GEC NEWS WIREThe most exciting centerpiece at the SAP Gitex stand, is the Mercedes-Benz EQ Silver Arrow 01, one of the latest additions to the ABB FIA Formula E Championship line-up. The brand-new all-electric replica racing car is on display, ahead of The Mercedes-Benz EQ Formula E Team that will debut at the Saudi Diriyah E-Prix in November 2019.
“We are seeing strong Gitex turnout to our customer experience booth, The City of Possibilities, with visitors experiencing how digital transformation is enabling customer experience innovations across the economy, society, and environment,” remarked Mohamed Khan, MENA Channel Head, SAP Global Partner Organisation.
Alongside customer experience, many customers are highlighting their move to the cloud. Amongst IT decision-makers in the region, 88% in the UAE and 59% in Saudi Arabia plan to increase cloud spend in 2019, according to recent YouGov surveys. Gitex is a key platform to educate customers on how cloud can optimise costs, enhance business agility and flexibility, and scale up as organisations expand.
As the experience economy continues to grow, at Gitex, SAP is explaining to customers about they can digitally transform into intelligent enterprises that can listen, understand, and act on customer needs to drive business success. “We are also seeing many customers taking the time to explain the importance of customer experience at our recording studio, where we can share their customer experience success stories to a wider audience,” adds Khan.
“We are also seeing a lot of interest about the People of Determination Platform, PODium, whose design has been co-innovated by Expo 2020 Dubai and the SAP Co-Innovation Lab in the UAE,” Khan explains. PODium uses the latest advancements in analytics, Internet of Things, and mobile tracking technologies to optimise experiences for people of determination and is based on their accessibility requirements.
With the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as the Official Country Partner for Gitex, the demo of Smart Hajj, is drawing major crowds. Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah is highlighting how the first phase of Smart Hajj has successfully leveraged smart cards to enhance travel, transportation, and crowd management for tens of thousands of pilgrims.
Channel partners
“Gitex 2019 has been the biggest and best in SAP’s history at Gitex. Our first two days at the event have seen a much busier first day than ever before, especially in attendance by visitors, partners, and customers,” says Mohamed Khan, MENA Channel Head, SAP Global Partner Organisation.
At Gitex, SAP is seeing two different channel conversations. The first is that many existing channel partners are looking to expand into new countries. For example, some Saudi partners are looking to set up in the UAE, while others from the Levant are looking to join up with partners. As Saudi Arabia’s economic growth continues, some regional and international partners are also visiting SAP to learn about how they can expand their business into Saudi Arabia.
The second channel conversation is talking to channel partners that are interested to join SAP’s ecosystem. These potential new partners are a mix of generalists that are looking to specialise, and others that are looking to establish new practices and grow and expand their business.
“In comparison to previous years, we are having a lot more conversations with mature channel partners that want to come into the SAP ecosystem with a value-add proposition. In turn, our existing and prospective partners are also bringing their customers to explore our customer experience innovations,” elaborates Khan.
Channel partners play a major role showcasing at the SAP Gitex booth, including ECS, SBM, MDSap, and Accenture as Gold Partners; Fujitsu, Albilad Arabia, WiSys, Smart National Solutions, Accely, EY, and indus novateur as Silver Partners; MDSap as Gold Digital Partner; and Siemens as Digital Partner.
As Middle East organisations continue to increase their cloud spend, channel partners want to expand their skills beyond the traditional on-premise private cloud to hybrid and public cloud environments. Many channel partners are looking to specialise on SAP solutions – especially on the SAP C HANA customer experience suite, SAP S4 HANA real-time business suite, or the SuccessFactors talent management suite.
Mercedes-Benz
SAP and the Mercedes-Benz EQ Formula E Team announced their partnership to enter Season 6 of the ABB FIA Formula E Championship together. The Geneva Motor Show is one of the largest European motor shows and, in 2019, is set to see the debut of a number of new vehicles. One of these vehicles is the teaser of the Mercedes-Benz EQ Silver Arrow 01. The Formula E racing car, which is being prepared for competition in Season 6 of the ABB FIA Formula E Championship, has been unveiled in a teaser livery. In a parallel event, embodying the spirit of pioneering technology meets urban lifestyle, the teaser car is also on display by Mercedes-Benz EQ at South by Southwest in Austin.
Mercedes will be starting a fresh chapter in its long and successful racing history entering Season 6 of the ABB FIA Formula E Championship. The heart of the car is being developed at Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains in Brixworth, UK, drawing on the combined experience and technical know-how of partners like SAP. The organisation has built electric and hybrid capability during the past decade to meet the challenges of Formula One, which will now be used for the development of the Formula E powertrain.
SAP’s involvement with the Mercedes-Benz EQ Formula E Team combines conventional marketing and technological sponsorship. In addition to having its company logo featured prominently on the brand new racing car and drivers, SAP provides access to its innovative technologies for the Mercedes-Benz EQ Formula E Team.
As the Official Business Performance Partner, SAP supports the Mercedes-Benz EQ Formula E team with back-office solutions and new innovations for the racing team based on SAP technology. SAP and the team’s engineers can use the SAP HANA platform to develop technology solutions that help the team analyse large volumes of data and monitor overall performance. The engineers can use additional features and functions provided by SAP Cloud Platform and SAP Leonardo technologies, including the Internet of Things, predictive, and machine learning capabilities during the co-innovation process.
