Labs Talk

In this episode of Labs Talk, we talk to Ben Knutsen -  he is the Founder and CEO of kAR Graphics and a Snapchat Ambassador and Lens Creative Partner. As you may guess, this episode is all about the world of Snap and their vast ecosystem of AR-related software. We start with the Snap Camera Desktop app, which allows you to augment the video-feed of popular videoconferencing apps such as Zoom with Lenses. Other topics include the Snapchat Mobile App, the Spectacles 3 glasses and of course the specifics of the Gen Z which seems to overlap a lot with Snapchat's users. We also cover the newly introduced Snap Minis, little web experiences that allows brands to become part of Snapchat. We also specifically discuss how brands can use Snap and their software to engage with their Gen Z audiences. LinksBen Knutson's SiteYoutube Channel with a lot of Lens Studio ContentSnap Lens Studio

Frontend development recently got shaken up by a trend called Micro Frontends. Here, the frontend monoliths are split up into smaller pieces – which sounds like more complexity – but it promises to scale the frontend development, so many teams can work simultaneously. In this episode, we discuss trends in frontend development technologies. For example, we take a look at the Luigi micro frontend framework that enables developers to create an user interface which is driven by local and distributed views. And luckily we have the opportunity to talk to Philipp Pracht about it, he's a colleage here at SAP Munich and deeply involved in the development of this framework. Linkshttps://github.com/SAP/luigihttps://luigi-project.io/Building UI application with Luigi — open source micro-frontends orchestrator: https://medium.com/swlh/luigi-micro-fronteds-orchestrator-8c0eca710151

When you think about your shopping habits, what factors most influence what you buy? If “product reviews” come to mind, you aren't alone – numerous studies show that a vast majority of purchase decisions are driven by online reviews, both for digital and physical commerce. So how can businesses and consumers better navigate this landscape? In this episode, we chat with Alon Ghelber, Chief Marketing Officer for Revuze. Revuze is an Isreali startup leveraging AI to analyze customer sentiments and improve CX. Tune in to learn. LinksRevuze WebsiteRevuze on LinkedInAlon Ghelber on LinkedInArticle by Alon about eCommerce review fraud

Hyperloop is an ultra-high-speed ground transportation system for passenger and cargo proposed as a concept by Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, in a white paper back in 2013. And just one more exciting piece of information: the TUM has a long track record when it comes to winning the hyperloop competitions: Over the last half decade, the team has won all editions of the event and gathered extensive experience in these fields. Ana Eloisa Garcia is Mexican nanotechnology engineer – and according to her biography, she has a passion for technology transfer and tacos! She's participated in many entrepreneurship contests, including some from Harvard and MIT in the United States. She also contributed to international programs that aim to improve the relationships between youth from all around the world. Right now, she is pursuing a master's in management at the TUM. Parallel to this, for the past two years Ana has supported the school's Hyperloop team, including attending the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition in 2019. Since last September, she has led the Business Case Subteam, and together with other students, she is developing feasibility studies to analyze the potential of the implementation of a Hyperloop system in Germany, and hopefully in the near future, throughout Europe.  LinksAna Eloisa Garcia on LinkedIn TUM Hyperloop: Website | LinkedIn | Twitter | YouTubeTesla - Hyperloop Alpha[VIDEO] TUM Hyperloop - POD IV - Making Of VideoTechCrunch - Team TUM wins SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition with record 288 mph top speedInnovation Origins - TU Munich is building a full-size Hyperloop vacuum tube and pod prototype for testingComposites World - TU Munich gears up for full-scale Hyperloop demonstratorRelated NewsThe Wired Guide to HyperloopHow Stuff Works - How Hyperloop WorksHyper Map - Interactive Global MapThe Verge - Virgin Hyperloop hits an important milestone: The first human passenger test

