SAP Labs has set up a centre in Bengaluru that will work on emerging technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT) to help speed up adoption of HANA.

This centre will work on IoT projects for its parent, the multi-billion tech giant SAP, which develops software such as ERP used by enterprises globally.

Looking for partners Company executives did not disclose the number of employees who will work on IoT but said that a large part of the 4,500 employees in SAP Labs will work on this. Additionally, the company is aggressively looking to woo partners — both traditional and start-ups to accelerate its growth in IoT.

Talking to BusinessLine , Dilipkumar Khandelwal, Managing Director, SAP Labs India, said the reason for setting up this lab is due to the fact that around 50 billion devices are expected to be connected to the Internet and this would require large computing prowess, which can be addressed by its HANA technology.

“Also, we want to define standards in IoT and through initiatives like this we want to achieve our objective, which would be simple to implement,” added Khandelwal.

The company is open to working with companies that have sensors built into their products, something which it has not done consistently in the past, according to industry watchers.

These developments come at a time when SAP recently overhauled its HANA database platform, which is used by companies from automotive maker Daimler to sports association NFL.

The company, which has its technology running in about 1,400 manufacturing companies such as Harley Davidson, is seeing a marked shift in the way these companies are running their IT systems.

“Companies are figuring out ways to do predictive maintenance that can proactively solve the problem before it arises by analysing large amounts of data,” said Krishnan Raman, CEO of Flutura, a Palo Alto-based company that provides HANA solutions to oil and gas customers.

“The labs will work on enabling customers to make sense of the information coming from hardware, software and networking devices to make informed decisions for their businesses,” said Srikanth Gopalakrishnan, VP- HCM, SAP Labs.

Related Topics