The SAP (Qingdao) Innovation Empowerment Center was launched on Aug 25 in Jimo district of Qingdao, Shandong province.

The center will focus on the digital transformation and smart management of enterprises, industrial internet and big data innovation, and high-end talent training to facilitate Qingdao's efforts to become the world capital of industrial internet.

The SAP (Qingdao) Innovation Empowerment Center is launched on Aug 25 in Jimo district, Qingdao. [Photo/qingdaonews.com]

German software giant SAP SE is a Fortune Global 500 company and a leader in bringing about the next industrial revolution, or the so-called Industry 4.0.

The company is the market leader in enterprise application software. About 77 percent of the world's transaction revenue touches an SAP system, said the company.

The innovation center is an important part of the company's massive China acceleration plan to shape SAP's global strategy, said Zhang Bin, vice president of SAP China.

Zhang said that Qingdao has always been an important service city for SAP due to its large enterprise users such as Haier and Hisense, as well as tens of thousands of industrial enterprises and potential users of small and medium-sized enterprises.

Zhang said that SAP will further strengthen cooperation with the Qingdao government and local enterprises and contribute to the city's "smart" growth strategy.

According to Zhang, the center will build four cloud platforms – one for innovation at large and medium-sized enterprises, one for innovation at micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, one for innovation in industrial internet and big data, and one for management personnel training.

The center will promote technical innovation, the commercialization of new research, and start-up incubation as well as cultivate a talent pool for regional innovation-driven development.

At the launch ceremony, the center signed cooperation agreements with six local enterprises. It also signed a talent cultivation cooperation agreement with the School of Computer Science and Technology of the Shandong University.