Venturing ever further beyond its traditional comfort zone, SAP SE is diving into the Internet of Things to look for answers to the new challenges that are springing up across vertical markets in the wake of the proliferation of connected devices. The pivot comes hot on the heels of CTO Quentin Clark marking his first day in what is already shaping up as a highly eventful career at the company.

On the shoulders of giants

The foundation of SAP’s expansion strategy for the digital universe is HANA, the homegrown in-memory analytic database that Clark’s predecessor and current CEO of consultancy powerhouse Infosys Ltd., Dr. Vishal Sikka, helped build. The first area on the business intelligent giant’s sights is engineering, which it’s hoping to enter with a solution called Predictive Maintenance and Service aimed at making hard-earned technical data about componentry easily available to technicians in the field.

The software takes it a step further than that and also integrates blueprints and other historical data with sensory transmissions to help predict malfunctions, a concept that General Electric Co. has been throwing around for several years now. SAP is promising to provide similar forecasting capabilities on the production floor with Manufacturing Execution 15, which likewise integrates existing and real-time information from different to help managers identify future opportunities for improvement.

Also coming down the pipe is SAP Connected Logistics, which departs from the predictive analytics theme to provide a centralized hub for monitoring and coordinating activities across different parts of the supply chain. The solution promises to not only connect disparate teams inside an organization but also break communications barriers with outside partners through integration with a wide range of back-end transportation management systems.

Putting the power in the hands of the users

To make the capabilities of its new vertical solutions available to the professionals driving change in the trenches, SAP plans to release client applications for both Predictive Maintenance and Service and Connected Logistics. But the company is not stopping there. In conjunction with the new solutions, it revealed an alliance with Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. to develop an expansive portfolio of exclusive applications aimed at tackling many more of the industry-specific problems its customers are struggling with today.

The move is likely a response to the recently announced agreement between rival IBM Corp. and Apple Inc. to build a collection of over 100 applications for organizations in vertical markets. The iPhone maker commands a massive lead over Samsung in the enterprise with a 67 percent stake of all applications as of the second quarter, according to data from mobility management powerhouse Good Technology Inc., but SAP hopes that its dominance of the back office will help offset that advantage.

The companies didn’t specify exactly how many apps they hope to build, but the alliance between the two looks to be just as ambitious as that of their competitors. The partnership will place a particular emphasis on retail, a major focus point for Apple with its new mobile payment service: SAP and Samsung envision building solutions that will help retail workers access customer data more easily, look up product information as needed and last but certainly not least, implement support for mobile transactions. Solutions for the energy, healthcare and financial services sectors are in the works as well.

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