SAP SE has transitioned from a primarily software applications company to a platform company heading toward the cloud. And after only a year, the company has 1,100 partners and 1,500 applications in its App Center, made entirely for businesses, according to Uddhav Gupta (pictured), global vice president and general manager of SAP Digital.

SAP’s App Center gives companies the opportunity to improvise and collaborate within the environment, Gupta explained. Some examples of the tools found in the center included an audit and compliance app for human resources, an app that helped customers migrate and monitor their different platforms and apps that allow insight into how one’s enterprise is operating.

Gupta spoke with Lisa Martin (@LuccaZara), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, and guest host Keith Townsend (@CTOAdvisor), principal at The CTO Advisor, during the SAP Sapphire Now event in Orlando, Florida. They discussed SAP’s new App Center and how it is helping enterprises manage their own ecosystems. (* Disclosure below.)

Why bother with an App Center?

While it may seem like a strange idea to go to an app store instead of the company directly, Gupta explained the benefits of SAP’s App Center. Each application is validated by an integration and certification team; they are only relevant to the SAP landscape; and, finally, there are built-in workflows for purchasing software in which the customer is still interacting with a member of the company they are buying from.

Moving forward, SAP is looking to integrate more security, as well as go beyond applications. SAP is working with its partners to become more General Data Protection Regulation compliant with growing intake of customer and company data. The company is also looking to sell tools that will help customers manage the different company landscapes, Gupta explained.

Finally, more customers are asking to be brought into the cloud, which did not occur at the last Sapphire conference. The hope is to gain new partners and port more customers to the cloud, Gupta concluded.

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

Photo: SiliconANGLE