SAP Startup Focus Program

Due to the close connection of the InnoWerft start-up center to the SAP will, among other things, also important Know-how for the use of modern database technologies such as Hana mediated.

In addition, the two startup companies Chargepartner and Conis Risk Consulting were accepted into the SAP Startup Focus Program. This gave them free access to the Hana-database technology as well as marketing and sales support through a SAP-Competence Team.

Chargepartner offers a solution for the construction, networking and operation of charging stations and charging infrastructures. Conis Risk Consulting, on the other hand, is developing a forecasting tool for early assessment of political risks and conflicts.

Business models for electromobility

Although the federal government's desired goal of being in Germany While the goal of having one million electric cars by 2020 still seems a long way off, the electric car has begun its triumphant march in other countries.

The pioneers are the USA, with Tesla's "Model S" luxury sedan leading the way in terms of registrations. But European manufacturers are also currently coming onto the market with attractive offerings.

This increases the need to establish a comprehensive, easily accessible and efficient infrastructure of charging stations at attractive locations.

However, for smooth operation and organization of the electricity supplier, customer and charging station operator, there must be a strong backbone in IT. The start-up company Chargepartner has developed a special control, management and billing system for this case.

This offers, for example, real-time evaluations from data on charging behavior (who charges where, when, what with what current throughput and quantity?).

This enables forecasts of electricity demand and simple, demand-based control and billing of individual charging stations and large charging infrastructures. Real-time charging requests can also be matched and optimized with contracts, current and future energy prices, requirements from distribution grids and vehicles.

Another idea is to send the availability of charging stations to drivers' navigation systems via digital radio. The prerequisite is the use of a powerful Database, it is an important building block for the integration of electromobility into a future smart grid, a distribution network in which consumption is controlled in addition to generation. With the successful application to the Hana-start-up program, Chargepartner was able to secure valuable support in this area.

Real-time risk assessment

Political crises or armed conflicts have an impact long before they become the focus of the media and thus of general attention. When political or social crises become apparent, the general population suffers, as do supermarket chains and their suppliers, tour operators, and companies with Employees in the countries concerned.

Globally active companies can analyze and, if necessary, anticipate conflicts with early forecasts.

The start-up Conis Risk Consulting uses current research results in the field of political conflicts and risks for an analysis of the same. The special features of the approach are a new, empirically based conflict model and a specially developed search algorithm.

"The approach of our software strongly resembles the principle of human reasoning"

explains Managing Director Nicolas Schwank.

"In a new situation, we are always guided by what we have experienced before. Our brain compares and gives us recommendations on how best to behave."

With this methodology, the company's founders aim to re-capture the political risk assessment market.

"A large proportion of risk early warning programs do not achieve their goal. For the most part, decision makers don't find them helpful because they end up with 100-page papers that they can't possibly read."

Schwank was a conflict researcher at the University of Heidelberg for more than ten years and headed the Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research. He has identified the empirical foundation as a unique selling point.

"Our competitors in the market work almost exclusively with expert opinions, but empirical figures give a more objective picture of the situation."

This requires a database system such as Hana required that can handle such data. Through the use of a SAP-product and thanks to the widespread use of SAP-systems is at the same time also a Interface to the business data of the companies available.

Free access to Hana

Conis Risk Consulting, like Chargepartner, has been accepted into the SAP Startup Focus Program. Both companies thus have free access to the Hana-Developer license and technical support from SAP.

In the implementation of the business idea can Hana the advantages of in-memoryTechnology play out: The significantly faster access to the computer's main memory compared to hard disks allows high-speed evaluations.

"Calculating similarity scores is extremely time-consuming and can take as long as 14 hours when using traditional technology"

explains Evgueni Schneider, the technical manager and Software Developer from Conis. With Hana on the other hand, it is possible to perform these similarity analyses in real time.

"We plan to integrate Facebook, Twitter and blogs. When Hana enables us to carry out real-time analyses, we can react even faster to developments and give the crisis teams in the companies and authorities the opportunity to assess the risks before the newspapers report them".

Schneider continues.

The SAP Startup Focus Program was launched on the 40th anniversary of the SAP was launched. It is specifically aimed at young companies and is intended to support them in the development and deployment of new applications based on Hana support. The program also includes day-long events on collaboration and knowledge transfer with orientation on HanaSAP Mobile Platform, SAP Cloud, and Database Trends andtechnologies. In addition, young companies are given the opportunity to present their products in a trade fair-like environment.