SAP: Coming Soon To A Car Near You

Announcing the SAP Connected Vehicle Package, Provided by the SAP for Automotive Cloud

Recently I hinted about the challenges and opportunities associated with electric vehicles for end-users, customers, and partners of all kinds, from utilities to automotive OEMs to the end-users driving the cars themselves. SAP announced the SAP for Utilities Cloud EV Readiness Package to address some of the potential for utilities to get involved in this world of evolving business models.

Now, SAP is announcing a new package addressed to the automotive industry called the SAP Connected Vehicle Package, Provided by the SAP for Automotive Cloud:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=wcN8PSx_p78

This solution aims to help our automotive OEM partners innovate in new markets for connected vehicles, just as the Utilities package is geared towards helping utilities in the nascent electric vehicle markets.

The Connected Vehicle Package is, in short, a cloud-based solution provided by SAP NetWeaver Cloud that offers many SAP and partner services for drivers, such as smart parking, smart fueling, and access to data in the car and on mobile devices.  Scalable and flexible pricing, billing, and payment features let the driver execute in-car transactions for points of interest.  Optimal location-based services and coupon offers are enabled by big data analysis of service usage patterns. 

Those of you who were in Las Vegas at TechEd earlier this month had the chance to see us demo what this looks like in person at the Sustainable IT clinic on the showroom floor. Here’s what it looked like in person: 

We demoed a real electric vehicle charge spot and showed our driver portal on the cloud that takes advantage of connected car and charge spot data to allow you to find and reserve similar charge spots. Beyond purely electric vehicle scenarios, connected car data allows us to take advantage of new business opportunities that solve real driver needs for today and beyond.  In a companion iPad application, we demonstrated how we use Real Time Offer Management to find and present the closest parking spots, and then recommend relevant offers associated with, for example, nearby restaurants or other points of interest.  These applications are all made possible through the SAP Connected Vehicle Package.

Now that newer vehicles can be connected to the Internet all the time, we can take advantage of an influx of details from the cars and drivers themselves to provide these new experiences and services for players on all sides of the connected car equation.  These solutions can be programmed into applications for any number of devices: browser-based applications for use by drivers at their desktops before they embark on a trip, mobile applications for use on-the-go, or even directly into the head-unit (dashboard) of the cars themselves.  With this solution, SAP helps automakers and drivers alike adapt to the brave new world of connected driving.

Check it out the video, let us know what you think, and please get in touch with us if you are interested in exploring more.