SAP has its office in Belarus for several years already. So, it seems that SAP is in the country and it is impossible to speak about opening its market. But nevertheless, we say that it happened on November 24-25 this year, when SAP Labs CIS and SAP CIS - Belarus ran “Innovation forum: SAP for ISV’s” in Byelorussian Hi-Tech Park in Minsk, the event of CIS strategic go-to-market move.
We did open a new geographic market for SAP technological platforms indeed, the market of Byelorussian ISV’s. Only two large Byelorussian companies, EPAM Systems and IBA Group have been partnering with SAP before, starting developing their solutions on HANA and having two localization projects with SAP Co-Innovation Lab partnership in their assets, one per each one. The same time, Belarus is a well-known country for its highly qualified IT engineers who make a lot of offshore programming orders on a daily basis. The entire World knows “World of Tanks” by Byelorussian game-producer “Wargaming”, many people use Viber. Nevertheless, Global technological vendors still miss this country and its IT-developers to engage to their party and stimulate working on their platforms. Surely, Byelorussian developers can use any technologies in their work, and it would be fine if we won their hearts as well as business visions. Thus, we were not late, although not the first we were.
113 people from 60 software development companies visited our two-day forum in Byelorussian Hi-Tech Park, the first day for business and the second one for technologies. Andrey Goryainov, MD at SAP Belarus, said his greeting words to the participants and emphasized what a great meaning does this event have for both parties and Byelorussian IT industry in total.
Vice-president and Head of Global Co-Innovation Lab (COIL) network Rudolf Held started the first day with his presentation of SAP insight of technological and business trends and benefits ISV’s can get if take opportunities to cooperate with SAP. As we decided to focus on ISV’s who develop solutions for Internet of Things, Machine learning, Predictive analytics, and Real-time business, Rudolf demonstrated some experimental solution in IoT area.
EPAM Systems and IBA Group presented their experience of SAP product localization for Belarus in partnership with COIL as well as their projects on HANA. And Rudolf Held awarded both companies with glass signs to “The Best co-innovation partner”.
Yuri Rassokhin, HCP and HEC Solution Sales senior executive, told a lot on how HANA Cloud Platform can be used as a platform for Internet-of-Things solutions.
After lunch all possible opportunities for co-operation as well as SAP programs and business accelerators to support IT developers were presented and explained by our colleagues from SAP Labs and SAP CIS.
Viacheslav Gershov, who is responsible for strategic business development in SAP Labs CIS, told about overall SAP approach to work with ISV’s as well as about SAP Startup focus program and Innovation center network.
Igor Pak, Head of COIL in CIS, and Svetlana Matzkevich, COIL expert, demonstrated Co-Innovation Lab opportunities.
Evgeniy Matveev, Head of OEM, ISV and B1 in CIS, spoke on OEM partnership and PartnerEdge Build program for application development.
Yuri Rassokhin came to the scene again and told how to develop and commercialize with HANA Cloud Platform.
Rustem Rymkulov, ICC manager – CIS, has informed the audience on integration and certification offering by SAP Integration and Certification Center.
And finally, Pavel Yankelevich, PAM – Belarus, presented SAP Belarus office.
Even after 6 hours of hard work we got a very intensive Q&A session, so interested and active were attendees.
The second day was purely technical. COIL architects Vasiliy Sukhanov and Roman Gumenyuk run labs on HANA Cloud Platform, teaching audience to configure HANA instances and build applications. It was amazing to see those people in Hi-Tech Park keen on working with HCP all day long.
The event was of interest of local Media. Therefore, Rudolf, Imran Khan (Head of ICC), Igor Pak, and Viacheslav Gershov were interviewed by two Magazines and Radio Belarus.
Our personal thanks to
Speakers: Rudolf Held, Igor Pak, Svetlana Matzkevich, Yuri Rassokhin, Evgeniy Matveev, Rustem Rymkulov, and Viacheslav Gershov– for wonderful and informative presentations made with inspiration and artistry.
Technical experts: Vasiliy Sukhanov and Roman Gumenyuk for exceptional all-day-long workshop on HANA Cloud Platform
Jun Matsumoto for exceptional photos and preparation process form COIL part
Andrey Goryainov for his greeting words and support of the event in his country of responsibility
Pavel Yankelevich and Pavel Khalopitsa for their deep engagement into preparation process locally as well as for contacts with H-Tech Park and inviting forum attendees
Julia Jantselovskaja for local marketing support
Elena Popova for highlighting the event in Byelorussian Media
Anna Kopetskaya for overall marketing project management
Thank you everybody who made it happen.
Now, we look forward to the future co-innovation projects with Byelorussian ISV’s.
All the best,
Viacheslav Gershov (ideation and general management for this go-to-market initiative)
Business Development Director - SAP Labs CIS