SAP has announced the opening of Africa’s first ever SAP Co-Innovation Lab (COIL) to innovate jointly with software solution partners, system integrators and technology partners on current and future technologies.
Managing Director of SAP Africa, Brett Parker said, “Not only is innovation key to survival in today’s economy,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.”
While speaking, Executive Vice President LoB Digital Assets and IoT at SAP SE, Dr. Tanja Rueckert explained: “Co-Innovation links the innovative power of SAP and its ecosystem of partners to help our customers on the way to a true digital business. We are very happy to now be able to bring the proven model of the SAP Co-Innovation Labs to Africa.”
MineRP’s John Megannon added that: “Collaborating with the SAP Co-Innovation Lab in Africa provided us access to a range of local and global skills we required to bring our vision to life for a truly integrated enterprise solution enabling unified business planning across technical and ERP domains in the Energy & Natural Resources Industry.
“With the completion of our SAP COIL Phase 2 project, we will have the first in a series of market-ready offerings available and have customers ready to adopt the solution.”
On commitment to Africa, Dr Rueckert explained that, “Particularly for the Internet of Things (IoT) we see greatest potential to help Africa on the way to digitalization and that is why we have recently announced to even increase our commitment in the future by bringing an IoT Lab to Johannesburg.”
Parker finally concluded by saying: “Africa is a significant source of innovation with global relevance.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,” he added.
