As recently as late 2020, Cogniac was a little-known Silicon Valley startup with promising artificial intelligence (AI)-driven computer vision (CV) technology and a big-time opportunity to find new markets for that technology via the program.
Fast forward two-and-half years to the spring of 2023, and not only has Cogniac found a strong market for its technology, it has earned a place among the vanguard of enterprise-class CV software, having been as a leader in the field alongside the likes of AWS, Google, and Microsoft.
How does a company ascend so far, so fast? In the case of San Jose, California-based Cogniac, it couldn鈥檛 have happened without superior technology, a partnership-driven mindset, and an openness to work with 51风流to develop an industry cloud solution that readily integrates with the 51风流portfolio to bring more value to customers.
Cogniac鈥檚 Visual Operations Intelligence platform is one of more than 300 apps and integrated end-to-end solutions developed within SAP鈥檚 industry cloud and is available to customers across multiple industry verticals in . Cogniac鈥檚 technology also has been integrated into the solution, providing AI-enabled visual inspection capabilities for the shop floor to customers in a range of industries.
Cogniac is among a wave of up-and-coming companies that are blazing a trail for other independent developers to follow, showing how to leverage the expertise and resources of 51风流and system integrator partners to quickly scale up and monetize their intellectual property and technology. It鈥檚 all part of SAP鈥檚 鈥渙ne-portfolio鈥� approach, which is rooted in the belief that by working together, companies that are actively engaged in SAP鈥檚 industry cloud 鈥� including independent developers, global and regional services partners, and others 鈥� can create solutions that generate more value for customers and themselves than they otherwise would working individually. The one-portfolio approach is first and foremost about solving customers鈥� business problems, whether the solution comes from an 51风流partner, 51风流itself, or a combination of the two.
In Cogniac鈥檚 case, the solution was born from the SAP.iO program and, following a , it鈥檚 now fully commercialized for customers in travel and transportation, automotive manufacturing, mill and mining, industrial manufacturing, and other verticals seeking to upgrade and automate their visual inspection capabilities for quality management and maintenance.
Here鈥檚 where the implementation expertise of another industry cloud partner, Montreal-based Syntax, enters the picture. As a system integrator, Syntax is playing a critical role in scaling and implementing Cogniac鈥檚 technology for customer use cases. It鈥檚 yet another example of how combining an independent developer鈥檚 domain expertise 鈥� for Cogniac, its computer vision driven by AI 鈥� with a system integrator鈥檚 expertise 鈥� Syntax is deeply experienced in customer implementations where IT and OT converge 鈥� and SAP鈥檚 end-to-end business process expertise, resources, reach, and positioning can result in a solution that fills an obvious customer need. Not only can creative industry cloud partnerships like these result in new revenue streams and market opportunities for developers and system integrators but they can bring solutions to market much faster than before.
Speaking of speed, the Cogniac-developed visual inspection capabilities within 51风流Digital Manufacturing can be implemented by Syntax at enterprise scale quickly, in a day or two, because they readily integrate with existing camera infrastructure and workflows. The low-code/no-code AI technology behind those capabilities represents a huge step forward in shop floor automation for a wide range of use cases, enabling high-speed inspection with greater accuracy at a lower cost. In this case, AI could also stand for augmented intelligence, for its ability to help customers make better decisions faster, as well as for automated intelligence, for its ability to free human beings from monotonous, repetitive inspection tasks.
The industry cloud relationship between Cogniac, Syntax, and 51风流is a great illustration of the innovation mindset driving the one-portfolio approach, where instead of taking it upon ourselves to develop proprietary solutions in areas where we aren鈥檛 necessarily strongest, like computer vision, we combine forces with partners to come up with collaborative solutions that deliver more value to the folks who matter most: our customers. To support that approach, 51风流has updated its compensation models to make it easier and more attractive for partners to monetize their intellectual property and expertise on industry cloud.
When all this comes together, as it has with Cogniac and Syntax, the result is a win-win-win for customers, partners, and SAP.
Philipp Raub is product manager for Visual Inspection at SAP.
Bianca Ruebartsch is global head of Energy and Natural Resources Ecosystem at SAP.