SAP launches Africa's first Co-Innovation Lab

The aim of the lab is to increase competitive advantages, driven by greater efficiency and productivity on the African continent, with the ultimate goal to satisfy the demands of customers driven by digital transformation.

Speed of transformation

“Not only is innovation key to survival in today’s economy,” said Brett Parker, managing director of SAP Africa, “but the speed at which you are able to transform is becoming increasingly critical. Far too often, great ideas are lost. Consequently, businesses are looking for smarter, quicker and more efficient ways to innovate.”

In the context of the digital revolution, the key objective of SAP Co-Innovation Labs is to provision a suitable environment, relevant technology and available expertise to assist partners and therefore, ultimately, customers, to transform good ideas into business-ready solutions, at a much quickened pace. Africa’s entrepreneurial spirit is well-known with rapid technology adoption such as mobile phones significantly enabling entrepreneurship across the continent.

Since the inception of the first lab in Palo Alto in 2007, various SAP Co-Innovation Labs have already been established across the globe in the US East Coast, Brazil, Germany, Switzerland, Russia, India, Singapore, China, South Korea, Japan – all of which boast interconnected operations, supported by cloud computing. Expansion of the lab network around the globe broadens the pool of talent working on solutions and brings a wide array of expertise and knowledge to the table.

Committed to Africa

SAP says its their goal to drive both growth and entrepreneurship on the continent. “Particularly for the Internet of Things (IoT) we see greatest potential to help Africa on the way to digitalisation and that is why we have recently announced to even increase our commitment in the future by bringing an IoT Lab to Johannesburg,” said Tanja Rueckert, executive vice president LoB digital assets and IoT at SAP SE. “We are committed to provide the digital platform, leveraging IoT, big data, a digital core, cloud computing and business networks to enable capabilities relevant to growth in Africa.”

“Africa is a significant source of innovation with global relevance,” concludes Parker. “We are confident that the introduction of the first African SAP Co-Innovation Lab, with its ability to enable and, tangibly showcase the innovation and inventions by Africans, for Africans, will enable us to continue to improve lives through practical solutions, increase skills development. Ultimately the goal is to contribute to job creation by stimulating and driving entrepreneurship across the continent.”