Project Gardener is about delivering fully-managed Kubernetes clusters –  kind of like Kubernetes as a Service - independent of the underlying cloud service like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud.  While Kubernetes took over the world of cloud-native computing overnight, Gardener is now taking on the problem, that many Kubernetes clusters are somewhat hard to maintain and manage.  We'll be talking to Rafael Franzke, a Senior Developer from SAP. He was part of the initial project inception team and is driving the Gardener core implementation. As such, he was one of the early adopters of Kubernetes Operators and Kubernetes extension concepts in general. LinksRafael Franzke on LinkedIn and Twitter Gardener WebsiteThe Kubernetes Botanist Blog PostProject Gardener Update Blog PostGardener on GitHubHasso Plattner Founder Award for Project GardenerIntro Movie about Gardener at SAP TVGardener Landscape InstallerGardener Slack ChannelGardener Weekly Community Meeting

Single-use plastic packaging is a huge problem, that SAP Munich is addressing with their strategic partner Relevo. From July 2020 on, SAP Munich employees will have the opportunity to use reusable containers for their lunches bought on restaurants (nearby) and have it to take-away. In this episode, we take a closer look at the Sustainability Champions Network at SAP with Tabata Perez Renteria y Hernandez. For the main interview, we're discussing Zero Waste with Gregor Kolb from Relevo.  LinksRelevo WebsiteGregor Kolb on LinkedInhttps://www.bain.com/insights/covid-19-gives-sustainability-a-dress-rehearsal/https://www.deutsche-startups.de/2020/06/02/10-startups-ganz-frisch/ (German)

In this episode, we're talking to Sadee Gamhewa and Geoff Wright from Velou. Sadee is their CEO while Geoff is their Chief Commercial Officer. Velou has been a SAP.iO Foundry Munich Member and have integrated their data enrichment and search platform with the SAP Commerce Cloud offerings. They use a mixture of AI, ML and NLP tools to analyze and enrich product data. Using their technology, shoppers quickly find the product they want, leading to increased sales.   LinksVelou's WebsiteSadee Gamhewa and Geoff Wright on LinkedIn

There are quite a few definitions out there for digital twins, but many have in common that a digital twin is a digital representation of a real-world entity or system. The main benefit of having a digital twin is the ability to optimize the operation and maintenance of the physical counterparts. They also allow for accurately testing new scenarios, and predicting and preparing for enhancements or issues without disrupting the current state of the existing entity. Digital Twins can combine many elements, ranging from hardware sensors, machine learning to connectivity solutions such as 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT).  TWAICE is Munich-based startup that combines their knowledge of battery technology with data analytics. Calling them experts would be an understatement – digital twins are at the core of their business. In this episode, we're shedding light on digital twin technology, together with Lennart Hinrichs, the commercial director of TWAICE.Links:TWAICEERGO - TWAICE: Digital twins for batteriesEU Startups - Munich-based Twaice raises €11 million Series A to take its battery analytics globalRelated:IoT for All - What is a Digital Twin?Forbes - 7 Amazing Examples of Digital Twin Technology in PracticeReliability Connect - SAP Predictive Engineering and the Digital Twin

This episode is dedicated to local commerce – a surprisingly current topic when you look at the corona pandemic. The restrictions we all suffered from were especially hard for local retailers and according to some studies, about 30% might not even survive. Our interviewee is Johannes, he's one of our colleagues at SAP Munich and he's a product manager for the Customer Experience portfolio. He has an impressive 7 years of eCommerce and Customer enablement knowledge. Johannes supported an initiative called miagehn.online – which loosely translates to let's go online. It's a program that tries to help local, non-digital, physical and rather small stores to make use of eCommerce or digital tools in general.LinksMiaGehn.Online InitiativeJohannes on LinkedInRecent research about implications of the Corona PandemicHow Corona affects Retail

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is about business process automation, but the term “robotic” does not mean humanoid robots are taking over these processes. We're talking about software robots (often just called “bots”) and AI-assisted digital systems that automate processes. RPA is one of the hot IT trends of 2020 and some experts believe that it will change businesses in a more profound way than previous trends. In this episode, we're sharing a lot of insight and knowledge when it comes to RPA – but we start with the basics so everybody can make up his mind and put RPA onto a big picture. Our interviewee, Sebastian Schroetel, is the Head of Intelligent Robotic Process Automation at SAP and we're very grateful to have such a competent partner nearby to discuss this topic. LinksAutomatisierung mit Robotik Process Automation SAP Intelligent Robotic Process Automation Free Trial: click the Try Now buttonSAP Community page for Intelligent RPASAP White Paper - Launch Business Productivity with Intelligent Robotic Process AutomationS/4HANA & Intelligent RPA Infographic + PDFUse Case Discovery tool online with an abbreviated PDFShort product video - SAP Intelligent RPAShort video series - RPA Talk Related NewsDigitalist - Robotic Process Automation: The Dawn Of Unlimited IntelligenceMedium - Robotic Process AutomationForbes - Remote Working: What it Means for RPA (Robotic Process Automation)Towards Data Science - RPA Trends: This is what we can expect this year

nyris is a visual search platform that gives people a more natural way to find what they are looking for. With nyris, companies of all industries realize financial value while improving how people find, discover and get things done. Up and running in minutes, only nyris' technology is designed and engineered to handle any search challenge.In this episode of Labs Talk, we talk to Markus Lukasson, the Founder and CTO of nyris. Besides discussing their visual search platform, we also discuss latest developments in search and their involvement in the SAP.iO Foundry Munich. Linkshttps://nyris.io/Markus Lukasson on LinkedInRelated NewsThe Hundert - Nyris: Enabling Companies to Process Visual Data Super Fast[GERMAN] Heisse.de - Visual Search. A new trend in online retail in 2019? 

As both customer experience and social media are such vast fields, we thought intersecting these topics to focus our episode makes sense. Together with Dan Gingiss, we explore the intersection of customer experience and social media. We discuss how brands get started in the best possible way, pitfalls to avoid and how to find out which channel is best for your customers. We also touch in topics such as hyper-personalization and personal branding, the latter being all about how you can improve your social media appearance to build up your own personal brand (which by the way, will automatically also be beneficial for the company you work for). We finally also shed some light on how we can learn from the COVID-19 pandemic.  Dan is an international keynote speaker, thought leader, consultant, and coach who believes that a remarkable customer experience can be your best marketing. He shares his expertise gained from working with leading companies through his books, podcasts, and various media engagements.LinksDan Gingiss on the WebExperience This Podcast

The Corona Warn App, Germany's contact tracing app to fight the spread of COVID-19, went live mid June 2020. Roughly three weeks have passed since then, and we thought we'd give you another update and some more insider knowledge from our colleague from SAP Munich: Malte Janduda.We've already known Malte for a long time – Sven first worked and experimented with Malte for commerce and hardware prototypes many years back, when IoT was still the new kid on the block. At this point in time, Malte was still a working student. But since 2019, Malte is back at SAP Munich and is now involved heavily with various software architecture projects.We're super happy that we have a well known colleague and friend close by us here in Munich and are excited to share some updates directly from a team member of the development team of the Corona Warn App.LinksCorona-Warn-App WebsiteCommunity Dashboard for the App / Backend 1 and here's one moreMalte Janduda on TwitterSAP Munich WebsiteCWA Episode with Thomas Klingbeil – focus on technical aspects and privacyRelated NewsMIT Technology Review – COVID Tracking Tracker[GERMAN] Tagesschau – Rund 300 Fälle über Warn-App gemeldetThe Local – The verdict on Germany's coronavirus tracing app[GERMAN] German Federal Government – Falschmeldungen zur Corona-Warn-AppGerman Federal Government – Corona-Warn-App international verfügbar (DE) | Corona warning app available internationally (EN)[GERMAN] Handelsblatt – Was bringt eine ausländische Corona-Warn-App?DW – Loved or loathed? How Germany's coronavirus tracking app is faringHuawei – Neue Corona-Warn-App für alle HUAWEI Smartphones (DE) | New Corona warning app for all HUAWEI smartphones (EN)ZDF – Wo die Corona-App nicht läuft (DE) | Where the Corona App Doesn'

