Tel Aviv Archives • SAP.iO

AI Unlocks Energy Savings And Revenue From Smart Meter Data

Which home appliances consume the most energy? What renewable energy sources would save households serious money? When are the best times for people to cost-efficiently charge their new EVs? These are some of the burning questions that NET2GRID answers for energy-conscious utility providers and consumers.

“Customers want affordable and easy-to-use options to better understand their energy consumption and manage resources in the most beneficial ways,” said Berend Olde Rikkert, commercial director at NET2GRID. “We provide accurate residential energy insights and predictions from energy data, helping utility providers find new revenue streams and guide customers on their journey to renewable energy.”

I talked with Olde Rikkert at the International SAP Conference for Energy and Utilities in Basel about how NET2GRID’s cloud-based data platform provides energy retailers and their customers with sustainable energy strategies in a volatile market. He told me that one energy provider in Germany tripled self-service, reducing service calls by 60% and churn by 40% within customers that adopted services. He said that consumers can save up to 30% in energy costs by following energy-saving recommendations.

Based in The Netherlands, NET2GRID analyzes smart meter readings from residential households, either collecting data directly from the meter or provided by the energy company. The company’s AI-based algorithms calculate energy consumption patterns of household appliances. Energy retailers can turn these insights into services, providing personalized offers to consumers for cost-savings.

“If people are producing solar power or home charging their EV, we can detect from only meter readings how much energy each device used and when the consumer used it,” said Olde Rikkert. “Knowing that a customer began charging their EV at home for the first time, the energy retailer can offer a special tariff. Similarly, they can alert the consumer if data shows the household is spending more on home heating to comparable households. The retailer can offer sustainable energy suggestions, such as installing additional insulation or a heat pump.”

SAP.iO Foundry Tel Aviv Kicks Off Deskless Workforces & People Management Program

May 30, 2023 — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today launched a virtual startup program focused on supporting deskless workers and people managers at SAP.iO Foundry Tel Aviv. A jury of SAP SuccessFactors solution experts selected 10 international startups whose solutions address the personas’ unique challenges as specified in original SAP SuccessFactors research.

Research from SAP SuccessFactors reveals that deskless workers (workers who complete their work away from a desk and lack consistent access to technology or internal system) face unique challenges across the employee lifecycle, such as outdated hiring processes, inadequate rewards, and a lack of opportunities for meaningful development beyond ongoing required training. Deskless workers – and the managers and HR teams that support them – often lack fit-for-purpose technologies to solve their most pressing issues.

In addition to deskless workforces, SAP.iO is also addressing the challenges faced by people managers in this year’s program. Results from a new SAP SuccessFactors research program show that over 90 percent of people managers believe their role has changed in the past three years, with their roles becoming less tactical and administrative and focusing more on supporting their teams’ well-being and growth. However, people managers lack the technology and tools to thoroughly understand their team members’ needs, and HR leaders struggle to help managers navigate this change.

Driven by the findings of these research programs, SAP.iO aims to close these gaps through this program by establishing a partnership with 10 startups that address these challenges by integrating in SAP products.

”At SAP, we are committed to help our customers succeed in a rapidly changing world, and we understand the critical role employee experience plays in the success of any organization.” said Aaron Green, Chief Marketing & Solutions Officer at SAP SuccessFactors. “By combining our expertise with the innovative solutions of our partner startups, we are able to provide our customers with the capabilities they need to create a better employee experience, no matter where they work.”

Over the next 30 weeks, the startups will be guided and supported by SAP executives, receive exposure to SAP® technology and application programming interfaces (APIs), and opportunities to collaborate with SAP customers around the world.

The following startups are participating in the SAP.iO Foundry Tel Aviv program:

Arist allows Fortune 500 organizations to create, deliver, and analyze bite-sized courses and nudges experienced over SMS, WhatsApp, Teams, and Slack to drive behavior change.
Beekeeper gives frontline employees technology in one place to streamline their work, collaborate with teams, and access critical safety, maintenance and training information to be the best at their jobs.
Bites Learning Ltd. combines the captivating nature of short videos with interactive elements, empowering organizations to effectively share professional knowledge and engage their workforce.
Connecteam is a mobile first employee management platform to manage, train, and communicate with non-desk workforces.
LumApps provides ultra-personalized and media-rich communications, smart integrations and automation, and community spaces that enhance collaboration and knowledge sharing across the enterprise.
Operations1 digitizes operational shopfloor processes to empower workers.
Retrain.ai is a responsible AI-driven talent intelligence platform for talent acquisition, talent management and skills mapping.
Sense provides an AI-powered talent engagement platform that accelerates the hiring process by helping candidates find the right jobs and making recruiters more productive.
Winningtemp analyzes and presents employee experience data with the help of AI.
Yoobic offers a mobile frontline employee experience platform that is purpose-built for the retail, restaurant and hospitality industries.

