SAP and IBM making heavy investments to digitally transform its clients

by Abhinav Mohapatra

IBM and SAP have announced major investment plans to drive modernization of clients’ systems and processes and accelerate them into the digital economy. Both IBM and SAP will co-innovate solutions that will increase customer value through cognitive extensions, enhanced customer and user experiences and industry-specific functionality. The program will be combining complementary technologies and services including IBM Cognitive Capabilities, IBM Cloud and Power Systems, SAP S/4HANA and SAP HANA Cloud Platform, available on premise and in the cloud.

In a move to deepen their four-decade-old relationship and delivering a blend of market-leading capabilities, IBM and SAP will collate resources in Walldorf, Germany and Palo Alto, California. The companies will showcase new solutions and thought leadership to clients in IBM, SAP innovation centers around the world.

Bridget van Kralingen, Senior Vice President, IBM Global Business Services, says, “The future of business strategy and business value will proceed from the foundational elements of this announcement; cognitive, cloud and the design of consumer-quality experiences in every industry. We’re formalizing a complementary set of capabilities to simplify and speed outcomes for clients evolving to become cognitive enterprises.”

“Today’s announcement builds on SAP’s commitment to enable strong, growing businesses that can seize the amazing opportunities of the digital economy,” says Rob Enslin, member of the Executive Board of SAP SE and president of Global Customer Operations, SAP. “SAP S/4HANA is the reimagined suite of core business applications that has once again set the standard for the industry. I’m delighted that IBM and SAP will collaborate closely to give customers a clear roadmap to innovating new business models and outcomes that were never before possible.”

According to IBM and SAP, as clients move towards the digital transformation with the collaboration, they will expect:

  • Cloud-based solutions specifically the SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud services to scale the IBM cloud platform to meet the unpredictable demands of digital transformation. IBM and SAP will collaborate on industry-specific cloud solutions and expand current SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud services to include ongoing application maintenance and support services.
  • On-premise solutions that will enable client engagements for hybrid and on-premise offerings with SAP HANA on IBM Power systems, supported through the new IBM Power Systems Center of Excellence for SAP HANA in Austin, Texas.
  • Cognitive capabilities developed for SAP S/4HANA and a line-of-business solutions that harness the power of IBM’s cognitive APIs to drive more informed decisions by a broad range of business users and across all C-suite professions.
  • Customized client and user experience as IBM Interactive Experience (iX), the world’s largest digital agency; SAP Global Design, the group behind the award-winning SAP Fiori UX, and the SAP Customer Engagement and Commerce team will work together on predesigned experiences, applying IBM’s iOS design skills for mobile user experiences.
  • Integrated services that will help companies develop collaborative consulting models drawing on proven, agile services and support methodologies from both organizations.
  • Industry-specific road maps co-created by IBM’s Institute for Business Value and SAP’s Value Engineering organization for digital transformation road maps by industry and by C-suite role.