During today’s SAP Sapphire Now keynote address in Orlando, Florida, Bernd Leukert, member of the executive board of SAP SE, Products & Innovation, said that software needs to become a strategy for enterprises. He observed that for businesses today, openness is a game changer, allowing machine integration and understanding of customer behaviors.

He also said enterprises should be using intelligent apps as much as possible, enabling hyperconnectivity and automation.

“Every customer today needs to drive innovation by connecting these business processes when software becomes strategy,” said Lisa Martin (@Luccazara) (pictured, right), co-host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile live streaming studio.

Martin and co-host George Gilbert (@ggilbert41) (pictured, left) discussed Leukert’s comments following the SAP Sapphire Now Day 1 keynote. Plus, they also talked about software as a strategy and the expanded capabilities of the SAP Leonardo Innovation Portfolio. (* Disclosure below.)

Expanding beyond the ‘digital twin’ capability

Gilbert talked about the Leonardo demo that was held during the keynote. It showed a windmill on a wind farm in Norway, with virtual sensors that were able to pinpoint exactly on the windmill where stresses were located.

However, Gilbert observed, it’s not a completely unique capability; General Electric Co. has Predix; Parametric Technologies has ThingWorx Inc.; and IBM has Genius of Things, which provide similar functions.

“[SAP’s] value-add should be to make it easy to create [a business process] lifecycle for the ‘digital twin,’” Gilbert stated.

He explained that by making this capability possible without tons of programming, and linking it in with core business processes like field services, could greatly benefit SAP.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s independent editorial coverage of SAP Sapphire Now. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for SAP Sapphire Now. Neither SAP nor other sponsors have editorial influence on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE