SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) and Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) today announced a multifaceted partnership to develop cloud solutions in China, create innovations between the SAP HANA platform and Lenovo systems and jointly execute global go-to-market programs.

The agreement is intended to significantly strengthen an existing partnership and to combine SAP solutions with Lenovo’s data center offerings to provide customers with technology that can help organizations become agile digital enterprises.

Business and IT leaders are constantly seeking new solutions to improve productivity and efficiency, reduce complexity, and create value in the new digital economy. Gartner predicts that by 2020, 80 percent of business processes and products will have been reinvented, changed or eliminated as a result of improved access to information.* This potential is only realized when technology can turn data into insights, with the speed in which decisions are made as a critical competitive differentiator.

The partnership will include:

• Further strengthening joint execution, including developing innovative cloud solutions in China.
• Engaging in new innovations between SAP HANA and Lenovo systems to explore and define new technologies that address the needs of the digital economy. This will also result in SAP using Lenovo systems as an infrastructure server platform.
• Jointly executing global go-to-market programs, inclusive of system integrators and technology partners, to bring these new technologies to our joint customers. This will include showcasing joint differentiated solutions in Lenovo Enterprise Innovation Centers in Stuttgart, Germany; Morrisville, North Carolina; and a center soon to be opened in Beijing, China.

Lenovo and SAP have a proven history of collaboration. SAP relies on Lenovo systems to power some of its most demanding applications, including its own solution development environments as well as the SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud service. Furthermore, SAP is recognized as the preferred ERP provider to Lenovo, which has deployed several enterprise solutions including SAP Business Suite software, the SAP Business Planning and Consolidation application and SAP HANA. Lenovo estimates implementation of SAP solutions has enabled a 45x improvement in reporting performance and a 50x improvement in data loading.

“With over 5,000 servers optimized for SAP HANA and shipped by Lenovo, our experience in helping transform and drive growth for customers continues a tradition of leadership related to mission-critical SAP applications and SAP HANA platforms,” said Gerry Smith, executive vice president and chief operating officer, PC and Enterprise Business Group, Lenovo. “Expanding our partnership with SAP provides a greater foundation to collaborate on new and innovative solutions to solve major challenges facing businesses today related to turning insights into action.”

“SAP and Lenovo have enjoyed a successful partnership, and we look forward to expanding our collaborative efforts to help companies become true digital enterprises,” said Kevin Ichhpurani, executive vice president and head, Business Development and Strategic Ecosystem, SAP. “Together, we are bolstering the development of innovative cloud solutions for customers in China, and exploring new technologies based on SAP HANA and Lenovo systems that will help address the needs of the digital economy.”