DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
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people running the technology operation at Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1
The role of SAP Hagen Heubach , who leads SAP ’ s global automotive industry organisation , emphasises the importance of this collaboration from SAP ’ s perspective . “ Automotive is one of the longeststanding industries SAP has focused on . We actually built the first automotivespecific solutions with Mercedes .”
Hagen ’ s team is responsible for the entire solution stack for the automotive industry , as well as the strategy for the future of mobility . “ We ’ re always looking for the next big thing in automotive ,” he says . “ The industry is being disrupted by many technology trends , from electrification and autonomous driving to new business processes and battery management .”
One of the most significant aspects of this partnership is the team ’ s transition to cloud-based solutions . SAP S / 4HANA Cloud serves as one of the technology foundations for the team , enabling the exploration of how artificial intelligence ( AI ) and cloud solutions from SAP can inform and predict decisions , optimise resources and future-proof IT infrastructure .
Michael explains the rationale behind this move : “ We ’ ve run our own on-premise instance of SAP for a long time . We migrated to S / 4HANA in 2020 during the pandemic , and we ’ ve seen that that was a good time to make that move .”
However , the team recognises that to truly leverage the benefits of evolving technology , a move to the cloud is necessary . “ Cloud isn ’ t really optional ,” Michael states . technologymagazine . com 67