The following was originally posted on the SAP Ecosystem blog.

Here’s an update to Leapfactor’s and SAP’s Ideation Challenge:

Three weeks after launch, there are nearly 300 “Project Rooms” tackling this Challenge. Perhaps the real challenge is to NOT find an opportunity for our micro apps!

Last week, we hosted a couple of webinars and we were able to hear live from Solvers who had some great questions.   We wanted to share with you some of the output of those meetings.

First and foremost, we clarified that ideas will have a better chance to win if they go beyond the obvious. For instance, we all know that within SAP FI/CO there are an incredible amount of approval gates, some very critical because they involve large amounts of money or simply because it affects a core business process. But you definitely need to push the envelope a little bit further.

The Challenge is to identify an industry-specific process that would obtain substantial benefits derived from shortening approval times and solving convenience issues. Even further, do you believe there are more opportunities when FI/CO is interacting with MM or HR? Or do you know which Bapi we should look at?

When listing the benefits make sure to go beyond productivity or efficiency. What about competitive advantage? Can you guesstimate which processes would benefit more users? Try to complement your idea with a small business case, perhaps with some research data.

Look at the four examples below. They all seem great ideas and opportunities, but they all lack a more detailed business justification and SAP references.

Automotive Industry.
Vendors of automotive manufacturers collectively receive thousands of purchase orders (POs) every day. And some POs are dependent on other POs. This process requires an approval and confirmation of quantities and details at some point. Typically, 30% of orders do not get approved/confirmed by small vendors on time because they still respond via fax. What if we allow vendors to approve orders via mobile devices?

Construction Industry
In construction companies, most deliveries happen on remote locations with limited access to computers. Allowing construction managers to approve payments right after accepting deliveries could make a huge difference and eradicate some manual paperwork. If there’s such a big need to approve payments right after receiving materials and services, why don’t we mobilize that?

IT Industry
Corporate IT services provisioning always require a series of approvals: From issuing an access card and ordering a new laptop for a new employee to upgrades to software licenses and changes in SLAs terms. In most cases the process is very long mostly because of the approval process, not because IT walks slowly in the hallways. Enabling busy approvers that are never at their desks to approve from their mobile devices would reduce costs and increase the service level from IT. It’s a no-brainer right?

Logistics
Outbound logistics means Inbound Logistics for someone else. Deviations on plans are not uncommon and they typically hurt all players in the process. Being able to let all parties know about a deviation could save lots of problems. Today, most people send reports by fax or via EDI and the detailed information gets to the right hands until the end of the day (when nothing can be done). In addition to cost reduction and increased productivity, wouldn’t a detailed log with time stamps create transparency on how people reacted and managed the exceptions?

Remember, the key question is: Why automating an approval or alert process on the go would be compelling? And the answer variables are: {mobile use case} + {Industry} + {process} + {potential # mobile users} + {benefits}.

There is still plenty of time to participate. So why don’t you go an register today? It’s free and maybe you’re leaving $10,000 and 4 iPads on the table.

Good luck!

Lionel Carrasco
CEO | Leapfactor

http://leapfactor.com/challenge

Lionel Carrasco Mobile enterprise veteran with deep SAP background

I was lucky enough to start my career right at the beginning of the BI explosion when there were a plethora of BI vendors to choose from. Vendors which are now unfortunately only fondly remembered by employees and ex-customers such as Holistic Systems and Crystal Decisions. My firm favourite has always been BusinessObjects and I have had the enviable opportunity during my career of having worked as a customer, a business partner and an employee of theirs.

My true passion has always been developing software, from very early days of developing basic games on my Commodore 64 to writing my own compiler at university. However, my problem was that I was always a better software designer than developer, hence my career in Product Management rather than Product Development.

In 1999 I realised two of my life goals, firstly to start my own business, secondly to design, develop and sell my own software. Blue Edge Software’s vision was to democratise the delivery of business intelligence information to all areas of an organisation. We grew the business to 15 employees, 15 blue chip customers with annual revenues in excess of $1m and in 2002 we were acquired by BusinessObjects.

