Financial Technology,technology,

Financial Technology,technology,

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), at the opening of its new Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) headquarter building in Singapore, unveiled the InnovateNext program, an incubator that will partner with local companies to ideate, co-innovate and commercialise new technologies.

HPE will lead the new three-year program in collaboration with the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) to partner with local technology startups and aid enterprise customers in the development and commercialisation solutions across a variety of industries, including manufacturing, distribution, financial services, communications, media and entertainment and the public sector. The solutions will align to HPE’s priority technology offerings, including hybrid IT, Internet of Things (IoT) and data and analytics. The program, together with HPE’s investment in its operations at the Asia Pacific and Japan headquarters building, increases HPE’s investment in Singapore to USD $140 million over the next five years.

“At HPE, we have long been committed to developing and commercialising innovative technologies to help our customers around the world keep a competitive edge,” stated Meg Whitman, president and chief executive officer of HPE. “With our new InnovateNext program, HPE will now be able to provide our best-in-class technology and global partner ecosystem to promising technology startups in Singapore to help them turn ideas into commercially viable enterprise technologies solutions they can offer to prospective customers.”The InnovateNext program plans to support 12 startups, with the goal of developing solutions that are market viable around the world. Additionally, HPE aims to co-innovate and develop 10 vertical solutions with enterprise customers, over the next three years. The program provides access to HPE resources and mentorship through three key channels:

• HPE “Accelerate Next” Incubator: The incubator will support startups by providing access to HPE technologies, as well as engineering and consultative expertise, to co-develop solutions for hybrid IT and intelligent edge environments.
• The Innovation Centre: Hosted in a cloud environment, the Innovation Centre will help enterprise customers across key verticals, to develop proofs-of-concept and prototypes of new technologies. Additionally, participating startups will have the opportunity to work with these enterprise customers to develop vertical solutions.
• Customer Engagement Centre (CEC): Solutions developed though InnovateNext will be featured as part of the technology showcase in HPE’s Customer Engagement Centre, an interactive environment at the company’s Singapore regional headquarters where customers can explore product solutions, learn about industry use cases, and discuss how to apply HPE solutions to achieve their business outcomes. These solutions can additionally be featured throughout the HPE CEC network at HPE facilities globally

Startups will be identified for participation in the program through:

• Local university partnerships – HPE will explore the creation of new startups in partnership with local universities
• Industry vertical engagement – HPE will identify existing startups that can contribute to the success of the company’s customers in Singapore and APJ
• Venture capital engagement – HPE will work with local venture companies to identify startups already innovating in solutions to drive business adoption of hybrid infrastructure and the intelligent edge.

Singapore-based startup gridComm, the first InnovateNext participant, is working with HPE to create smart lighting solutions that leverage real-time data collected through Internet of Things (IoT) and edge devices. gridComm’s smart lighting system provides responsive lighting controls, such as brightening of lighting when sensors detect foot traffic. The solution can help improve public safety and decrease total cost of operations for public infrastructure operators.

“gridComm makes smart cities smarter with networked street lights. Working with HPE, we have made our street light platform more scalable and flexible for IOT device management,” stated Mike Holt, cofounder of gridComm. “Data drives smart cities. Our integration with HPE data analytics provides a critical solution for street light control, smart city sensor integration and data analysis.”

As a global technology leader embedded in Singapore since 1970, HPE was an early partner in helping to build Singapore’s economic strength in Asia. Today, HPE continues to deepen its partnership and strengthen its capabilities to ensure a stable economic future by ensuring that local enterprises continue to have access to capabilities to innovate and scale, as well as the resources to foster the best local talent for growth and success.

“We are pleased to support Hewlett Packard Enterprise in establishing its InnovateNext program in Singapore. It will benefit from and add to the growing vibrancy of our city’s startup eco-system,” said Dr. Beh Swan Gin, Chairman of EDB. “This program undertakes a corporate innovation model well-aligned with EDB’s efforts to facilitate partnerships between multinational companies with their customers, suppliers and startups.”

The new Hewlett Packard Enterprise Asia Pacific and Japan headquarters brings all of the company’s facilities—including R&D, supply chain and logistics, marketing and sales offices and an Innovation Centre and Customer Experience Centre—into a single location to facilitate partnership and collaboration.

Re-disseminated by The Asian Banker