About SAP.iO  
SAP.iO curates a relevant and diverse startup ecosystem that extends the value of SAP solutions and meets the continuously evolving needs of our customers. Our programs provide dedicated support to the most promising startups as they launch and scale relationships with SAP and our global network of customers, partners, and employees. Since 2017, we have connected thousands of SAP customers with innovative enterprise software startups, helping them find solutions to their unique needs. For more information, visit http://sap.io/.  

Kelli Kohout In Tel Aviv, CRM & Customer Experience

SAP Startup Spotlight Series: Mention Me

In this installment of e3zine’s SAP Startup Spotlight Series, we’ll be taking a look at Mention Me, a referral engineering platform which integrates first-party advocacy data directly into your SAP ecosystem.

Kat Wray is the Director of Strategic Partnerships at Mention Me. As Director of Strategic Partnerships, Kat oversees the SaaS company’s strategic partnerships, working with leading partners to identify opportunities to accelerate growth for their customer base of over 600 clients. With a career spanning sales, business development, and partnerships, Kat has honed deep expertise into how brands can harness the power of customer advocacy to exponentially grow their business.

1. What is Mention Me and what do you offer?

Mention Me empowers businesses to turn word of mouth and brand advocacy into an unstoppable driver of sustainable, organic growth. Using cutting-edge technology and expertise gathered over 10 years in referral marketing, we’ve built the world’s first Advocacy Intelligence Platform that identifies, recruits, nurtures, and activates loyal brand fans. Established in the UK with offices in London and Boston, we’ve so far delivered more than 1.8 bn USD in revenue for 500 brands globally, including ASOS, PUMA, Charlotte Tilbury, ManyPets, and Nutmeg.

2. How does your solution work?

While your fans have always been the most authentic and trusted promoters of your brand, until now it wasn’t possible to harness their potential. And so while they were busy recommending your brand and products in the background, you weren’t able to target, nurture or reward them so they advocate more often and more loudly with everyone they meet. For the first time, Mention Me’s Advocacy Intelligence Platform and technology changes that.

3. Do customers need special technology/devices to access your service?

In order to track earned acquisition and gather the first-party data required to fuel the Advocacy Intelligence Platform, you’ll need to deploy a high-quality referral program with Mention Me.

Mention Me’s Advocacy Intelligence Platform integrates first-party advocacy data directly into your marketing automation and personalization platforms (including, of course, Emarsys and SAP). Aside from integrating our platform into your martech infrastructure, no special devices or tech is required.

4. Why do you believe thinking advocacy-first is so important for brands in 2023?

Business reliance on digital marketing today is at an all-time high. In the US, Google, Meta and Amazon now account for 64% of all ad spend. Meanwhile, acquisition costs are rising, iOS changes are ramping up the pressure, and we’re in an economic downturn. All that makes it no easy feat to acquire high-quality customers.

Winning in the times ahead requires a different approach: earning growth instead of paying for it. By taking an advocacy-first approach that prioritizes your existing customers—and delighting them enough to share your brand with friends and family—you’ll drive organic, sustainable growth without busting your marketing budget.

5. How are you connected to SAP? Can your solution be integrated in SAP systems and if so, how?

Integrated with Emarsys, Commerce Cloud, and CDP, Mention Me delivers the best Advocacy Solution for the SAP CX portfolio. Our solution equips brands to leverage referral as a sustainable growth channel while gathering rich first-party data that enhances performance across marketing channels. These unique advocacy insights integrate across the martech stack, enabling brands to identify current and future advocates and serve personalized omnichannel experiences that keep customers coming back, spending more, and bringing their friends.

6. How has SAP.iO’s involvement impacted your journey?

With SAP.iO, we’re maximizing the joint value we’re delivering to clients, while educating more CRM and CX leaders on the power of brand advocacy. Looking ahead, we’re excited to build on the success we’ve achieved so far as a recently appointed SAP Spotlight partner.

Brand Advocacy: Your Secret Weapon for Sustainable Growth & Customer Retention

When do you start building loyalty? Some might say it starts after the second purchase, or when a customer joins a loyalty program. However, I want to challenge you to think differently: the potential for loyalty starts from the first moment your customer hears about your brand. Better still, there’s a way for you to find customers who, right from their first experience with your brand, are more likely to become high-quality customers. By “high quality,” I mean they’re more likely to engage with you repeatedly and have a higher customer lifetime value.

