Recently, SAP CEO Bill McDermott recalled about SAP’s commitment to be curious about the customer’s needs and business, at all times. This approach based on empathy is at the heart of the SAP Labs in France activities. Whether it is in the development processes or maintenance services, our focus is on attaining a synergy between our teams and customers, making the one team spirit live to drive performance. Like in sport, teamwork becomes the most powerful way to achieve the ultimate goal.
For years, SAP Labs in France have integrated the notion of collaboration to ensure an on-going innovation. Through organic growth and acquisitions, the SAP centers of research & development in France have built teams with many profiles and diverse backgrounds that have led the different units to become key players on the software field.
Going further, SAP Labs in France have these past few years leveraged various methods to connect and interact with their customers. Co-innovation programs, tailored support processes or yet Design-Thinking sessions are some of the ways SAP use to be close to the business, regardless the industry or the functional job. Identifying what the customers want today and anticipate what they would need tomorrow is a major pillar within SAP at all levels. However, this requires to being interested in the human side of things, in the end-user, as much as discussing the projects in terms of Total Cost of Ownership and implementation return of investment.
Going beyond our customer’s expectations
Understanding what our technology and solutions mean to our customers gives the Labs the most powerful way to solve problems and unlock potential. No need to recall that changing mindset in front of a problem can bring high standard and added-value solutions. ''We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them” said Albert Einstein. That philosophy is exactly what motivates the Design-Thinking sessions we set up at SAP Labs in France.
Think out-of-the-box is a priority in a world moving so fast. No benefit to run only, it’s important to run better. One perfect proof of that concept is the SAP story with the United Nations. In 2014, they asked SAP to work on their tool to make it evolve and correspond to their functional needs. As a complex structure and large organization present in many countries, they have a high level of requirements in terms of resources management. In order to perfectly answer these essentials, SAP built a cross-LoBs team including members of the Center of Excellence Public Sector who exchanged many times with the customer. The objective was to clearly understand their business, context and needs. It was also necessary to quickly adapt, ability made possible thanks to this strong collaboration with the customer. At the end, it’s a happy customer who warmly congratulated SAP for the way they have been accompanied during their transformation journey.
Fulfill SAP vision to help world run better
Additionally to the SAP’s customer-oriented strategy, SAP Labs in France have also launched a series of Corporate and Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives whose purpose is to benefit to the world, and not only to their own teams, nor solutions or customers. They regularly organize, in partnership with MakeSense, a global platform of incubation for social entrepreneurs, what is called Impactathons, to help young tycoons with their business challenges. Sharing the expertise of SAP employees, whether they are developers, testers, UX designers, product owners, or with additional roles, enables to help those who need it and that brings also a lot to Labs’ employee who participates. It’s a win-win strategy!
Gaming is everywhere. Learning by playing makes it easy and fun. That’s the reason why SAP Labs in France have participated in the Hour of Code and European Code week activities. As a game changer and thought leader in the software and cloud industry, SAP considers as a responsibility to promote coding, programming and raise kids awareness on what is behind new technologies. Therefore, SAP Labs in France started a specific campaign in French schools to teach pupils the basics of programming.
All these activities are a great source of inspiration daily. And confirm SAP Labs in France’s vision that we can achieve more, together.
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