This episode, we tackle modern-day robots -- and we're not talking about your roomba! Meet Rafael Hostettler, the legal guardian and project lead for "Roboy". Roboy is the robot of your (and Isaac Asimov's) dreams: an advanced anthropomimetic machine originally developed at the  University of Zurich's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Now Roboy calls Munich his home, where a truly multidisciplinary TUM team of engineers and students base research off of Roboy's unique humanoid features and evolving abilities to the fields of AI, computer science, neuroscience, bioengineering, avatar tech, social psychology, and more.In our discussion, we cover topics ranging from how Roboy works and what he can do, to how humanoid robots can teach us more about ourselves; whether it's how to perfect the mechanics of the human body or how society can - and should - welcome a future where automation makes much of our daily tasks obsolete. Tune in for some extraordinary conversation!Links:RoboyTUM - Robotics research clusterHuman Brain ProjectBooks - Roboy and Lucy "Superhero Glasses" and moreANA Avatar XPRIZE CompetitionRelated:I, Robot - book and filmPaper - "From social brains to social robots: applying neurocognitive insights to human-robot interaction"

Along with several partners, SAP has been developing the “Corona-Warn-App” – Germany's official mobile solution for contact tracing. The app is meant to help limit the spread of COVID-19 by anonymously tracking who users come into contact with and alerting them when one of these users has tested positive. Collaborators like Deutsche Telekom have focused on a scalable backend service for these applications, while SAP's role is to develop the iOS and Android applications.The first open source documents were available on May 13, 2020 and the first code drop followed soon after. At the time we conducted this interview, the Corona-Warn-App is purportedly a few days to being released publicly. We're fortunate to be in touch with Thomas Klingbeil, Senior Developer at SAP and part of the application's project team. Together with Thomas, we explore features of the app and their rationale (such as Bluetooth Low Energy and how it can be used for contact tracing) as well as spotlight topics, particularly the privacy-preserving nature of the overall Corona-Warn-App system. LinksOfficial Corona-Warn-App WebsiteCorona-Warn-App Open Source Code Repository at GitHubEnglish FAQs for the Corona-Warn-AppApple - Information on Privacy-Preserving Contact TracingGoogle - Information about Exposure NotificationsExposure Notification Bluetooth Specification (PDF)Exposure Notification Cryptography Specification (PDF)Corona-Warn-App Solution ArchitectureRisk Score Calculation[GERMAN] Code Review 1[GERMAN ] Code Review 2Related NewsSAP CTO Juergen Mueller - The Technical Foundation of the Corona-Warn-App [GERMAN] SAP News Interview with Eyk Kny and Thomas Klingbeil[GERMAN] Corona-Warn-App FAQ at tagesschau.de[VIDEO] DW Business Top Stories - Germany's Virus-Tracing App (19.05.2020)[VIDEO] DW Business Top Stories - France's Stop COVID-19 App (01.06.2020)National Cyber Security Centre UK - The security behind the NHS contact tracing app

This episode is for all our developers out there...For the uninitiated, Web Components are a set of features that provide a standard component model for creating web pages and applications, allowing for encapsulation and interoperability of individual HTML elements.By now, most frontend web frameworks (such as Angular and React of Vue) support Web Components, and we thought it is the right time to look deeper into this mix of technologies that most likely will shape the future of browsable content. Our interviewee, Peter Muessig, is the SAP UI5 Chief Architect. He is driving open innovation in the area of the UI framework, rendering, and development experience. Tune in for a deep dive into key elements, best practices, developer adoption and community, and more!LinksPeter Muessig on LinkedInMore on UI5 Web Components:https://sap.github.io/ui5-webcomponents/https://sap.github.io/ui5-webcomponents-react/ OpenUI5 Slack > #webcomponents Related blogs:https://blogs.sap.com/2019/02/11/ui5-web-components-the-beta-is-there/https://blogs.sap.com/2020/03/10/ui5-framework-and-ui5-web-components/ https://blogs.sap.com/2020/03/06/ui5-with-ui5-web-components/Getting started:https://sap.github.io/ui5-webcomponents/playgroundhttps://blogs.sap.com/2019/04/01/the-fastest-way-to-get-started-with-ui5-web-components/      OpenUI5 & UI5con:https://openui5.org/https://openui5.org/ui5con/https://openui5.org/ui5con/onair2020/Other links:UI5 Web Components on webcomponents.orgSAPUI5 DemokitUI theme designer

