Helping others by doing your job perfectly

There is some kind of a time prejudice embedded in the words “technology” and “innovation.” If I were to tell you a company is a champion of innovation in high technology, you would assume the company I referred to would probably be very young.

It is because we tend to think that innovation comes from the latest founded, youngest companies. However, once more, I have witnessed that meaningful innovation comes from older software companies such as SAP at their SAP Now event in Istanbul last week.

SAP was founded in Germany in 1972 under the name Systemanalyse und Programmentwicklung (“System Analysis and Program Development”). In 2018, according to their statements, they are the world leader in enterprise applications in terms of software and software-related service revenue. Based on market capitalization, they are the world’s third largest independent software manufacturer.

The company’s ERP system enables its customers to run their business processes, including accounting, sales, production, human resources and finance in an integrated environment. They also have a high end platform called SAP HANA, which is an in-memory database and application development platform for processing high volumes of data in real time.

This is the platform where the magic happens for most other companies who use SAP, as it lets you create big data sets for your company and analyze the results in any way you wish. It is used by a very diverse set of customers, from airlines to football clubs. That is why TÜSİAD President Erol Bilecikli said at the event that if there would be such a list, SAP would be at the top of the list of companies, which creates the most value for their customers.

During the event, I had the opportunity to meet with SAP Turkey’s General Manager Uğur Candan. To tell you the truth, it was a relief to meet a person who is so “fact based enthusiastic” about Turkey and Turkish firms. Lately, everyone I speak to is very pessimistic about our country. So when Mr. Candan told me the SAP data hub that was established in 2014 at Teknopark Istanbul as one of the five big data research institutes in the world is creating world class projects, I was extremely happy.

He told me about the Borusan experience with the Data Hub. They have collected information from thousands of data points from hundreds of heavy-duty work vehicles in order to understand which vehicles should go to maintenance and when. Because out of many thousands of vehicles, they should send 800 of them to maintenance, but which ones? That was the biggest question. After the successful implementation of the project, Borusan knows the answers and they gain millions of euros more.

Mr. Candan also talked about the fact that real time data analysis lets boardrooms turn fully digital. It is especially important in troubled times. Candan also said they have established the Young Professionals Program in 2018. Twenty-eight young professionals graduated from the program, all of whom are already employed. The second will start in December at Ankara.

We also talked about the ways in which SAP is helping the world. It is a very big trend among the biggest tech companies to help out NGOs by donating cash. However, SAP has another view. Candan said SAP does not believe in donating money, instead they help NGOs by teaming up with them in order to solve the problems they are working with.

He also said the biggest good in the world is doing your job perfectly and in turn helping your customers do their jobs perfectly. It is a saying that should be the mantra of more companies.