The News: At SAP TechEd, SAP’s Tech Education focus was in the spotlight, as the company announced new products and services to empower and drive tech education. From a unified low-code/no-code development experience on SAP Business Technology Platform, to composable enterprise solutions across the SAP Suite and embedded AI offerings, SAP’s Tech Education enhancements mean that anyone, regardless of skill level, can create new applications, enhance existing ones, and automate tasks. Read the full press release here.
SAP’s Tech Education Focus is Front and Center at SAP TechEd Aimed at Closing the Skills Gap
Analyst Take: Organizations around the globe in almost every industry have experienced digital transformation on steroids over the course of the last 18 months. While this rapid transformation has been relatively successful, but it has also highlighted a major problem: most organizations lack the right tech talent. SAP’s Tech Education focus took center stage at the company’s TechEd event, demonstrating how SAP is tackling this problem head on with the release of these new programs, tools, and integrations. It’s SAP’s hope that anyone — from citizen developers to professionals — can quickly and easily have the tools and training needed in order to build the skills necessary for the cloud-first digital era we inhabit.
Overview of SAP’s New Tools and Integrations
Finding employees with the right skillsets has been a challenge as every organization, regardless of industry, is a tech organization today. Technology is a key driver of transformation across the entire organization, but technology alone isn’t the answer, people working in concert with technology is the goal. Which is why I anticipate that the flurry of new tools released at SAP TechEd will quickly prove invaluable, as people and organizations look to improve their tech knowledge and expertise. With the extensive list of innovative updates announced at SAP TechEd, there is something for just about everyone. The updates that caught my eye include:
- No-code / low-code / pro-code solutions like SAP AppGyver and process automation capabilities available on the SAP Business Technology Platform
- Composable enterprise solutions across the ERP suite, SAP Integration Suite, SAP HANA Cloud, and SAP IBP for Supply Chain, to name just a few
- Embedded AI for various functions, designed to simplify processes across the organization
- Learning and educational courses for anyone, from students of all ages to employees at every level
To see the full list visit SAP’s website announcement here
SAP Recognized that Tech Education is Vital for the Future
Companies in almost every industry are in dire need of qualified tech talent, but there has been a lack of resources for people to quickly and easily build the skills needed. SAP’s Tech Education offerings showcased this week are a promising look at what I think will be the future of tech education, and also serves to democratize the process of learning and career enrichment. Anyone, at virtually any level, will be able to take courses and explore applications that can not only support them in their continuous learning efforts, but also help them establish and reach their career goals into the future — something our research has shown is important to employees and aids in both recruitment and retention efforts.
As I see it, SAP recognizes, and has for some time, the need to play a more central part in the growth of the citizen developer and provide a more robust set of tools for customers to develop applications that can benefit from the data that resides on SAP and beyond. While this, and what we see with SAP’s Tech Education offerings is more a continuation of a narrative, than a brand new one, I do believe the greater commitment to the Business Technology Platform, the acquisition of AppGyver, and the aggressive push of Rise with SAP reflect the company’s understanding that it needs to connect more closely with the rapidly growing base of citizen developers, while concurrently being easier to do business with for both technical resources, and business users.
Disclosure: Futurum Research is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.
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Image Credit: ASUG
The original version of this article was first published on Futurum Research.
Daniel Newman is the Principal Analyst of Futurum Research and the CEO of Broadsuite Media Group. Living his life at the intersection of people and technology, Daniel works with the world’s largest technology brands exploring Digital Transformation and how it is influencing the enterprise. From Big Data to IoT to Cloud Computing, Newman makes the connections between business, people and tech that are required for companies to benefit most from their technology projects, which leads to his ideas regularly being cited in CIO.Com, CIO Review and hundreds of other sites across the world. A 5x Best Selling Author including his most recent “Building Dragons: Digital Transformation in the Experience Economy,” Daniel is also a Forbes, Entrepreneur and Huffington Post Contributor. MBA and Graduate Adjunct Professor, Daniel Newman is a Chicago Native and his speaking takes him around the world each year as he shares his vision of the role technology will play in our future.