In this episode, we chat with a startup  founder in SAP.iO Foundry Munich's Spring 2020 cohort. Nemanja Popovic, CEO of StorifyMe, explains how his company helps businesses engage on social media, shares insights on content technology trends, and tells us about his experiences going from corporate developer to innovation entrepreneur. StorifyMe re-aligns customer engagement with intuitive content delivery. It complements your commerce suite of tools, enabling you to secure customer attention. Simply put, StorifyMe pioneers how merchants compose and ultimately own compelling and influential mobile-first experiences. StorifyMe brings the familiar tappable format to the open web. Allowing merchants and brands to break free from an isolated ecosystem. And keeping them firmly in control (and ownership) of their content. LinksStorifyMe WebsiteNemanja Popovic on LinkedInLabs Talk Sample StoryMcKinsey on Personalizing Customer ExperienceSAP Marketing Integration with StorifyMe

We've produced 15 episodes of Labs Talk so far – Nick and Sven enjoyed talking to well-known technical people in the community. Since this year, a few things changed with regards to the team and also when it comes to how we produce this podcast. This is why we make some changes going forward – but rest assured, we'll produce even more cool content with some greater variety. Going forward, your hosts will be Erica Davis and Sven Haiges. Nick decided to do a fellowship with the Customer Experience Enablement Team at SAP but will still be available if we need him to tame Sven. With Erica on board, we're now able to discuss and explore the Startups at SAP.io foundry Munich even better due to her long-time relationship with SAP.io. Besides Tech and Startup content, we also will have exciting research topics from our collaboration between SAP Munich and the technical university of Munich (TUM). From a production point of view, the recording and mixing is now all done by our little team. We've chosen new episode music and also streamlined the show which helps us to mix these episodes down ourselves.  We hope you are as excited as we are – please let us know in the comments at cxlabs.sap.com/labstalk. 

Three experts, one topic. Leon Stigter (Flogo), Jan Oberhauser (N8N) & Nick O'Leary join us to discuss No Code / Low Code and share their different perspectives.LinksNode-REDNode-Red Project PageNode-Red GitHub reposNick on TwitterProject Node-Red on TwitterFlogoProject FlogoProject Flogo GitHub reposLeon on TwitterProject Flogo on TwitterN8NN8N Project PageN8N GitHub reposJan on TwitterN8N on Twitter

To start the new year, we thought it would be nice to talk with some of our colleagues from the Labs team to hear what they'll be working on in 2020.LinksBlog Post: Zefiro on Automated NegotiationBlog Post: Automated Negotiation with ZefiroAutomated negotiation on WikipediaBlog Post: Flow-Based Programming on KymaNode-REDNo code and low code on WikipediaIntro to Web Components on webcomponents.orgWeb Component PolyfillsCanIUse Web Components

We take one more peek at SAP.io Munich Foundry's Fall Cohort. In part two of our start-up feature we speak with Mathias Stiefel, CEO of 8select and Leon Szeli, CEO of Presize.LinksSAP.io Munich Foundry's Fall CohortSAP.io on Twitter8select8select on LinkedInPresizePresize on TwitterVideo: SAP.iO Foundry Munich Fall 2019 Cohort Highlights

In this first of two special feature episodes we take a look at SAP.io Munich Foundry's Fall Cohort. Julian Krenge, CTO of Parcellab, and Babak Mirzaie, CEO of Expivi, tell us about their start-ups and experiences with SAP.LinksSAP.io Munich Foundry's Fall CohortSAP.io on TwitterParcellabParcellab on TwitterExpiviExpivi on TwitterVideo: SAP.iO Foundry Munich Fall 2019 Cohort Highlights

Controlling devices with your mind! We talk to Chris Anderson from CTRL-Labs about their brand new, non-invasive neural interface platform, a wristband that translates intentions into actions.LinksChris on Twitter and LinkedInCTRL-LabsCTRL-Labs on TwitterVideo: CTRL-Labs – Controlling a Machine with your IntentionsNeuralinkVideo: Elon Musk's Neuralink Presentaion

