SAP Solution: Virtual Reality

Being successful as a company sometimes means banking on a trend early. Sometimes it means joining the hype a little later but making better decisions than early movers.

The strategic goal of Munich-based company Osram to become market leader in the lighting industry means high standards for the deployed technology. APIs are a fundamental part of the new business model.

Where until recently processes and technologies were considered separately, the focus at Hannover Messe 2020 will be on a holistic presentation of processes and solutions.

A globally operating automotive supplier in Denklingen, Bavaria, is not only focusing on teaching the latest technologies in its vocational training. With the help of the standard software Bluelight, the entire training organization was digitized and improved.

With the main theme Integrated Industry - Industrial Intelligence, Hannover Messe will show the potential of AI in industry.

CAD data are the basic framework. The variant configuration is the individual offer to the customer. Added to this are good relationship management and pricing. Until an ERP system is a satisfactory quotation and sales system, it needs many adaptations. SAP partner SAE has solved this Gordian knot. Peter M. Färbinger, E-3 Magazine, spoke with the managing directors Susanne Henkel and Erich Schaarschmidt.

Industry 4.0 initiatives support the trend towards customized product variants and the sale of machine and plant systems. Thus, sales become a digitization driver: new, innovative next-generation CPQ (Configure Price Quote) software, the symbiosis of ERP master data and object dependencies with an interactive Virtual Reality configuration and simulation display, is required.

3D visualization is already in use today in the CPQ environment. In the future, process-integrated, interactive configurators enable sales departments to carry out individual characteristics evaluations directly on complex products using VR.

Stupidly, SAP's existing customers can't wait. Real life does not stand still. SAP and some partners prefer to discuss visions instead of offering viable roadmaps.

Digital transformation remains the central challenge facing the IT industry. As in the past two years, the top theme of CeBIT 2017 is d!conomy.

There is hardly an IT topic where theoretical possibilities and everyday reality are further apart than Industry 4.0, but manufacturing companies are coming under pressure from several sides.