but it is no shame loosing against guys who are truly ahead of their time with their virtual reality solution. Next to that Pete and his “Agent HANA” had a very convincing way of presenting the use case.

In the end I’m proud of my team, Rob Beeren and Hans Bouwers. They made the difference and created something remarkable: a game changer for the Oil&Gas industry based on a real life business case combined with a use case for our speech driven BI solution “Siri meets HANA”. In my mind, that will never be anything less than first place.

Final words

This leaves me with some final words: Thank you Anne, Juergen, Gigi, Blag and all the other people from the Innovation Center. You have given us the possibility to show the world what we are capable of by using your industry changing solutions, and for that, I take of my SAP cap!

Warm regards and till next time,

Ronald.

Picture: Sylvana Chang (Tx! 😉