Today at Antivia, I still get a huge kick out of designing software with my amazing team, solving real problems faced by organisations deploying business intelligence throughout their organisation. The InnoCentive Challenge that we won gave us yet another opportunity to show how we can solve these problems and has been a great platform for Antivia to showcase our innovative solutions for SAP BusinessObjects customers.

You can find me on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhudsonantivia

Over the years, we’ve heard about Solvers using their winnings for all manner of things – from philanthropy to upgrading lab equipment to upgrading home entertainment equipment.  John Davis, winner of the OSRI oil spill Challenge is planning to use his winnings to fund a trip to Alaska, to help the Seeker, the Oil Spill Recovery Institute, develop and implement his solution.  In addition, he donated some of his winnings to OSRI to be used toward finding more environmentally friendly methods of cleaning up oil spills.

What about you?  What have you done with your winnings?  If you haven’t yet won an award, what do you think you would do?  Tell us!

If you’re interested in Polestar OnDemand and the recently announced Polestar OnDemand API $20K IDEAtion Challenge, then this blog entry may be of interest to you. I’m going to present here a few sample codes for that API, so you’ll quickly get up to speed and have a head start on the competition!

Each of the sample codes follow the same workflow: retrieve data, upload the dataset to OnDemand, then view it in Polestar OnDemand. What differs is the programming language used and the data source. The four samples are:

1. Python script with inline dataSet.
2. C# with data retrieved from Query as a Web Service
3. Xcelsius SDK – Adobe Flex component.
4. Java with RSS Feed data.

Read the whole story here.

The announcement below is cross-posted from Martin Raepple’s SAP Developer Network blog:

Earning SCN Points with InnoCentive

Exciting news for all who have worked on any of the Challenges in the SAP Innovation & Technology Pavilion at InnoCentive: The SCN Contributor Recognition Program has been extended to award all SCN members who actively participate in SAP’s new Open Innovation program, announced this year at SAP TechEd Las Vegas.

How do I earn points with InnoCentive?

A few prerequisites must be met before you can earn SCN Points with InnoCentive:

1. You are a registered member of the SAP Community Network. If not, a warm welcome to you and join our community right now!
2. You have registered as a Solver with the InnoCentive Solver Community. If not, just follow this link to get your free account within a minute.
3. You have entered your SCN User ID in your user profile at InnoCentive. This is required to uniquely identify your SCN account at InnoCentive. Any points earned with your Solver account will be awarded to the SCN User ID you have entered here.

Please follow the steps below to update your profile.

1. After successful log on at the InnoCentive marketplace click on the “My Account” tab of your “My InnoCentive” personal home page.
2. At the end of your contact information you’ll find an entry field with the label “SAP Community Network User ID”. Please enter your SCN User ID here and click on the “Save Changes” button at the bottom of the page.
3. If you don’t know your SCN User ID, go to SCN and click on the “Update Profile” link in the “My Profile” menu at the top of the page.  Your SCN User ID is the first, non editable field in the form that allows you to manage your SCN profile data.

How many points are awarded for my contributions at InnoCentive?

Every Solver who meets the above requirements and submits a solution to an InnoCentive Challenge is eligible to earn 50 SCN Points. If you are the lucky winner of a Challenge in the SAP Innovation & Technology Pavilion, you not only get the prize money but you are also awarded 150 SCN Points.

Get Started Now!

Earning SCN Points is just another good reason why you should become an InnoCentive Solver and submit innovative solutions to complex problems facing SAP’s ecosystem.  Join the more than 2000 Solvers who already started working on the Challenges in the SAP Pavilion and potentially receive financial rewards in addition to the recognition and professional growth already available in SDN, BPX, and the Business Objects communities.

Martin Raepple is a security expert with SAP and author of the SAP PRESS book “The Developer’s Guide to SAP NetWeaver Security”.