The SAP Business as Unusual book by Thomas Saueressig and Peter Maier was released on December 20. (click on badge on left to link to the Amazon page). The book relies heavily on conversations with SAP, customer, partner, research firm and SAP.iO Foundries startup executives in over 25 countries and on visits to Industry 4.0 and Customer Experience Centers at key SAP global locations.
We ended up with hundreds of hours of videos and 2,500 pages in transcripts, slides and research papers. We plan to showcase a selection of video excerpts for each chapter so readers can get to know the contributors a bit better and get a glimpse at some of the SAP assets described in the book. These are bite sixed excerpts – in most cases less than 5% of the conversations we recorded.
Leading off is Frank Ruland, Global Vice President and Head of Industry Ecosystem at SAP
Frank was instrumental in identifying a very wide range of partners - systems integrators, strategy firms, vertical specialists, startups among them. They provided commentary in the book. A few of them are profiled below.
David Lowson of Capgemini discusses the trend of servitization in his client base for the Everything as a Service megatrend and how it has become a major driver for many of them to embark on big digital transformation projects and upgrade to S/4HANA
Mark Burton of the strategy firm, Bain & Co. talks about the major hurdles he has seen at his clients as they move to as a service business models in a conversation for the Everything as a Service megatrend
Copellia Rose, healthcare leader at SAP partner, DXC Technology in Brisbane, Australia discusses for the Lifelong Health megatrend, enhancements they developed to assist healthcare providers deal with a highly stressed workforce due to the acute pressures resulting from the COVID pandemic.
Muqsit Ashraf and David Bagley discuss Accenture's research and guidance on the complexities of energy transitions across sectors and global regions for the Sustainable Energy megatrend
Marcus Willand, a partner at MHP, a consulting firm that is part of Porsche (itself part of Volkswagen), describes for the Integrated Mobility megatrend how In the last few years, CASE has become a rallying cry for rapid change in the automotive sector. In this framework, vehicles and mobility are connected, autonomous, shared, and electric.
Hari Ashvini of SAP presents for the Resilient Supply Chains megatrend on partners which are particularly important in micro-fulfilment scenarios
There are several SAP.iO Foundries startups profiled in the book. Here is Carlos Oliveira of Algramo based in Chile in the Circular Economy megatrend. Consumers pay for bite-size purchases at their point of need e.g., detergents are dispensed in public laundromats into reusable containers.
