Apple can unleash new applications 40% faster thanks to its deep collaboration with SAP around its Business Technology Platform and the co-creation initiatives the two long-time partners have established.
That was the revelation that really grabbed my attention from among the slew of announcements at SAP TechEd this week in Las Vegas, as SAP CTO Juergen Mueller said that Apple is now able to deliver new apps to its employees in less than six weeks.
And Mueller wasn’t talking about internally focused apps for scheduling conference rooms or checking out the lunch specials in the cafeteria — rather, these new rapid-release apps are designed to optimize essential processes for Apple’s retail teams such as inventory management and store pickup and delivery.
Making these initiatives with Apple the cornerstone of his TechEd keynote, Mueller described how the strategic relationship between the two companies has evolved from one wherein each purchases and uses the other’s products to a deep and intricate co-creation engagement.
For SAP, the core piece in that co-creation engagement is its Business Technology Platform, whose development and commercial success serve as the centerpiece of Mueller’s four-year tenure as the company’s CTO. (Before becoming CTO, he was SAP’s chief innovation officer for two-and-a-half years.)
BTP is the missing link that’s allowed SAP to race aggressively and successfully into the cloud over the past three years (for more detail on that, please see The New SAP: Helping Business Users Become Low-Code Builders).
And in his TechEd keynote, Mueller laid out how SAP’s platform has enabled it to build a broader and deeper business relationship with Apple that simply wasn’t possible before BTP was completed.
“BTP includes best-in-class iOS toolsets to take advantage of Apple’s hardware and software innovations to build powerful and compelling business apps that users love,” Mueller said during the portion of his keynote posted to his LinkedIn page.
“Our long-standing relationship with Apple goes well beyond the apps we build together and the devices we use at SAP, and how we enable our joint customers to delight their users.
“I’m proud about what the teams have done with apps for our own employees for years, and with apps we build for customers. And today, we are excited to hear how Apple is using BTP to power iOS apps across their business.
“It’s remarkable to hear about the incredible apps Apple is building for their employees using BTP and iOS at such incredible scale and speed. And we are learning every day from Apple: They are not only using BTP but also working closely with my team in shaping how we move BTP forward,” Mueller said.
That, to me, was the money shot: “working closely with my team in shaping how we move BTP forward.” Because that isn’t just some arcane concept limited to a tiny number of giant tech companies — no, quite the opposite.
As more businesses enhance their digital capabilities, that co-creation imperative will become essential for every company that wants to build truly strategic relationships with its best customers. And that will be the case regardless of what industry’s involved: From healthcare to insurance to construction to logistics to retail and everywhere in between, deep and high-impact co-creation, build around digital capabilities, is the future of business.
For SAP, this new level of engagement with Apple represents another piece of evidence to my recent contention that while SAP might be 50 years old, it has never been more innovative, more fast-paced, and more opportunistic than it is right now as it enters its second half-century.
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