Topcon and SAP Demonstrate Infrastructure Digitalization

Topcon Positioning Group announces it was featured in a keynote presentation at SAP’s annual SAPPHIRE NOW and ASUG Annual Conference in Orlando, FL. The presentation titled “Manage Digital Disruption to Outperform Your Competition” by Christian Klein, Chief Operating Officer and member of the executive board of SAP SE, highlighted how digitalization is forcing companies to rethink the way they deliver products and services to customers.

At the presentation, Topcon and SAP demonstrated a road ecosystem that can deliver information quickly and efficiently in a scalable way by combining Topcon precision measurement and paving control expertise with SAP’s leadership as a business and technology software provider. 

Kris Cowles, Topcon VP, Global Application IT, said, “We are finding smart and completely new ways to tap into more data than ever before to achieve game-changing outcomes in the digital era.”

According to the Committee for Economic Development of The Conference Board, in 2014, traffic congestion wasted 6.9 billion hours of motorists’ time and consumed approximately 3.1 billion gallons of gasoline. Motorists had to pay more than $100 billion in additional auto repair and operating costs annually, due to damage and wear resulting from substandard road quality and road hazards. Poor road infrastructure led to an increase in traffic fatalities by 7% from 2014 to 2015, per the American Society of Civil Engineering.

To help meet these challenges, SAP and Topcon teamed up to demonstrate how components of the Topcon revolutionary SmoothRide road resurfacing system can be combined with SAP technology to create a new innovative platform to improve road infrastructure. 

Ray O’Connor, President and CEO of Topcon Positioning Group, said, “We collaborate and innovate using disruptive technology to meet the growing demands of the world. We have reached a crossroad where we now live in an incredible age of digital transformation and have the means to make changes in infrastructure and agriculture aided by modern technology.”

Topcon was also invited to exhibit its innovations that address the global infrastructure dilemma in the SAPPHIRE NOW showcase.