Do you have the genes for taking a risk?

Back in 2004 I had my first serious experience as an entrepreneur. I started a small wine shop in Barcelona and as you might imagine I felt a little lost. Of course, every single decision was difficult to manage, from choosing the location, dealing with bureaucracy to get the paperwork done, evaluate vendors, prepare campaigns – everything was very tedious and required long hours to accomplish the objectives.

I’m not in the wine business anymore (at least not directly involved, apart from the consuming), however I’ve got to say that we managed to sell the business to another company. The deal was good enough for me and my business partners at that moment in time, but alas I am not a millionaire!

Since late 2006, I’ve been working as a consultant with a focus on SAP solutions. It was a completely new world for me, every client was a new challenge that required me to step out of my comfort zone.

My mind has always been bubbling with new ideas. I often found myself thinking “that’s a great idea!”. But then I needed to find a way to turn it into a business. I’ve always had the same issue: “the company”.

Now you don’t need to be a millionaire to transform your ideas into real business!

I have now started a small consultancy business working with and for medium to large consultancy firms, turning ideas into something tangible. 

It has again been terribly difficult. Trying to explore a way out of my previous company I always faced the same issue: “How can I finance my idea?”, barriers to entry not getting any lower.

Then I realised that a handful of technologies has in very recent years contributed to an explosion of entrepreneurship making the prospect of starting a tech company a reality, a more accessible reality. And SAP is certainly not staying away from this trend.

Here are my tips on how to get your ideas up and running using technology that a few years ago was only accessible to the privileged few:

1. Have fun and play.

You have a few ideas but maybe you’re not ready or sure about starting a new business? SAP is offering a free HANA trial where you can explore native HANA XS and open languages to work with, as an example Java. You can completely build a FIORI app using ODATA services and webIDE.

Click on the link below and create your  HANA Trial account

https://account.hanatrial.ondemand.com/

https://open.sap.com

2. Get hands on with new SAP offerings.

For a while now we’ve been hearing about Hybris, S4H, SAP Lumira on Cloud,  SAP Predictive analytics, APF (Analytics PAth framework). No longer are these inaccessible platforms! And now, you can reach more complete ways of testing the product. SAP is offering a variety of free resources and training to really get hands on with the new solutions.

http://www.sap.com/software-free-trials/index.html

You fancy to play around with a great tool for marketers? You want to segment your clients, target a group and run a campaign? Just follow the link below and discover a vast amount of Hybris features.

Hybris: https://cal.sap.com/console/trial/sharedtrials?solution=yMKT

Accept the contract and start 14 days free trial

SAP S4H: https://www.sap.com/cmp/dg/crm-s4hana/index.html

Let’s create a data analysis path with your own tiles? Do you want to experience how usability has changed? Step into the SDK for UI5 APF Analytic Path Framework:

https://sapui5.hana.ondemand.com/sdk/test-resources/sap/apf/demokit/app/index.html#

Beautiful data visualizations.

SAP Lumira: https://cloud.saplumira.com/landing-page.jsp

TIPS & TRICKS : Most of this trials can be extended by resetting your password once expired

3. Get your landscape set up … in the cloud

Today you can access a variety of SAP solutions at a relatively low cost to prepare demos or Proof of Concepts (PoC). These allow you to express your ideas in full and not be limited in your presentations by wire-frame mock-ups or awful PowerPoints slides. Now more than ever, it is necessary to demonstrate the product in full.

SAP is offering through SAP CAL, the SAP Application Library, access to development and demo environments from S4H to SAP Predictive analytics. The downside is that the service is not entirely free. The hosting is managed in AWS (Amazon Web Services) but you can get access to an S4H Business Suite demo to play around for about 100$/month. SAP Predictive analytics is also available for around 86$/month. You can also pay per usage (PaaS).

You may require an S (account number) to use some of these services. Follow below links to get your landscape up and running for your demos.

https://aws.amazon.com/sap/getting-started/

https://aws.amazon.com/free

https://cal.sap.com/