With
SAP Extension Suite, SAP has simplified application development. What better way than to stay agile and flexible when it comes to extend the value of business applications. Over the last several months, SAP is working closely with Partners to help them build innovations with SAP Extension suite. The
#Hack2Build initiative is a close cooperation across many SAP teams to bring Partner Innovations gain momentum, around SAP Extension suite.
This time, partners from Australia and New Zealand ( ANZ), Japan and Southeast Asia(SEA) threw their hats in the ring for the #Hack2Build APJ inaugural event. It was an interesting experience to have a sizeable number of 10 partners come forward with their own SAP S/4HANA Cloud extension ideas and in less than 7 days produced tangible outcomes.
Image 1: Partners in the Inaugural #Hack2Build APJ event
The Partners were briefed, coached, supported during the hackathon by SAP experts on the various approaches to build the extensions using SAP Business Technology Platform ( SAP BTP). The partners were exposed to the Cloud Foundry environment as well as Kyma environment on SAP BTP. The prototypes varied from providing templates to ease SAP Concur integration with SAP S/4HANA, providing an integrated platform using Slack and teams for agile developers, employee's utilization of corporate workplace assets and a portal for distributors to perform self-service along with the winning use-cases described below.
The partners were given 10 min to present their ideas, demonstrate the extension solution prototype developed using SAP BTP and 5 min to answer the Judges questions.
The following partners emerged as Winners, along with one overall Runner-up for APJ.
For Australia and New Zealand , the Winner is PWC Australia
Tax laws in Australia and internationally are becoming increasingly complex. Around the world, tax planning activities are attracting more and more attention from governments, media and other stakeholders. Free trade agreements are creating greater opportunities for Australian businesses. These agreements mean more than just lower import costs and better penetration into export markets. PwC demonstrated how to simplify the determination of indirect tax, including GST and Excise, using rules maintained by PwC tax specialists. The
tax determination API leveraged multiple components from SAP Business Technology Platform and open-source technologies where PwC demonstrated a tax audit trail and analytic dashboards.
Image2: PWC's industry specific indirect tax dashboard
For Japan, the Winner is SCSK Corporation
For Automotive companies, ‘Naiji’ management has business customs which are unique to Japan. ‘Naiji’ means Unofficial notification. “Naiji” management” is one of the mechanisms in which the finished vehicle manufacturer presents the unofficial announcement information to the parts supplier in advance (usually from 3 months in advance) and transmits the confirmed order information immediately before the start of production by the company.
SCSK developed a solution for Japanese-specific business customs which showcased how ‘Naiji’- ‘Unofficial order’ would be realised using side-by-side extension of SAP S/4HANA on SAP BTP. Product planning and order forecasting to predict the future before the unofficial order was depicted as a key part of SCSK solution. Additional data such as customer information, detailed product information, weather information, and current affairs information, for better accuracy in forecasting was highlighted.
Image3: SCSK's Automotive specific 'Naiji' management application
For Southeast Asia, the Winner is Netizen
A Billing Experience (BillEx) application was developed by Netizen to improve Billing and Payment (B&P) cycles for Indonesia and South East Asia customers.This platform is able to integrate with both SAP and non-SAP systems. The use of SAP conversational AI with integration to 3
rd party Line app for push message with job scheduler. The BillEx application built using SAP BTP cloud foundry environment, seamlessly extends SAP S/4HANA cloud which holds the Business partner repository with the B&P policy data maintained in the application. As per the billing calendar, and the notification configurations, a job scheduler triggers the events. SAP event mesh then allows the application to communicate through asynchronous events to the Line messaging App to notify the B&P schedule to end customers. BillEx aims to address improved cash flow by addressing correct B&P information with customers, which helps to avoid payment delays by 30-45 days.
Image 4: BillEx- A Billing experience application by NETIZEN
APJ Region Overall 1st Runner Up is ISS consulting, Thailand
ISS Consulting, a NTT Data Company, showcased a Restaurant and retail solution which was called ‘GeoMarketing Tycoon’. As a gamifying approach, the solution addresses the retailers to spot real time sales opportunities in their target group, gives them the ability to analyse the delayed deliveries area wise. The Tycoon application provides an ability to locate competitors' stores with geographical data for their target market. The density of retailer stores in relation to consumer demand and the market opportunities were shown as color coded in google maps. Realtime External data from trusted public API’s like Google maps were mapped in the Tycoon application built using SAP BTP. The external population data was persisted in SAP S/4 HANA Cloud HANA database. The solution aims to provide faster decision making with an ability to assess the market potential, reach areas, identify areas exclusively being served and the analyse the reach of the competitor stores.
Image 5: GeoMarketing Tycoon, an application by ISS Consulting
The Panel of Judges
The Judges from across SAP teams spent considerable time witnessing each of the 10 partner demos over 2 hours duration. The judges appreciated the diversity of the innovations tabled and the quality of the demos shown leveraging SAP BTP for S/4 HANA Cloud side-by-side extensions.
The choice was unanimous when it was time to pick the winners for the #Hack2Build event. Listen to the Judges views about the event.
Many thanks to the judges for sparing their time, providing the insights and sharing their feedback to the participating companies:
- Ashok Munirathinam, Head of Platform and Technology CoE, APJ
- Martin Grasshoff, Lead, Product Manager, SAP BTP Extension Suite, SAP SE
- Rajamani Srinivasan – VP & Head of Partner Transformation APJ
- Takeshi Oga – Chief Transformation Officer & Head of PES, SAP Japan
- Vasanth Kumar – SAP Co-Innovation Lab, APJ and Middle East
The ONE SAP team
Several teams across SAP came together to plan and execute the event in a seamless manner. I would like to acknowledge the team which contributed to the success of the #Hack2Build-APJ event.
Partner Transformation, APJ: Rajamani Srinivasan, Ian Callow, Jessica Chang, Norio Fukuchi
Digital Ecosystem, Japan: Takeshi Oga, Satoshi Watai, Taro Ozaki, Mizuka Noda
Strategic Partner : Stewart Harris, Sarah Andrews
Platform and Technology COE, APJ: Ashok Munirathinam, Manjunath Chandrasekhar, Masaki Takahashi
ISV Presales: Kenji Goto
Language Experience Lab: Kazuhiko Iida
Partner Readiness: Deepak Mukhija, Faizullah Mohammed Shaik
Partner Innovation Lifecycle services: Venketesan Ganesh
SAP Co-Innovation Lab: Atsushi Minakuchi, Akira Ogawa, Phillip Phiri, Vasanth Kumar