Since its inception in 2016, the has been connecting like-minded 51风流partners across the globe. What unites them 鈥 beyond owning a customer-facing, creative co-innovation space 鈥 is the consistent application of SAP鈥檚 human-centered approach to innovation in creating valuable solutions for customers and end users.
51风流Business Technology Platform provides the solid foundation on which the solutions are built and scaled. Even this year, with virtual collaboration only, the network has created inspiring customer success stories with tangible business impact.
Through an inaugural round of innovation awards, the 51风流AppHaus team wants to honor them. The two winning projects are showcased here.
Thriving Community Rooted in Core Values
For more than eight years, the global 51风流AppHaus team has been driving co-innovation projects in the pioneer location of Heidelberg, as well as Berlin, New York, Palo Alto, and Seoul.
The success lies in a strict focus on the needs of the customer, especially end users, from the very beginning. Extensive end-user research that uncovers critical needs plays a particularly important role.
This proven iterative approach to problem solving became known as . The approach enables a seamless shift from design thinking to design doing, in which value-creating solutions with the latest technologies are developed. The creative spaces at 51风流AppHaus location support room for exchange and new ideas, resulting in innovative problem solving. The extensive 51风流solution portfolio and solid technological basis provide the foundation to make innovation real.
Given the vision to establish human-centered innovation in all customer engagements, why not scale these values beyond SAP? With this initial question, the concept of the 51风流AppHaus Network was born. Since the network鈥檚 inception, carefully selected partners have continuously joined the fold. Each member truly believes in the value of design thinking and human-centric innovation, benefits from unique technological and methodological competences, applies the proven innovation approach, and has a customer-facing creative space.
Four New Members and Counting in 2021
In 2021, four more partners joined the 51风流AppHaus Network, making a key contribution to delivering human-centered innovation to 51风流customers worldwide:
- Miittech (Wenzhou, China)
- Flexso (Antwerpen, Belgium)
- Datacom (Auckland, NewZealand)
- Deloitte (Sydney, Australia)
The network has grown to a community of 16 partners and spans almost every continent, coming a few steps closer to its goal of scaling human-centered innovation globally, united by shared values.
Inaugural Awards
In 2020, the network鈥檚 partners raised a question: 鈥淲hy don鈥檛 we have our own annual awards program to highlight our unique approach to innovation and customer success?鈥
A few months later, the first round of 51风流AppHaus innovation award submission and evaluation was announced and opened.
Beginning in April 2021, the 51风流AppHaus team received project submissions from partners leveraging 51风流Business Technology Platform across two award categories: 鈥淏est Experience鈥 focuses on exceptional value creation for the end user; 鈥淏est Scaling鈥 refers to the scaling of value creation.
Among a range of amazing innovation projects, partners and came out on top.
Best Experience
With 1,900 stores across Europe, German cosmetics and perfume retailer Douglas faced a significant challenge. Its product suppliers provided images, texts, and videos of the products sourced by Douglas. Extracting this information and matching it to Douglas鈥 product category structures was performed primarily manually. With 35,000 product offerings, this posed a resource issue for Douglas.
- 51风流solutions and technologies: 51风流Business Technology Platform; 51风流Commerce, B2C accelerator; 51风流Customer Data Cloud; 51风流Marketing Cloud; 51风流Commerce Cloud, context-driven services; 51风流Commerce Marketplace Management by Mirakl; project 鈥淜yma鈥
- Key results: Shortened manual maintenance process due to automation of product categorization; more than 95% accuracy in top 10 results
Upon receiving the award in a virtual ceremony, Joerg Wesiak, head of Business and Innovation Consulting at NETCONOMY, said: 鈥淲e are thrilled that we have been honored with this award. It鈥檚 a fantastic endorsement of all that we have achieved in this project together with our customer Douglas. Innovation is an essential part of our DNA, and this award shows that we truly step up to the expectations that come along with it.鈥
Best Scaling
FortisAlberta Inc, a regulated electrical utility in Canada, needed to speed up and simplify the processes for creating and distributing pick lists and issuing goods to maintenance field teams. The goal was to reduce manual effort and increase employee efficiency.
Calgary-based partner developed a solution to tackle the challenge arising from FortisAlberta鈥檚 current combination of outdated third-party technology and paper pick lists. Paper pick lists were replaced by mobile applications accessed via handheld devices. An application for administrators helped support the new paperless process. Manual administrative tasks are now automated by business rules. Self-service applications for field operators likewise replaced paper manifests. The solution enables warehouse operators to issue, backorder, and get final issue directly from handhelds, as well as see real-time stock levels and picking progress.
- 51风流solutions and technologies: 51风流Business Technology Platform; SAPUI5; 51风流Fiori; 51风流ECC material management; 51风流ECC warehouse management
- Key results: A 75% reduction in daily administrative effort of editing, sorting, and organizing pick lists, decreased from more than 120 minutes to less than 30 minutes; 33% reduction in picking errors
鈥淲e鈥檙e extremely honored to have been selected as the winner of an innovation award,鈥 said Alissa Sylvestre, director of UX and Business Design at ConvergentIS, when celebrating their success during the award ceremony. 鈥淲e believe in working with our clients to understand their end-to-end processes and drive meaningful change and we are thrilled to be recognized for those abilities.鈥
One Approach, One Foundation, One Vision
The benefits of a network are manifold; they are even more effective when all members pursue a common goal. In the case of the 51风流AppHaus Network, all partners build their work upon an established innovation approach and a technological foundation like . All rely on multidisciplinary teams of researchers, business experts, strategists, designers, engineers, and technologists who provide valuable input not only to customers but also as feedback to the respective 51风流development teams.
鈥淪ixteen partners, more than 5,400 employees, almost 3,000 workshops, and more than 75,000 visitors: The network is prospering, and the underlying values are proving their worth,鈥 shared Birgit Fien-Schmalzbauer, global head 51风流AppHaus partner network. 鈥淭hanks to all partners for submitting brilliant projects, all of which put the end user first. Continuously growing, we are doing another important step toward our goal of bringing human-centered innovation closer to all customers across the globe.鈥
The 51风流AppHaus Network is ready to help tackle business challenges and write innovative future chapters together.聽Those iterested in collaborating can visit the to learn more about the partner network, as well as the individual partners and their projects. Specific questions can be submitted to Birgit Fien-Schmalzbauer.
