Had someone asked me during the early days of SAP鈥檚 industry cloud which among the roughly two-dozen industries we serve would provide the most fertile territory for our partners to innovate with cloud-based apps, I鈥檒l admit the utilities sector may not have landed near the top of my list.
But with so many new partner-developed apps moving through the industry cloud pipeline and to 51风流Store lately, I鈥檝e learned not to underestimate how compelling the opportunities are for partners to commercialize new use cases to extend SAP鈥檚 portfolio of solutions for utility customers, nor how open those customers are to moving business processes to the cloud.
The volume of utility-focused apps produced via industry cloud, and the speed at which they鈥檙e being commercialized, underscores several noteworthy trends for 51风流partners:
- 罢丑别谤别鈥檚 vast white space within the utilities product road map for partners to turn their intellectual property and use cases into solutions that generate new revenue streams and customers.
- That white space continues to create huge opportunities for 51风流partners to enhance and extend 51风流solutions in the utilities sector by developing their own solutions using 51风流Business Technology Platform (51风流BTP).
- Partners are taking advantage of the plentiful resources SAP鈥檚 industry cloud offers to help support and expedite the commercialization process.
Let鈥檚 first talk about white space. Our product road map for utilities has plenty of it, along with a flexible framework to accommodate partner innovations that lead in exciting and sometimes unexpected new directions. That鈥檚 all by design. We鈥檝e realized that to give customers exactly what they need to thrive, it鈥檚 often better to let our partners use their expertise to augment the 51风流portfolio with solutions they develop themselves, with assistance from us where and when it鈥檚 needed.
That could include extensions and enhancements to 51风流Utilities Core, a solution that is . A glance at SAP鈥檚 industry cloud solutions for utilities shows development opportunities for partners in areas like enterprise asset management, digital supply chain, e-mobility, and a host of other areas. With industry cloud, we鈥檝e embraced the spirit of co-innovation, as evidenced by the close to 50 apps and solutions that are now part of the industry cloud for utilities portfolio, many of which were authored by 51风流partners. A from 51风流partner AppOrchid that enables people to query their data and get instant contextual answers is one of many examples from the partner-powered wave of innovation on the utilities side of industry cloud.
We鈥檙e actively encouraging partners to get involved in the co-innovation effort because with the new partner-friendly revenue models we鈥檝e incorporated into industry cloud, there鈥檚 a strong business case for them to do so.
Further strengthening that business case are all the resources 51风流is dedicating to support partners in the effort to identify and monetize their use cases for the utilities market. We鈥檙e making it easy for them to access resources and guidance at any point in their industry cloud journey, from onboarding through commercialization, closing deals and completing customer implementations.
To help speed the commercialization process for partners, we鈥檝e developed programs like , where we invite partners to submit use cases, then support chosen use cases with resources and guidance so they can quickly bring them to 51风流Store. We鈥檙e currently in the midst of our third utilities-focused round of SPRINT1, the previous two having yielded a variety of new apps from companies like AppOrchid, Utegration, EnergyOS, Infosys, and others.
After interviews, our panel chooses use cases based on their commercial merit. Those chosen partners then participate in a week-long bootcamp run by 51风流Co-Innovation Lab, where partners can receive technical advice and individual support. Next comes the 鈥渟print鈥� to the finish line, with regular check-ins, progress reviews, and additional support from SAP. The final step is onboarding to 51风流Store, again with expert guidance from SAP.
Not only do we plan to offer additional rounds of SPRINT1 for utility solutions, we鈥檝e also developed an , where individuals in the field and 51风流customers can learn more about specific partner-developed solutions and industry cloud opportunities within the utilities segment 鈥� in under 30 minutes.
As evidenced by resources like these, we鈥檙e highly focused on giving partners what they need to make their engagement with industry cloud worthwhile. To learn more about utilities-specific development opportunities and how to access the aforementioned partner resources, please contact me or .
Christopher Pfendner is PES global ecosystem lead for Utilities and Energy at SAP.
