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As the SAP Leonardo Live satellite event was coming to a close in Palo Alto on November 2, Sam Yen, SAP’s Chief Design Officer, opened the floor for audience Q&A. The first question from a customer in the audience was: “So, what IS SAP Leonardo – is it a product, a process? What is it?” Quite a question at the end of two hours of remarks on innovation/design thinking, a live demo of IoT Bridge, a discussion of the inventiveness of Leonardo da Vinci, information on the delivery phase of Leonardo, and use cases from Harley Davidson and Mohawk Flooring.

Sam’s answer?: “It’s a brand. It’s an accelerator.  It starts a conversation.” Good answer. But, what does that customer’s question suggest about how we message, present and tell the story of SAP Leonardo so that customers see the practical possibilities for their businesses? It suggests to me that we (SAP) have to untangle the buzzwords of block chain, machine learning and IoT (etcetera, etcetera, etcetera) to demonstrate how with SAP Leonardo a business can construct a solution that delivers tangible results.

Putting myself in the shoes of that audience member, I could understand the confusion around the connection between design thinking practices, the biography of Leonardo da Vinci and block chain/IoT/machine learning/etc. What helped reduce MY confusion was an SAP Leonardo Whiteboard narrated by Jayne Landry, Global VP Product Management for SAP Leonardo and Analytics which I later (after the event) found on You Tube. She walks viewers through a definition of SAP Leonardo, which says that it is:

…a process to intelligently connect people, places and businesses by integrating data captured through a set of technologies (see below)…

…bundled under the SAP Leonardo name, inspired by a man who was part scientist, part artist – traits which parallel the sense of imagination required today to envision, design and build a solution to a business problem using these technologies (see below)…

…and that YOUR businesses’ “imagination” can be captured, codified and deployed using SAP’s Design Thinking Services, where the workshop leaders are skilled not only in design thinking techniques but also the application of tools and processes surrounding these technologies (e.g. IoT) to build an executable technology blueprint to fit your businesses’ use case (see below).

WITH this knowledge, I, wearing my hypothetical customer-in-the-audience hat, could have more effectively consumed the SAP Leonardo Live content presented that day. I hope that audience member’s curiosity was piqued enough to chat with all the SAP staffers on hand to add additional context to the day’s events – or that he went home and accessed all the online content we have that unpacks the concept further.

Conclusions

Days later, as I reflect back on SAP Leonardo Live, and apply my newfound knowledge about SAP Leonardo from subsequent hunting through sap.com, You Tube, Twitter and more, MY big three take-aways from the day are:

* Innovation = Creativity x Execution

“Creativity is problem finding; Execution is problem solving” – Sam Yen’s opening about the process of design thinking provides much more context for me now.

* Leonardo da Vinci inspires us to collaborate with teams comprised of people “who want to learn everything there is about everything there is… who see patterns across disciplines… who are disrupters whose reach exceeds their grasp” – Walter Isaacson, author, Leonardo da Vinci. I understand why we chose this name for this initiative much more clearly now.

 

* Real customer examples of success with SAP Leonardo processes are the best way to accelerate a prospect’s comprehension of the “art of the possible” that Leonardo is built upon.

The examples mentioned at the Palo Alto event of Mohawk Flooring and Harley Davidson provided the closure I needed on the day to see the actual application of the complete process.

From now on, when someone asks: “So, what IS SAP Leonardo?” I will first respond with customer examples that speak louder than any presentation SAP can create – -cases such as:

Antibes: A Smarter and Safer City (video)

SKF Systems: Reaching Peak Manufacturing Efficiency (video)

ARI: Streamlining Fleet Operations with SAP Leonardo and SAP HANA (video)

In my opinion, customer transformation stories are the most effective way to communicate the power of SAP Leonardo.

What has helped YOU understand SAP Leonardo? http://bit.ly/2z4PLDn #SAP #SAPCloud #AI

We are delighted to announce the release of SAP Predictive Analytics 3.3. This new release is available for download on SAP Software Center.

Python API for Automated Analytics

Automated Analytics provides a set of machine learning functions such as classification, regression, key influencers, clustering, forecasting, recommendation and link analysis to easily answer business questions with no need for extensive training or data science skills.

Python is an open-source programming language widely used within the data science community.

Through its Python API, SAP Predictive Analytics 3.3 allows developers to build powerful machine learning applications. They can now use Python as a scripting language to create, train, debrief and apply automated models.

The new API makes automated functions available not only within a Python script but also within a web-based interactive computational environment like the Jupyter Notebook.

Publish Predictive Models to SAP Business Applications

Predictive Factory is a web-based application that simplifies, accelerates and automates the predictive modeling process.

