Stronger together: SAP Industry 4.0 Ecosystem Summit SEA Edition

[Alex_Altermann]

Industry 4.0 is more than a decade old. Companies are working on concepts or even already on projects to digitize their production process, optimize the supply chain and make processes in the factories intelligent. By creating concepts and working on projects it become clearer: Industry 4.0 needs a strong ecosystem to help making it real. SAP’s Industry 4.0 strategy hinges upon the power of its ecosystem that ranges from system Integration partners, industrial machinery manufacturers, network providers to the next generation technology providers.

SAP has built a strong ecosystem that helps joint customers to realize Industry 4.0 projects. Nurturing a vibrant ecosystem of diverse partners requires significant effort. To create an atmosphere to exchange, network and innovate, SAP started the Industry 4.0 Ecosystem Summits, a series of events where SAP and partners from the ecosystem inspire other partners by presenting joint projects and initiatives. It is an initiative to multiply the power of these relationships.

While the European and Japanese summits went virtual, South-East Asia (sometimes referred to as ASEAN) was to be home to the first in-person summits.

This is a region with tremendous potential! According to a McKinsey Study in 2022, the potential economic impact of Industry 4.0 in ASEAN is supposed to be between $ 200-600 billion annually by 2025. The top impacted areas are Manufacturing Operations, Predictive Maintenance, and Inventory Optimization. These areas also happen to be the top areas for SAP’s Industry 4.0 focussed solutions as well.
“Strength lies in differences, not in similarities.” these words by Stephen Covey clearly articulate the theme of the South East Asia Industry 4.0 Summits. Instead of choosing one theme or a single Industry 4.0 pillar, we decided to showcase the breadth of SAP’s Industry 4.0 Ecosystem.

Graham Conlon at the Singapore Edition

The South-East-Asian Industry 4.0 Ecosystem Summits on August 2nd and 4th were opened by keynotes from Graham Conlon, Vice President, Head of Digital Supply Chain APJ, and Ashish Pujari, Global Head of Industry 4.0 Ecosystem. They highlighted how the Industry 4.0 definition has broadened across the entire supply chain and how Industry 4.0 delivers value and in many instances makes the business case for an S/4HANA transformation. Hence, it is an essential part of the RISE conversations. Both also underlined why partners play here a vital role.

Ashish Pujari at the Bangkok Edition

Both events were supported by a set of divers partners from the region. HCL belongs to the Global System Integrators category that work with SAP from multiple angles. Within Industry 4.0, they are working with us on the Design & Manufacturing areas. Sachin Vasantha Prabhu, BTP Solutions Architect at HCL, presented a smart warehousing solution built on SAP’s Business Technology platform.
This presentation was followed by a talk from Krishnan Ramaswamy, Domain Consultant and SAP Digital Manufacturing - Presales Lead at Systema Asia about Systema's approach how to work with the market on Digital manufacturing and why SAP plays an important role for Systema. Systema is a globally acting System integrator and one of the most important partners within SAP's Digital Manufacturing Portfolio.
From the next generation category Jonathan Tan, Managing Director at UnaBiz, joined the summits. Unabiz calls themselves the first massive IoT Service provider. UnaBiz is part of the sap.io Program which supports startups with an SAP related focus to become successful in the market and Jonathan talked about many successful customer projects in Asia.
Last but not least, Teamviewer demonstrated how their integrated industry cloud solution supports blue collar workers to do their jobs efficient and handsfree supported by Augmented Reality. Tushar Joshi (presenter at the Singapore Edition), and Kanit Sarindu (presenter at the Bangkok Edition), Enterprise Account Managers at TeamViewer talked about TeamViewer’s strategy and vision accompanied by a great live demo with Govindu Kakinada, Enterprise Solutions Engineer.

At the end, Malachy Martin, Global Director – Center of Excellence Digital Supply Chain at SAP, joined an Expert Panel with all Partners to give insights how Industry 4.0 evolves with the support of different kinds of partners.

The overall feedback was very positive. The audience (75 registrants and around 50 attendees) liked the variety of presentations and different ways of partnering with SAP. Further highlights in the Singapore Edition were an “Industry 4.0-themed tour” of the SAP Singapore Innovation Centre and the award ceremony for Deloitte South-East Asia for delivering a regional project transforming field service management with SAP’s Industry 4.0 solutions. The networking rounds after the events were used for fruitful discussions between the partners and SAP colleagues.

Pavneet Bedi, Global Digital Supply Chain Partner Director, Partner Ecosystem Success, who is closely working together with strategic partners like HCL, organized and supported the events with his strong network by finding the right speakers and defining the right storyline for the events.

Please share feedback or thoughts in a comment.

For further information you can visit the website where you can also get insights about the virtual European and virtual Japanese Edition 2022. SAP | SAP Industry 4.Now Ecosystem Summit SEA