In this feature episode we're taking a closer look at IOTA, the first open-source distributed ledger that is being built to power the future of the Internet of Things with feeless microtransactions and data integrity for machines. Our guest is Dominik Schiener, one of the company's founders.LinksMark Zuckerberg defending Libra in US Congress Google News on Quantum ComputingIOTA MAMThe IOTA Coordinator and its CoordicideIOTA Shimmer Digital Identities with IOTA – medium.comHackster & IOTAIOTADominik Schiener on Twitter

Together with Gordon Williams, we discuss how NFC & Bluetooth can be explored via the Espruino line of boards. As a special treat, we talk about Gordon's latest Kickstarter project - the Bangle.js!LinksGordon's new Kickstarter Project - Bangle.jsGordon on TwitterEspruino Home PageInfo about BLENFC Beer GardenNFC Intro on SlideshareNFC on AndroidNFC on iOSThe beer storyThe Tilt Repeater

Which 5 key technologies do you think could define the next five years? We discuss the first issue of Tech Beacon with Georg Kreimer, Head of SAP Customer Experience Labs.LinksGeorg on LinkedIn and TwitterTech BeaconPrototypes

We welcome our boss(!), Eugenio Cassiano,  Chief Innovation Officer | SAP CX, to talk about innovation in general and inside SAP Customer Experience. LinksEugenio on Twitter and on LinkedInTech BeaconZefiroGuardianKOIKOI Video

We discuss all things Visual AI with Ofer Fryman, CEO of Syte. In this episode you'll hear all you've ever wanted to know about Deep Tagging, Visual Search and the process of preparing the data for a visual ML system.LinksOfer on LinkedINSyte websiteSyte on LinkedIN and TwitterFashionLabs prototypeTechCrunch: Syte founding announcementVisual Search revolutionizing Black FridayVideo: CX Live main eventVideo: Experience InnovationVideo: GuardianVideo: FINDMINE Start-Up ChatTech Beacon

Together with Matt Netkow from Ionic we discuss cross-platform app development based on web technologies and progressive web apps (PWA). For everyone new to app development, we're also introducing the key strategies for creating apps and compare some of the well-known app development frameworks in this area.LinksThe Creativity CodeMarcus du Sautoy on ‘Futureproof'Labs Team ExcursionChirp ChirpDesign Thinking CampWordPress, Kyma & WeChatEugenio in JapanSAP.io MunichFeature Extraction – another viewSmart Mirror v2Ionic FrameworkMatt's Website

Both AI and Edge Computing are hot topics, but the combination of both is even more fun, as they enable completely new use cases and customer experiences. Listen to our interview with Mike Tyka (Software Engineer, Google Research) if you want to find out how these trending topics come together or how this is related to TensorFlow and new cool products like Google Coral!Linksenable.cx.sap.comGuardian – Open AI too dangerous to releaseTalkToTransformerOpen AI – Better Language ModelKOI: Demo in a MinuteSAP Now TokyoFeature ExtractionDigital Female Leader AwardGreen KeeperStart-upsAI on the EdgeMike's websiteMike on TwitterTeachable MachineGoogle Coral & Teachable Machine

In this episode, we're talking to Evan Anderson from Google about Knative. Knative is a Kubernetes-based platform to deploy and manage modern serverless workloads.Linksenable.cx.sap.comElon Musk's NeuralinkThe Outer Limits – Stream Of ConsciousnessThe Things NetworkTech Open Air 2019Evan AndersonHappy Birthday, Knative!Happy Birthday, Kyma!SAP Community Podcasts

We explore the world of Low Power Wireless Communications and IOT with the founder and CEO of The Things Network: Wienke Giezeman. LinksdevX Challenge DublinMedium: devX Challenge DublinThe Things NetworkGartner Cool Vendor in IoT

Welcome to “Labs Talk”, the show to share news and thoughts on innovation and tech topics, orbiting the world of customer experience – presented by SAP Customer Experience Labs. Every Month, Sven and Nick invite guests to talk about emerging technologies, start-ups, and innovation projects and how these might influence CX in future. It's not about communicating any official SAP CX thought leadership, it's just about keeping you up-to-date…In this first episode, we discuss GraphQL and the future of APIs. LinksStart-ups and the SAP CX Partner EcosystemGraphQL: REST in Peace!GraphQL