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| SAP Research | |
|---|---|
| Name | SAP Research |
| Type | Research division |
| Founded | 1996 |
| Founder | Hasso Plattner |
| Headquarters | Walldorf, Germany |
| Parent organization | SAP SE |
SAP Research was the global research division established to advance software innovation for SAP SE and to bridge long-term exploratory investigation with product development. It operated research sites worldwide, engaging with academic institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Technische Universität München, and University of Cambridge while collaborating with industry partners including IBM, Microsoft, and Siemens. Its mission connected foundational work in areas like machine learning, cloud computing, Internet of Things, and enterprise resource planning to practical deployment in enterprise systems.
Founded in 1996 by Hasso Plattner within the context of SAP's expansion, the organization grew through the late 1990s and 2000s alongside the dot-com era and the rise of SAP R/3 successors. Early milestones included partnerships with Stanford University and the establishment of labs in Asia and North America during the 2000s technology globalization trend marked by collaborations with Motorola and Nokia. The group adapted to the rise of Service-oriented architecture and later to cloud-centric paradigms influenced by players such as Amazon Web Services and Google. Organizational shifts in the 2010s, including SAP acquisitions such as Sybase and strategic pivots within SAP SE, led to integration of some research outputs into product units and occasional consolidation of laboratories.
Research spans multiple technical domains aligned to enterprise software and digital transformation. Key topics included: - Advanced analytics and machine learning models for decision support, integrating methods from institutions like Carnegie Mellon University and ETH Zurich and influenced by standards from W3C. - Cloud and distributed systems research compatible with platforms such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, informed by concepts from MapReduce and Kubernetes. - Internet of Things investigations tied to industrial partners like Siemens and Bosch, leveraging protocols related to OPC UA and edge computing paradigms explored by Intel and ARM Holdings. - Human–computer interaction and user experience design with links to labs at University of California, Berkeley and Aalto University that applied findings to SAP Fiori style guidelines. - Data management and streaming architectures relating to Apache Kafka, Hadoop, and in-memory data techniques echoing research by SAP HANA teams and academic groups at University of Cambridge. - Security, privacy, and compliance work referencing frameworks from ISO/IEC, collaborations with ENISA, and legal context shaped by rulings such as the Schrems II decision.
The research division operated as a network of autonomous labs reporting to corporate research leadership within SAP SE while interfacing with product engineering teams. Governance involved scientific directors and program managers recruited from academia and industry including alumni of Max Planck Society, Fraunhofer Society, and Bell Labs. Project selection balanced exploratory grants and applied roadmaps tied to product units such as SAP S/4HANA and business initiatives discussed at corporate events like SAP Sapphire. Peer review and publication policies encouraged dissemination in venues like ACM and IEEE conferences.
Labs were distributed across continents to leverage regional expertise and markets. Notable locations included sites near Walldorf, research centers in Palo Alto, units in Shanghai and Bangalore, and collaborations with European hubs in Heidelberg and Stuttgart. Each lab emphasized local industry links, for example ties to Silicon Valley startups and partnerships with automotive clusters in Stuttgart and electronics research in Hsinchu Science Park.
Strategic alliances spanned universities, consortia, and corporations. Academic partners included University of Oxford, Imperial College London, Tsinghua University, and National University of Singapore. Industry partnerships involved SAP SE customers and technology firms like Accenture, Capgemini, and Deloitte for pilot deployments. Participation in standards and open-source ecosystems connected the organization with projects such as Eclipse Foundation, Apache Software Foundation, and consortia like Open Connectivity Foundation and Industrial Internet Consortium.
Mechanisms for transfer included joint development agreements, licensing, spin-offs, and integration into SAP products such as SAP HANA and SAP S/4HANA. Technology scouting fed into corporate development and mergers and acquisitions strategies demonstrated by the acquisition of Sybase and other targeted purchases to access mobile and database capabilities. Spin-out activity and licensing deals leveraged regional incubators and venture partners including High-Tech Gründerfonds and Sequoia Capital-backed startups to move prototypes into market-ready solutions.
The division contributed to prototypes and demonstrators that influenced enterprise software roadmaps, such as scalable in-memory processing concepts that informed SAP HANA architecture and user-centric design principles adopted in SAP Fiori. Notable joint projects included smart manufacturing pilots with Siemens and Bosch under Industry 4.0 initiatives, supply-chain optimization pilots with Unilever and Procter & Gamble, and research on financial analytics in collaboration with Deutsche Bank. Results were published in venues like NeurIPS, SIGMOD, and CHI, and informed patents and standards contributions registered with bodies such as European Patent Office.
Category:Research organizations