SAP's strategy shaped by 3 megatrends

It's a convergence of mega-trends in IT that will drive business in the government market and improve the effectiveness of government in the years to come, said Bill McDermott, co-chief executive officer of SAP AG, the world's largest maker of enterprise software applications, and president and CEO of SAP America Inc.

"I believe these trends are changing everything," said McDermott, who delivered the keynote speech at TechAmerica Foundation's 9th annual Innovation and Government dinner June 15.

In an interview with Washington Research in SAP's Washington office, McDermott outlined three major trends that are coming at the same time to foster technology, transparency and accountability in government.

The government is accumulating massive amounts of data that need to be analyzed in real time to improve transparency and accountability in federal services and operations. "The big data challenge is something the government has to conquer and now it can because the innovation is there," McDermott said. "It wasn't there earlier. It is there now. Government can start working for the people and the people can see how their money is being used and government leaders can take pride in being transparent and getting the information out there."

Sustainable technologies, which use less energy and fewer limited resources, and cloud computing go "hand in hand," McDermott said. "Agencies are being asked to consume less and manage their footprint. However by the same token, they're being asked to do more." By moving operations or applications to the cloud, agencies can lower hardware costs by as much as 90 percent and accomplish more toward their mission goals, he said.

The idea of transparency driving accountability

"The idea of transparency driving accountability and mobile changing everything in terms of people taking action - all based on facts and data - has now hit Washington by storm," McDermott said. SAP is then-positioned to meet government demand in all three trend areas, particularly with the acquisition last year of Sybase, an enterprise software and services company offering products to manage, analyze and mobilize information. For instance, Sybase brings its Sybase Unwired Platform, which lets enterprise developers quickly build applications that connect business data to mobile works on any device at any time, to SAP's product portfolio, McDermott said.

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