Three start-up companies will pilot SAP’s new HANA platform in Africa after winning the SAP Start-up Focus Programme.
The winners were:
- Chappal Waddi Ltd (Nigeria) won the most innovative idea award. The idea is to use HAHA to develop an application for the NGO healthcare sector in Nigeria.
- Kamoeba (South Africa) received the best mobile solution award. The start-up wants to use HANA to develop a real-time logistics model.
- Vertigro Asset Management (South Africa) was the judges’ favorite. The company wants to use HANA to develop a fund management tool.
The initiative invited participating start-ups to present solutions and use cases for HANA to a panel of judges.
Selection criteria were:
Desirability – The start-up had to present a compelling use case, outlining their target market, competitors to their business idea and alternative offerings.
Feasibility – Does the proposal need HANA technology and does the start-up have the resources and skills necessary to achieve the proposed solution? Is it technically feasible?
Viability – The business case had to disclose the commercial value of the proposal as well as the timing of the proposed solution.
What is HANA?
A company that is traditionally associated with large enterprises, SAP is harnessing the innovative nature of entrepreneurs to develop applications that will run on HANA.
HANA is SAP’s rapid, in-memory database management system. It enables real-time analytics and applications. SAP is targeting start-ups who will go on to build applications on this platform.
Simply put HANA enables companies to process Big Data in real time, enabling the business to make informed decisions based on a vast amount of real-time information. It is meant for scenarios where the ability to crunch vast amounts of fresh data, of different types, in real-time adds substantial business value.