Inside SAP's Data Analytics Startup

When Helen Arnold agreed to move 6,000 miles from Germany to Mountain View to head up SAP Data Network, the longtime SAP executive faced some big challenges. Not only was she bootstrapping a data analytics software firm to help Fortune 1000 clients digitally transform themselves – a sizable hurdle in its own right -- but she needed to address big cultural differences between Silicon Valley and Walldorf. SAP Data Network opened for business in May 2017 with the goal of leveraging a mix of SAP software like SAP Data Hub, Leonardo, and HANA, along with open source data science tools and professional services, to help clients build their own transformational data products. By standardizing on reusable cloud-based software components – and even reusable data feeds, where available -- the company seeks to help clients build innovative data products in a matter of weeks or months, rather than the years it often takes for organizations that are starting from scratch. So far, the startup has worked with about 40 clients, most of which are companies that use SAP's well-regarded ERP suite.