Scott Russell (SAP)
SAP has announced the launch of a Leonardo Centre in Singapore, expanding the vendor’s flagship digital innovation system, designed to help businesses power digital transformation, across the region.
The launch expands SAP’s footprint in the region, adding to the three Innovation Centres and four SAP Labs across Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ).
Specifically, the centre delivers software and micro-services that help enable customers to leverage key technologies within digital transformation, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, blockchain, analytics and big data.
Digital transformation is set to add an estimated US$1.16 trillion to Asia Pacific’s GDP and increase the growth rate by 0.8 per cent, by 2021, according to a recent IDC study.
At the heart of this growth are SMEs, which are agile and more susceptible to change compared to larger enterprises.
This is particularly relevant to Asia, as 97 per cent of businesses in the APAC region are SMEs, benefiting SAP, as 80 per cent of the vendor's customers globally are SMEs, as Scott Russell, president of SAP APJ, outlined during his opening keynote at the launch event for the new facility.
“This often surprises people because when they think about SAP they think about large enterprises,” Russell said.
Russell said the new centre is designed to help enable customers, partners and the broader ecosystem of universities and start-ups across the APJ region to deliver faster innovation with less risk.
Furthermore, this new centre will expand the company’s footprint in the region, giving a boost to regional research capability, adding to the three innovation centres and four SAP Labs already in APJ.
Globally, SAP spent €3,352 million (US$3,974.69 million) on Research and Development in 2017.
“Together with our customers and partners, we aim to leverage the SAP Leonardo Centre Singapore as a think tank to drive purpose-led innovation that will ultimately improve the lives of one billion people and deliver the Intelligent Enterprise for over 70,000 customers in APJ by 2022,” Russell added.
“The SAP Leonardo Centre in Singapore will play a key role in realising our growth strategy and drive customer success in the new Intelligence era.”