Predictive Analytics integrator (PAi) is a framework for applications built on SAP HANA to use and manage predictive models. It is a component of SAP Predictive Analytics.

With version 3.3, Predictive Factory users can seamlessly publish customized classification and regression models to a PAi server for integration into SAP business applications such as SAP Fraud Management or SAP S/4HANA Sourcing and Procurement.

Data Privacy Support

SAP Predictive Analytics 3.3 comes with security features and specific data-protection functions to support compliance with the relevant legal requirements and data privacy.

Predictive Factory delivers new capabilities to implement a data retention policy and limit the accumulation of unnecessary data storage. Administrators can schedule the automatic daily deletion of data. A new log file helps them trace data deletion activity. Administrators can also keep track of active user accounts and user access to forecast and signal analysis data.

Other Features

Before you go and download the 3.3 release let’s see other features it brings.

You can deploy Predictive Factory 3.3 on Linux systems as well as Windows.

User authentication is now consolidated with extended LDAP support in Predictive Factory.

The SQL scoring equation, for classification automated models, includes new prediction outputs like the decision and the contributions. http://bit.ly/2z4XQrM #SAP #SAPCloud #AI

If your website is not getting the attention you’re expecting, then you’re most probably doing something wrong in regard to SEO. You may want to revisit your SEO strategies, as there are certain things about search engine optimization that many of us don’t know when we are starting out.

Looking back over the last decade, there are several things I wish a beginner should know about SEO before getting started. We’ll be going through the most significant ideas of SEO, so you have the leg up on the competition.

There are Diverse Opinions on SEO

You should realize that search engines don’t provide us with a specific instructional manual on everything we should know. That results in many opinions about SEO.

If you get a panel of three SEO experts together and ask them one question, you will probably get three different answers and opinions. This can be very confusing if you are new to SEO. You know why?

You don’t know which opinion to take and which one to ignore. You may want to go with the opinion of the most experienced person. However, the best way to approach this issue is to do a comprehensive research. There are numerous valuable SEO resources out there produced by experienced professionals.

Search Engines are Dynamic

Google updates their algorithm at least hundreds of times every year. So, when you are celebrating that you finally have it all figured out, something changes. How do you deal with this dynamism?

It is imperative that you understand search engine guidelines. There are some fundamentals that you need to grasp. Then, you should start reading Google blogs regularly, in addition to following key Google employees on social media. This ensures that you’re always updated on latest developments.

Of course, there are certain basic rules that apply, and will most likely continue to apply for just about any site that aims to rank well:

* Make sure your site is mobile-friendly
* It’s better to have a smaller number of well-organized pages then dozens of useless ones
* If relevant, you should look into adding a blog to your site
* Social media is important, and posting useful content regularly is even better, so don’t skip this step
* Have a well-defined niche and stick to it. Sites that host just about anything don’t do so well, instead, you should ask yourself what are you really trying to accomplish, and then try to become an authority in that field. Just as SAP is an authority in enterprise software, TechCrunch for all things tech, and LifeToLiveIt for health-related topics, you too should carve your niche and dominate it.
* List your business everywhere. Local directories, Google Maps, anything that will let you register your site and let people know you exist and are open for business.

Transparency is Key

If you are running an SEO agency, you should realize that clients need transparency. If you don’t provide it, your business will be at risk, even if you’re doing top-quality work. Sometimes, the deliverable could be something that doesn’t need client feedback. Just send it in a bid to uphold full transparency and accountability.

Transparency also includes comprehensive monthly reporting. Namely, there should be context and explanation to the data, not simply an auto-generated report. You need to effectively highlight the work accomplished during the month.

SEO Won’t Grow Your Business Overnight

While searching for SEO-based content, you must have come across SEO service providers that promise to increase your website traffic instantly. Those are mostly scams as it is most certainly not possible to achieve.

Unless you are applying some black-hat technique that may end up having a negative impact on your website. It can also be spam-based traffic that will just end up destroying your analytics. While SEO is effective, it won’t grow your business instantly. You know why?

When you are just starting to build your online presence, you already have millions of websites to compete with for organic traffic. It will take you several months to beat that. According to Forbes, many SEO agencies will tell clients that SEO will generate results in four to six months’ time.

That is based on several factors, which include:

* How efficient your website is
* How much content there is
* How many links you use

As a final thought, if you are just starting on SEO, there are several things you should know in order to achieve the desired results. In that light, this article explores the four most important things to keep in mind before you get into SEO. Follow them diligently and see SEO work for you. http://bit.ly/2nYd3Ye #SAP #SAPCloud #AI