SAP has announced two major deals: one with Nokia, to integrate geo-location data from its Here unit into SAP’s HANA in-memory data platform, and one with Samsung to develop an enterprise mobility ecosystem based on Samsung mobile devices, including wearables for business applications.
SAP “plans to bundle base maps and content from HERE into the SAP HANA platform,” according to the two companies, so that HANA customers “will be able to access this geo-content to develop and deploy geo-spatial applications leveraging the native in-memory, spatial-processing capabilities of SAP HANA.”
The partnership with Samsung is designed to extend both companies’ reach into the enterprise by offering businesses integrated devices and applications that leverage SAP’s HANA cloud platform and services with an eye toward emerging Internet of Things applications.
The two companies named a number of initial areas of focus, including retail, oil and gas, healthcare and finance. In retail, for example, they plan to focus on “innovative shopping experiences” for the retail sector, including business intelligence in the form of inventory tracking and product availability and customer-specific marketing intelligence for retail floor sales that will be tailored for multiple screens, including wearables. Work on mobile payments and access to more detailed business information is to follow. They also plan to develop customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning (ERP) offerings that will be built on SAP’s HANA cloud platform, tailored for delivery on Samsung devices by taking advantage of features like its Air Gesture, multi-window mode, and Samsung’s S Pen.
“Increasingly, our customers are away from the desk and require a fundamentally new way to interact with the enterprise applications to align with how they work today,” said Steve Lucas, president of SAP’s Platform Solutions Group, in a statement. “The applications that match the current trends in mobility must work to create a seamless experience as the work modality embraces mobile devices, wearables, Internet of Things and other alternative forms of mobile computing. Through our partnership with Samsung, we are working on plans to offer a premium mobile enterprise experience for customers.”
SAP and Samsung said that their intention is to enable more simple and secure integration of devices, wearables and Samsung’s other enterprise mobility solutions with SAP’s offerings, so that solutions can be offered to more employees faster and support real-time decision-making across the business. They also expect that developers will work to leverage both companies’ technologies and that systems integrators will be able to create vertical-specific solutions more quickly.
Meanwhile, SAP also signed an original equipment manufacturing agreement with Nokia, to leverage geolocation data from its Here mapping and location intelligence unit for enterprise use in SAP’s HANA in-memory database platform. SAP customers will be able to access map data and content from Here in a release expected later this month. This adds a geo-analytics component to SAP’s offerings, so that businesses will be able to add location data to their business intelligence and see information points on a map for purposes such as tracking goods or information in order to identify trends and help with planning.
