The first-ever Big Data SAP HANA Forum held in Africa has awarded managed network solutions provider Chappal Waddi for innovation.
Johannesburg, South Africa — The recent African chapter of the SAP Startup Focus program has awarded Nigerian-based managed network solutions provider Chappal Waddi for the startup’s winning idea of rapid processing and analysis of big data. SAP HANA is a next-generation database platform that delivers unprecedented value by delivering real-time insight into businesses and is key to making Chappal Waddi’s vision a reality.
Chappal Waddi indicated that SAP HANA will form a great part of many of the solutions the startup will roll out in the future and the success of these future solutions will be largely dependent on the real-time functionality that SAP HANA offers. And with the SAP Startup Focus program, Chappal Waddi will get a reduction in SAP HANA licensing and training costs as well as technical support, which the company says is an added incentive.
From 50 startup companies across Africa, eight finalists were chosen to pitch their ideas as how to best leverage the real-time capabilities of SAP HANA. The judging panel included Kaustav Mitra, VP Global Program Lead, SAP Startup Focus Program who is based in Palo Alto, California, as well as Alvin Paules, SAP Africa Public Sector Lead, Rudi de Louw, SAP HANA Market Unit Champion, Mobolaji Abolarin, Global Services Director, SAP West Africa and Marc Balkin, Hasso Plattner Ventures partner.
The SAP Startup Focus program is a global effort aimed at driving adoption of the SAP HANA platform outside the traditional SAP ecosystem. The overall goal of the program is to provide startups with all the support needed to port or build their applications to SAP HANA. Fifty responses were forthcoming from across the sub-continent and applications were canvassed at the end of 2012. Desirability, feasibility and viability aspects were then used to whittle the number down to the eight finalists. Applicants had to illustrate a market for their solution, produce a business case and show how SAP HANA could support their submission.
Three winners were announced at the event:
The most innovative idea award went to Chappal Waddi from Nigeria http://www.chappalwaddi.com
The best mobile solution went to Kamoeba from South Africa http://www.kamoeba.com
The judges’ favorite award went to another South African startup, Vertigro Asset Management http://www.vertigro.co.za
The other finalists included Navomax (Pty) Ltd (South Africa), Axis Solutions (Zimbabwe), GreenBuk Technologies (Nigeria), EPI-USE Analytics (South Africa), Shiluba-Tsaka Productive (South Africa), and Expert Solutions cc (South Africa).
As an indication of the high standard of the eight proposals all of the finalists have been invited to join a development accelerator (DA) program. The objective of a DA is to build a Proof of Concept (PoC) and, eventually, a product with explicit business value. The DA kicks off with an intensive boot camp on SAP HANA development topics. Once development is underway, SAP will support participants with regular architecture reviews, technical support and consulting. When startups are ready with their product, they will enter SAP’s Go-To-Market stage.
Chuka Uzoegwu, Managing Director for Chappal Waddi, says: “Good ideas are always a good starting point for startups like Chappal Waddi, but we also understand that good ideas alone don’t make a good company. The challenge for us now is to channel our energies to do all it takes to make this idea come to reality.”
Uzoegwu adds: “SAP has consistently remained the world leaders in their chosen field. To achieve this feat in the fast changing world of IT means that SAP must be an innovative company. Having extra help for such a company will make this development process a bit easier for us. So for me, winning this award brings excitement and a sense of responsibility to make this idea happen.”
The winning startups will commence with the Accelerator phase with a two day boot-camp session in Johannesburg in three weeks’ time to fast track them on the way to building their own HANA-based prototypes.
For more information visit:
www.saphana.com
www.saphana.com/community/learn/startups
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