The SAP.iO program is SAP’s strategic business unit to incubate startup innovation and drive new business models for the company. Besides external startups joining the program to complement existing 51����solutions, high-potential entrepreneurial employees are equally empowered by to help 51����customers become intelligent, sustainable enterprises. Employees with new business ideas can apply to join the studio full-time and be considered for incubation.

“We are enabling employee-led ventures – internal startups – access to funding and a unique environment to build radically new 51����solutions beyond our existing product portfolio,” Ram Jambunathan, SVP and general manager of SAP.iO Venture Studio, describes the program’s value for 51����and customers. Based on this successful approach to in-house innovation, two new 51����teams received funding earlier this year after passing a selection process.

Encore by 51����Helps Enable the Circular Economy

Edward Kosec and Bram Purnot’s paths first crossed at 51����while working in their previous roles focusing on procurement and supply chain solutions. In times of increasingly visible consequences of climate change, the future co-founders realized customers were trying to find more localized and available supply to advance their strategic sustainability transformation and move towards circular business models. The need for materials at hand was further accelerated as economies around the world were hit by global supply chain issues prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

With this, the foundation for the Encore by 51����solution was laid. “Our trading platform will simplify discovering, recovering, and selling secondary materials for remanufacturing and refurbishment to ease supply chain disruptions – while also raising the bar for companies to achieve zero waste,” outlines Kosec, general manager and co-founder of Encore by SAP.

To enable more such regenerative business processes for companies of all sizes, aggregated supply will be matched with buyer demands across Encore’s marketplace. The solution integrates into��backend systems, such as 51����S/4HANA, and connects��with��core��procurement and asset management solutions, including 51����Ariba solutions.

The team is already piloting the solution with customers and partners as��part of Catena-X, an industry alliance for secure, cross-company data exchange in the automotive industry. Catena-X aims to be more sustainable, resilient, and cost-effective thanks to trading aftermarket components, such as alternators or batteries, on the venture’s marketplace.

The End Is Near for Overpaying Taxes with Tax Eye by SAP

Building on SAP’s strong foothold with customers using the company’s business software across 25 industries, the Tax Eye by 51����solution is set to tap into SAP’s unique position as a premium system of record for financial transactions, including vendor contracts, purchase orders, invoices, and payments. During his nearly two decades of helping 51����customers with taxation issues, venture founder Mahendrakumar Ganesan identified the opportunity to spot overcharged vendor invoices and the surplus tax amounts corporates are paying on a regular basis. “Automating the detection of incorrect tax payments on the one hand and intelligently enabling tax returns on the other is the centerpiece for our solution,” Ganesan says. “Organizations will now free cash resources to reinvest into long-term innovation and sustainability strategies instead.”

Ahead lies the task of turning tax-inefficient purchasing transactions into integrated, digital business processes in the cloud. The combined struggle of tackling the complexity and dynamic changes of tax laws, the lack of tax knowledge by non-specialist employees, and implications from inconsistent application of tax business rules – all intensified by missing intelligent automated tools and technology – will then be a burden of the past for corporations.

The venture is currently validating its business use case while building a team to turn its vision into a pilot solution.

Learn more about SAP.iO Venture Studio at . Previous venture forerunners that brought applications to market at startup speed while engaging hundreds of customers include , , and . Encore and Tax Eye have now set out to join our and to build the future of enterprise business processes.

Susanna Havranek is a senior communications specialist at SAP.

In-house innovation has been one of SAP’s recipes for success since its founding days nearly half a century ago. Driving transformative innovation inside the company demands going beyond innovating upon existing products by actively scouting for new ideas. Once identified, these innovative ideas can build and grow upon SAP’s unique strength and assets such as the company’s technologies, data and customer relationships.

“It’s our job to keep our eyes on the future,” Max Wessel, chief innovation officer of SAP, said. “But it’s more than just having the ideas. We have to put an operating model in place to facilitate innovation for our customers.”

Venturing inside of 51����— also known as intrapreneurship — is one of the ways 51����accomplishes the task by reimagining how products and services can be delivered from the ground up.

From Idea to Product Incubation

The��internal accelerator program��at 51����has been identifying high-potential, entrepreneurial employees��inside the company��since 2015.��With the help of a structured program, the employees join together in teams that create an idea for a new venture. The selected 51����teams then receive mentorship to validate critical assumptions and solve real business problems.

https://youtu.be/CQF4TlfXSPc

In 2019, 11 teams were selected to pitch for investment. Two have secured funding and are joining SAP.iO Venture Studio, the in-house product incubator. Over the next 18 to 24 months, these two venture teams will have the opportunity to continue to develop their ideas and test and iterate among other teams in the product incubator environment.

GreenToken: Traceable Raw Material Supply Chains for Informed Purchasing Decisions

What is inspiring about the program is that ideas are sourced from all areas of SAP’s business. The GreenToken by SAP solution was sourced from the , the company’s flagship social intrapreneurship program that aims to improve 1 billion lives through a portfolio of sustainable, shared-value impact ventures.

As consumers become more conscious of the origin of the products they buy, they are demanding sustainable and ethically sourced material. GreenToken enhances the traceability of product raw materials through a cloud platform supported by blockchain technology.

The venture’s approach is unique in the market and it will be able to offer companies a new level of transparency for their sourced raw materials, as opposed to the current practice of only tracking the final packaged good. Founders James Veale and Nitin Jain have proved the viability and are continually working to build on the potential impact of their venture.

Digital Identities: Usernames and Passwords Become Obsolete with OwnID

was built to safeguard personal data on various online platforms. The web application enables users to create a single digital identity that will be used to log in to websites and apps.

Today’s online logins include cumbersome account creations and password hassles, which too easily can lead to compromised privacy. OwnID��aims to��transform��identity management by giving users full ownership of their personal data and protecting their digital identities from being dispersed across multiple platforms. The venture plans to create decentralized, portable identities��that users can take with them wherever they go through their phone without installing an app.

A user will click on a link on their phone to register to a website without choosing a password, choose the profile information that they want to share about themselves, and will then be able to use just their phone to login from anywhere.

Not only that, but in business-to-business (B2B) scenarios,��the same portable identity technology could be used by employees to log in and share information securely. Providing��data autonomy for end users could also resolve issues��for companies managing their own customer data and compliance.

Funding and��Founding��Inside��SAP

Dor Shany and��Rooly��Eliezerov are the founding team behind OwnID, and bring deep expertise from identity management platform��Gigya, which 51����acquired in 2017.

“Creating a new business within an organization offers us to work with��the existing company’s assets and infrastructure, which is fundamentally��different from a traditional startup,”��Eliezerov, co-founder of Gigya and OwnID, explained.��“You aren’t starting on a blank canvas.”

About New Ventures and Technologies��

To future-proof 51����and customer businesses, the New Ventures and Technologies organization��drives transformative innovation through technology innovation and product incubation. It��identifies��commercial opportunities in the 51����ecosystem, explores�����Ի� pioneers��the business impact of emerging technologies, and makes��them��enterprise ready.��For more information,��.

Previous��experience in starting��a��business isn’t a requirement within SAP.iO Venture Studio.

“With our approach to product incubation, we��empower��employees��to own their new product,” Graham��Ratcliffe, general manager of��SAP.iO��Venture Studio,��said.��“We’re most interested in the big bets�����Ի� we look for founding teams who want to create new markets.”