Kat Wray, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Mention Me, the brand advocacy intelligence platform empowering businesses to turn brand fans into unstoppable growth talks about what brand advocacy means, the results that marketers can achieve with it, and even some practical tips to help you foster advocacy with your existing customers. Mention Me participated in SAP.iO Foundry Tel Aviv’s customer engagement program in 2021.

Revuze Recognized as Minicorn in Tracxn Emerging Startup Rewards

Tracxn recognizes Revuze as a Minicorn, a high-growth early-stage venture preparing for accelerated growth with the potential to become a Unicorn – a startup valued at over $1 billion. This recognition showcases Revuze as one of the leading tech startups of Brands Tech.

The Tracxn Emerging Startup Rewards is an initiative to publicly recognize the top global companies across sectors. Besides the well-known Unicorns, Tracxn also identifies Minicorns as well as Soonicorns, companies that can soon be Unicorns.

“[Revuze is] the first company to make deep market insights available to any business user from the comfort of their desk at an affordable price. No more standing in line for data or waiting on research to come back. Now any business role can make the best possible decisions”

Revuze’s unique product positions it and its clients for great profitability. Tracxn’s startup ratings are based on a detailed analysis by Tracxn’s internal sector specialist teams coupled with a combination of multiple publicly available signals such as market size, investment by marquee investors, execution excellence, and future growth prospects.

The Single Most Important Ingredient For Effective Digital Marketing

Be honest, to find the product you’re looking for, would you rather scroll through thousands of images and lines of text or take a fun personality quiz? If you’re as curious and competitive as most people are, you’ll click on the quiz because everyone loves personalized experiences. In fact, startup Jebbit is counting on it. This cloud-based platform helps digital marketers create interactive content to keep customers interested and spark sales.

“We’re seeing the emergence of a fluid customer journey that flattens the marketing funnel and puts control in the hands of the consumer,” said Tom Coburn, CEO and co-founder of Jebbit. “Using our platform, brand marketers are providing a relevant and personalized experience that guides the consumer to the path of purchase. By asking people about their preferences, interests, and motivations, brands generate high-quality leads and increased sales.”

Jebbit’s clients are primarily consumer brands in sectors such as CPG, retail, financial services, travel, quick service restaurants, and media and entertainment. Companies typically grow lead capture rates by 30% to 50%. Brand websites have expanded sales between 10% to 30%.

“One running shoe company used a personality quiz to find out about the exercise habits of customers as they joined the loyalty program,” said Coburn. “It’s a consumer-friendly way to welcome people and get to know them instead of an impersonal email.”

On average, brands see an 85% completion rate for every experience.

Milkman Technologies is a WINNER in the SAP Innovation Awards 2023

Milkman Technologies has been named a winner of the 2023 SAP Innovation Awards award in the Partner Paragon Category for their flexible, efficient and green last mile home delivery operations platform. The SAP Innovation Awards celebrate the achievements of future-minded companies and individuals that have harnessed the power of the latest SAP products and cloud technologies to create positive economic, environmental, and social impact so that the world runs better, and people’s lives are improved.

Kelli Kohout In Tel Aviv, ERP & Finance

Sustain.Life Proudly Announces B Corp™ Certification

Sustain.Life, the SaaS platform helping companies across industries measure, manage, and report their environmental impact, today announced its certification as a B Corporation^™ (B Corp^™). The certification reinforces Sustain.Life’s commitment to helping every industry future-proof by decarbonizing and forging a path to net-zero.

The B Corp verification process, administered by the nonprofit, B Lab, measures a company’s social and environmental performance. To become a Certified B Corporation, companies thoroughly review the impact of their operations and business model on their workers, customers, communities, and the environment and must score a minimum of 80 points on the assessment.

“Even before our inception in 2021, I knew that I wanted to build a Certified B-Corporation. It was vital that we aligned with B Corp early on—it provided effective tools and resources to ensure we started on the right path as a company,” said Annalee Bloomfield, chief executive officer at Sustain.Life. “We are very proud of receiving the B-Corp Certification, which cements our strategic vision for the future. It provides confidence for our team and current and future partners that want to make more informed business decisions with the environment in mind.”

Wise Systems Expands Delivery Automation Platform

Ultra-high-capacity and enhanced user experience ideal for broad range of industries, including couriers and distribution centers

Wise Systems unveiled an expanded version of its delivery automation platform that offers industry-leading, high-delivery capacity combined with further improvements to the easy-to-use interface. This latest edition gives route planners and dispatchers across industries an ideal mix of power, speed and automation to seamlessly manage large-scale delivery operations.

