I had the chance the other day to talk with Gil Perez (SVP IoT & Customer Innovation - General Manager Connected Vehicles & IoT Security) about all the exciting things he and his team are working on, and there is a lot. I can't cover it all, so I thought I would start with Connected Parking, which is a great example of a new IoT business with smart devices and smart cars.
I think this is a fascinating topic, I know parking! But it is, and what is truly exciting for SAP is that "parking" is probably one of the last untapped markets out there, and if you don't believe it, in the US alone it is worth $25 billion! And the thing is, not matter what you drive, you have to be able to park! And we all know it can be a real pain to find a space, where you need it and when you need it. But what if, when you got into your car you knew that there was a space available and you could pay for that space with one click - quickly and hassle free!
So where does SAP come in? This is a transaction based business model. SAP gets paid every time a parking payment transaction is made. SAP will obviously not get into operating a parking business, yet we will facilitate and provide a B2B marketplace for parking.
SAP announced in Vegas in October the availability of SAP Vehicles Network (SVN) B2B marketplace that enables convenient end-to-end vehicle and mobility-centric services such as parking and fueling. In addition it also enables drivers to share data securely. It allows app providers and automotive companies to gain access to tens of thousands of mobile payment-enable parking garages, significantly improving the driver's digital experience. This new customer experience is built on SAP's HANA Cloud Platform (HCP) and the Internet of Things.
What else? The team announced at SAP TechEd Barcelona that we are expanding SAP Vehicles Network availability in key European markets, with a number of leading parking aggregators including:
- EasyPark, with parking inventory in eight European countries and more than 400 city and parking operator contacts located in Berlin, Barcelona and Rome
- ParkCloud, a leading provider of airport parking, doing business in 39 countries worldwide
- OPG Center-Parking, one of the leading providers of off-street parking in Germany
So what's next? To learn more, please come and visit us in February @ Mobile World Congress - www.sap.com/mwc (#MWC16 and #SAPMWC16)
See you there!
Tanja