SAP Leonardo | A global company joins the blockchain revolution

SAP invests in blockchain innovation

As I am working with SAP daily, I get involved in their new inovations early. The market leader in ERP software now starts building their new software on the blockchain. In the following post I provide you with some really interssting cutouts from new early adopter articles. However, I do not respresent SAP and their statements. This is for educational purposes only.

What Is SAP?

SAP is a German multinational software company known for making enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. ERP software allows organizations to manage business operations, and usually refers to suite of modular applications that collect and integrate data from different aspects of the business. While it is the sole focus of this article, SAP is just one provider of ERP software. Others include: Oracle, Microsoft, Infor Orbis, and Epicor.

Blockchain isn't just about the money

Early horror stories about bitcoin, the most famous digital currency to use blockchain, prompted its mainstream dismissal as a dubious tool of the dark web. As the technology matured, blockchain has grown to be more accepted under the guise that it’s useful only for one industry: financial services. While these public perceptions of blockchain aren’t necessarily false, they’re certainly incomplete.

At its core, blockchain is a globally distributed ledger of all the information pertaining to a digital transaction. It runs on millions of devices, is open to anyone and can be used to securely move and store anything of value, including money, art, intellectual property and even votes. As the Harvard Business Review put it, “it’s the first native digital medium for value, just as the internet was the first native digital medium for information.”

How we are bringing blockchain to the enterprise

At SAP, we see blockchain as a promising way to simplify complex multi-party processes and create trust among participants. We’re using our expertise in 25 industries and across all lines of business to actively explore blockchain technology and help you capitalize on its potential. Thanks to SAP Leonardo Blockchain and the SAP Cloud Platform, our customers will be able to redefine their businesses by tapping into blockchain services (BaaS), extending their applications, or building new ones.

With SAP Leonardo, SAP is now announcing a digital innovation system that meaningfully integrates next-generation technologies to help our customers redefine their business – including ready-to-use blockchain technology and our SAP Cloud Platform Blockchain service.

Allowing for Trust and Efficiency in a Network-Driven World

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. At SAP, we see a future in which customers will benefit from our strength in optimizing business processes, not only in a single-company setting but also in a decentralized and network-driven world.

How Blockchain Benefits Network Business: Supply Chain Use Case

Soon, any Internet of Things (IoT) device can register an event that automatically triggers a business process, for example ordering new inventory to keep a production line running. Here the blockchain, as a trusted distributed ledger, can help ensure validation of the order through a digital signature and facilitate the order getting through to the company’s network of suppliers. In a more complex digital supply chain scenario, different suppliers might be able to submit their offers directly to blockchain, and the actual order is anchored in the distributed ledger as well. New suppliers only need to be onboarded onto the blockchain network once, and can then subsequently benefit from the built-in trust when interacting with other participants.

Talk with Mike Flannagan

Sources:

I used pictures and text mainly from the following sites:
http://news.sap.com/sapphire-now-sap-cloud-platform-blockchain-service/
https://www.sap.com/trends/blockchain.html
https://www.forbes.com/sites/sap/2016/11/03/how-blockchain-is-reshaping-business

Please also have a look at this article by Forbes Insights

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