This enhanced edition of the Wise Systems platform is ideally suited for large-scale, high-volume last-mile delivery fleets across a range of industries, including couriers, retail, food, beverage and others. It is featured in the Wise Systems booth (Booth # 320) at Manifest 2023, a leading conference focused on the ecosystem of innovation and transformation in supply chain and logistics.

The Wise Systems platform expands the ability to route, visualize and manage stops to include large volumes, offering the most intuitive user experiences for planners and dispatchers. It also offers resource flexibility, easily accommodating hybrid workforce models such as a combination of gig workers and FTEs.

“Next-generation delivery software requires the perfect balance of automation and control,” said Chazz Sims, Wise Systems CEO and cofounder. “With additional capacity for high-volume industries, we’re streamlining planning and dispatcher roles, and complementing that with robust tools for managing the delivery day. This platform integrates with our clients’ last-mile ecosystems, and empowers their teams to improve operations while ensuring excellent customer service and driver experiences.”

Solar-tech developer BladeRanger acquires Raycatch assets

BladeRanger, the developer of an autonomous solar panel cleaning robot, has acquired the assets, operations and 400,000 shares of climate tech company Raycatch Ltd. for approximately $1.5 million.

The acquisition will allow BladeRanger to expand its footprint in the Israeli and global renewable energy markets. It will supply a holistic solution to solar fields and sites, enhancing efficiency and profit and delivering significant savings in operating costs in the energy generation process.

Raycatch is responsible for the development and sale of Deep Solar: a solar field management platform that performs advanced automatic analysis and monitoring in order to streamline and maximize renewable electricity generation efficiency.

Vue Storefront wins best e-Commerce and retail startup at The Europas Tech Startup Awards 2022

Vue Storefront, a technology company that develops software for businesses to create fast, modern and high-performing online storefronts, was crowned a winner at The Europas Tech Startup Awards 2022, picking up the prize for hottest e-Commerce and Retail tech startup.

One of the most high-profile technology awards in Europe, The Europas recognize the continent’s most ambitious and successful startups. Already in its fourteenth year, previous winners include Spotify, wise, SoundCloud, Deliveroo and Starling.

Patrick Friday, CEO, Vue Storefront: “We’re honored to receive this award and take our place among such illustrious previous winners. It’s testament to the hard work of our talented team and shows that, as a company, we’re moving in the right direction. Thanks to our investors for believing in our vision, to our customers and partners for trusting in our product, and to our huge global community of developers, who have been with us since day one – driving us to continually improve our technology.”

Borys Musielak, Partner, SMOK Ventures: “As Vue Storefront’s first institutional investor, it’s thrilling to witness its growth and the successes of the founding team. That it has been named the best e-Commerce startup in Europe is no surprise at all. This is a company that will help define digital commerce in the coming years and its potential for growth is unlimited.”

SAP.iO Launches Carbon Accounting Startup Program to Help Customers Enhance Sustainability Efforts

October 19, 2022 — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) launched a virtual startup program focused on carbon accounting at the SAP.iO Foundry Tel Aviv. A jury of SAP experts, partners, investment funds, and SAP customers, including ABInBev, DSV Global Transport and Logistics, and more, selected six international startups to join the program and build partnerships with SAP.

The increased awareness of sustainability has impacted consumers and investors alike. They are more and more choosing socially and environmentally responsible companies that consider their impact on people and the planet in their business activities. The finance sector continues to evolve as people and businesses transform how they spend, save, borrow, and invest.

SAP.iO Foundry Tel Aviv introduced the “Carbon Accounting” program to help customers enhance their sustainability efforts. The startups will work with the Foundry team as well as leading companies from various fields on integration and partnership with SAP.

Gunther Rothermel, Senior Vice President and Head of SAP Sustainability Engineering, “Data is a critical driver toward sustainability success. Enterprise data collection is a challenge where SAP helps its customers on their journey to Net Zero. It is about using the right tools and the latest innovation to achieve this goal.”

During the program, the startups will have access to curated mentorship from SAP executives, exposure to SAP® technology and application programming interfaces (APIs), and opportunities to collaborate with SAP customers worldwide. This includes creating new partnerships and value propositions.

