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SAP seeks SA players to join blockchain initiative

Sibahle Malinga
By Sibahle Malinga, ITWeb senior news journalist.
Johannesburg, 02 Oct 2017
SAP's Leonardo Blockchain Co-Innovation programme enables companies to experiment with the distributed ledger tech.
SAP's Leonardo Blockchain Co-Innovation programme enables companies to experiment with the distributed ledger tech.

SAP is in conversation with local blockchain players to form active collaborations to leverage its blockchain platform, to build extensions for existing business applications across various industries.

The enterprise application software company has introduced the global SAP Leonardo Blockchain Co-Innovation programme aimed at making the digital ledger system an integrated part of Internet of things (IOT), manufacturing and digital supply chain solutions, using its Cloud Platform Blockchain service.

According to SAP, the Leonardo Blockchain Co-Innovation initiative gives companies the opportunity to test applications, including registering products and services to blockchain, from product inception and design, to manufacturing and logistics phases for product track and trace. It also aims to address inventory management and product authenticity.

The company says it will collaborate with local multiple system integrator companies that may want to leverage its platform and use it to provide solutions that help ensure the accelerated adoption and rollout of blockchain-enabled IOT and digital supply chain solutions in SA.

"In the digital economy, an iterative, fast-paced approach in close collaboration with our customers and partners is imperative," says Dr Juergen Mueller, chief innovation officer, SAP. "With the blockchain service as part of the SAP Leonardo digital innovation system, we are enabling an open collaboration around distributed business processes in peer-to-peer networks."

Last week, at the SAP TechEd conference, SAP announced the initial global companies participating in the blockchain co-innovation initiative: Capgemini, Deloitte, GrainCorp, HCL Technologies, HERE Technologies, Moog and NetApp.

These organisations are among a number of companies collaborating with SAP to validate use cases and business models for blockchain usage for product and asset lifecycle management solutions.

The firm says it is also exploring digital supply chain scenarios where different suppliers submit blockchain-related proposals to improve effectiveness across their business networks.

Blockchain is a completely novel architecture for business, with the potential for building a new generation of applications that establish trust and transparency while simultaneously facilitating the validation and execution of transactions in multi-party processes and business networks, notes SAP.

George Small, CTO of Moog, one of the global companies participating in the blockchain co-innovation initiative, believes distributed ledger technology will be a key enabler for more digital, connected and leaner workflows within the industrial, medical and aerospace businesses.

"We believe that shared, distributed ledgers are all about collaboration and openness. Our collaboration with SAP will accelerate the development of distributed ledger tools and infrastructure needed to realise our vision of the future," explains Small.

SAP has also opened registration for the SAP Leonardo Blockchain Early Access programme, which provides registered SAP customers and partners access to standard SAP products that have been enhanced and augmented with blockchain functionality.

"At SAP, we see a future in which customers will benefit from our strength in optimising business processes in a decentralised and network-driven world," says the company.

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