Innovation at SAP
Continuously innovating for our customers – and the future
From quantum technologies and blockchain, to cryptofinance and beyond, SAP is continuously exploring new ideas, business models, and pioneering technologies to shape the next generation of enterprise software, deliver real-world innovation, and enable sustainability.
Now, more than ever, helping the world run better and improving people’s lives depends on all of us working together to sustainably manage the world’s resources. We will achieve this by:
- Reinventing how we manage all resources, including people, products, raw materials, and capital
- Extending beyond the confines of traditional ERP systems by enabling real-time information flows across business lines, supply chains, and value chains
- Creating opportunities to work collaboratively through interconnected networks to accelerate climate action, regenerative economies, and prosperous communities.
48
M+
downloads of the Corona-Warn-App
450
+
external startups brought into the SAP ecosystem since 2017
50
years of SAP's innovation story
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Our innovation strategy
Focusing on four key innovation topics today will drive our strategic agenda for the future – transforming your business to be more profitable, resilient, and sustainable.
Effective use of resources is at the center of every best-run business and the habitability of our planet. Being a best-run business requires constant reinvention by finding new ways to optimize resources through new business models and technologies that can help you move smarter and faster than ever.
Areas of exploration and research:
B2B marketplaces
Autonomous supply chain management (SCM)
Carbon account management and compensation
Circular economy management
Industry business networks
Encrypted business benchmarks
Crypto finance
Managing resources seamlessly begins by transforming business processes. This requires new ways to use data and machine learning to create intelligent business processes – connected through business networks that drive collaboration, and employ a vast ecosystem of B2B software players to serve any industry.
Areas of exploration and research:
- Modular enterprise and process composability
- Business process intelligence (BPI
- Business process as a service (BPaaS)
- Business process as a service marketplace
Effective business processes depend on intelligent decisions being made with insights from data in the organization and beyond its networks. This requires evolving the current system of record to a system of intelligence across decentralized sources, providing a semantic data layer that is accessible across your organization and ecosystem, and reinventing business decisions as a service, embedded into business processes.
Areas of exploration and research:
Self-preparing and tuning data mesh
Business decisions as a service (BDaaS)
Decision implication simulation
Data marketplace
Insightful decisions by both humans and computing systems depend on trust between individuals, organizations, and the systems they use. This requires business networks based on a business technology platform known for reliability and accuracy that protects the interests of each party – with zero vulnerabilities.
Areas of exploration and research:
Platform ecosystems
Productivity as a service (PaaS)
Cybersecurity and data privacy
Self-sovereign identity
Quantum-safe cryptography
Industry platforms
Blockchain and distributed ledgers of trust
Homomorphic encryption and differential privacy
SAP Product Innovations
Read about the latest innovations and planned innovations for our products.
Benefit from our established networks of business innovation
It takes more than technology for innovation to happen. It takes bright minds from diverse backgrounds working together to apply technology in original and creative ways. When you innovate with SAP you tap into a network of researchers, developers, students, partners, industry leaders, entrepreneurs, academics, and SAP customers.
Helping SAP partners develop innovative solutions on SAP platforms
The Partner Innovation Lifecycle Services (PILS) group at SAP helps partners develop innovative solutions on SAP platforms. Learn how PILS can benefit you.
Building the bridge between SAP and our innovative ecosystem
SAP Co-Innovation Lab (COIL) helps our partners convert ideas for solutions for intelligent enterprises into working prototypes and from there to market-ready solutions.
Academic engagements
We engage with the academic community because we value fresh perspectives on technology trends and our solutions, impacting 437,000+ customers and their communities – today and tomorrow. Find out how to translate and apply your research in an SAP context, at SAP scale.
Developing the next generation of innovators
SAP Next-Gen is a global community for students, universities, schools, and educational partners passionate about innovation and technology. We inspire the next generation to use digital technologies through initiatives including SAP University Alliances and SAP Young Thinkers.
Explore our regional innovation hubs
Situated in high tech regions of the world, SAP Labs Network are global research and development centers that focus on developing leaner, faster, and more efficient solutions.
SAP Innovation Awards
Celebrating forward-thinking companies and individuals that drive innovation.
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