The following startups are participating in the program:

Connect Earth offers API-based data products that track the carbon footprint of financial transactions.
ESGgo leverages machine learning to analyze and optimize enterprise environmental, social and governance (ESG) posture and score.
ESG Enterprise provides integrated SaaS and data analytics for businesses to reduce compliance costs, automate carbon accounting, data collection, and reporting.
SustainCert enables the digital verification of impact claims across carbon markets and value chains, bringing credibility to climate action.
Sustain.Life enables companies to easily measure, manage and report their ESG impacts for shareholders and regulatory disclosure requirements and requests using global regulatory frameworks.
Unravel Carbon helps companies track and reduce their carbon emissions, specializing in Scope 3.

About SAP.iO
SAP.iO delivers new partnerships and products for SAP by accelerating and scaling startup innovation as well as incubating employee ventures. SAP.iO brings together innovators from every region, industry, and line of business to transform how businesses run. Since 2017, SAP.iO has helped 450+ external startups, and internal ventures accelerate their growth while enabling thousands of SAP customers to access innovation. For more information, visit http://sap.io/.

Kelli Kohout In Tel Aviv, Supply Chain Management

Unlocking value from smart meter data with NET2GRID

There is no doubt that we are facing a harder winter than ever before. We hear more reports on the news about low-income families in Europe that simply can’t afford to pay they energy bill. With the current uncertainty in the international geopolitical arena, combined with the changing climate due to global warming, such situations will only repeat themselves more and more.

Smart meter data can actually be very valuable for energy suppliers and utilities in such times and can help them better adjust and expand their services. This is exactly why we partner with companies like NET2GRID. The NET2GRID solution will improve three capabilities:

1. Better customer experience, by giving insights to households about their energy consumption. NET2GRID delivers a white label app or an API which energy suppliers can integrate into their own energy app.

2. The second one is customer intelligence, by building profiles of customers and better knowing your customer. Thus, enabling energy retailers to give targeted advice and offers to their customers to become more energy efficient

3. Enabling better demand forecasting in their energy procurement and reduce imbalance costs by considering distributed energy resources like EV and Solar PV using disaggregated data.

Listen in as Lior Weizman from SAP.iO, Berend Olde Rikkert, Chief Commercial Officer at NET2GRID (an SAP partner), and Jörg Ferchow, Chief Solution Manager at SAP, discuss how energy suppliers and utilities can better leverage their smart meter data.

Kelli Kohout In CRM & Customer Experience, Tel Aviv

Jebbit Releases Sixth Consumer Data Trust Index Revealing Ranking Consumer Trust in World’s Leading Brands

Study Reveals Opportunity for Brands to Improve Consumer Data Privacy Education and Communications; Data Collection Remains at the Core of Consumer Trust

75% of brands report greater difficulty building and maintaining trust with their customers post-pandemic, although online shopping is up 63%

Jebbit, the provider of the world’s leading Zero-Party data platform, announced the release of their annual Consumer Data Trust Index (CDTI), a report surveying consumer trust in 100 of the world’s leading traditional, small, and D2C companies. The survey methodology asks adult consumers in the United States to rate, on a scale of one to 10, their level of trust in brands to use their personal data in exchange for more relevant offers, goods and services, and elicits feedback on how much control consumers want over their data and how it is utilized. The recurring study, first published in 2018, indicates consumers’ distrust in major brands continues to increase as many businesses that once held top spots on the consumer trust index have made major shifts down the ranks.

In 2021, data privacy took center stage with the passage of the Data Protection Act of 2021, Google and Apple’s hallmark operating systems privacy changes, and Google’s announcement of their plans to phase-out the use of third-party cookies. This year’s report revealed 71% of consumers surveyed support federal data privacy legislation, yet 30% were unaware that Apple and Google made data privacy changes at all, indicating there’s a huge opportunity for brands to better educate consumers. In fact, 49% of consumers polled stated that data transparency communications, cookie consent banners, and privacy emails make them trust a brand more. The report supports the rise of first-party data and trends like quiz commerce, which has become the leading strategy for brands across the globe to exchange privacy-safe data in a way that builds, rather than erodes, consumer trust.

Meet Wisy, the Cloud Wars Startup and Innovator of 2022

The Innovation Path at Cloud Wars Expo featured cloud-native startups; judges selected a short-list of five top competitors, and a Cloud Wars Startup of the Year. The overall winner was Wisy.

Wisy is featured on Episode 22 of the Cloud Wars Horizon Minute — a video which features news and commentary hosted by Acceleration Economy analyst Tom Smith. Each episode provides insights into one or more Innovation Accelerators on the Cloud Wars Horizon. This is a special episode focused on the Innovation Path at Cloud Wars Expo and the winner, Wisy, which was profiled previously along with the other participants in the event.

Watch Episode Here…