SAP & Quantum Computing

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Quick Start Guide for Faculties & Students

SAP University Alliances, SAP Quantum Exploration

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Content

What is Quantum Computing?

Why is it important for Industry and SAP?

How to try it?

Use cases

Quick start: learning journeys

Helpful resources

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 What is Quantum Computing?

Quantum computing (QC) represents a paradigm shift in data processing. A classical

computer is an electronic device that processes information in binary bits that can assume
only one of two possible states, 1 or 0.

By contrast, the processes in a quantum computer take place at the physical particle level.
The basic units of information in a quantum computer are quantum bits, or “qubits.”

They follow the laws of superposition, interference, and entanglement, which means that
they can occupy more than one state at the same time and are interdependent –
allowing data to be processed simultaneously rather than sequentially. Computing
power might increase exponentially for some algorithms with each additional
qubit.

2025 will be the International Year of Quantum Science & Technology

to recognize 100 years since the initial development of quantum
mechanics.

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 What is Quantum Computing?

Developments in Quantum mechanics, a field of modern physics that predates

1900, enabled the development of the first transistor in 1947 at Bell Labs. This led to
the development of the first integrated circuit in 1958, followed by tremendous
progress in computer technology with the number of transistors doubling roughly
every 1.5 years.

This phenomenon, known as Moore’s law, has lasted into this decade with the
increase in computational power of classical computing technology. Technical and
economic challenges limit further advancements, as physical dimensions of
transistors approach 1-3 nano-meters.

Quantum computers have been advancing in their computational capability

expressed in the number of qubits. In a remarkable parallel to Moore’s law,
the number of qubits in a QC has been doubling roughly every 1.5 years.

Quantum Computing: history, challenges, current state.

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 What is Quantum Computing?
Types of Quantum Computers
There is a variety of different architectures and techniques ranging from superconducting
circuits to trapped ions, photonic quantum computers, quantum dots and many more.
However, from an end-user perspective it makes sense to differentiate the two large
categories: universal quantum computers and quantum annealers.
As the names anticipate, universal quantum computers can perform any quantum
algorithm, whereas quantum annealers are limited to the specific task of optimisation via
a hard-coded algorithm – quantum annealing. To provide some comparison: While
universal quantum computers offer somewhere between 100 and 1000 qubits for the
largest and the most sophisticated machines, quantum annealers with more than 5000
qubits are commercially available since a few years already.
There is also the realm of quantum-inspired machines, where the entire hardware
consists of conventional semiconductor technology, but their algorithms are heavily
borrowing from concepts of quantum mechanics and utilize them to come up with new
approaches. Such solutions may have superior performance compared to traditional
schemes without the need of using a quantum computer.

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 What is Quantum Computing?
There are several players in QC hardware space. List of Top 10 Quantum Computer companies by Forbes

Leader in QC by qubits # for gate based qubits is IBM, see Roadmap below (courtesy of IBM Quantum).
On October 2024 IBM has opened first IBM Quantum Data Center in Europe in Ehningen (Germany).

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 What is Quantum Computing?

Quantum supremacy
Physicist John Preskill coined the term quantum supremacy to describe the engineering
feat of demonstrating that a programmable quantum device can solve a problem
beyond the capabilities of state-of-the-art classical computers.

To better understand how fast quantum computer could be on some particular

calculations we would like to present couple of examples.

In December 2020, a group at USTC implemented a type of Boson sampling on 76

photons with a photonic quantum computer, Jiuzhang, to demonstrate quantum
supremacy. The authors claim that a classical contemporary supercomputer would
require a computational time of 2.5 billion years to generate the number of samples their
quantum processor can generate in 200 seconds.

See more on Quantum supremacy: history, challenges, current state.

Quantum advantage: the Gaussian boson sampling
experiment at the University of Science and Technology
© 2023 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. of China. (Courtesy: Chao-Yang Lu)
 What is Quantum Computing?

Quantum advantage
Classical computers struggle to simulate materials. As a result, materials development
has had to rely on time-consuming and costly traditional lab research methods.

Simply representing a material in a classical computer is challenging. To exactly represent

a single molecule from one family of light emitters, a classical computer would need 10106
bits. That exceeds the number of atoms in the universe (1084) many times over.

By contrast, a quantum computer could represent the same molecule using just 354
logical qubits. Moreover, a quantum computer can manipulate this compact
representation of a light emitter to predict interesting properties, such as its electronic
structure and the color it generates.

See more in IBM – The Quantum Decade.

The Quantum Decade (Courtesy: IBM)

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 Why is it important for Industry and SAP?
QC for Industry and Business Systems
Quantum technology has enormous potential for science, industry,
and society. According to McKinsey report (April 2024) the QC market
could reach $2 trillion in value by 2035: “Quantum technology could
create value worth trillions of dollars within the next decade.
Collaboration between industry, academia, and government is
essential to accelerating development of quantum technology to
industrialize technology, manage IP, and overcome talent gaps.”

The use cases primarily targeted for quantum computers are the
ones where complex models that require enormous computation
power are applied to a problem. This includes combinatorial
optimization problems such as supply chain logistics, where
coordinating and identifying the most efficient route for goods to
The Future of ERP: QC
travel to market has been one of the most sought-after goals for both
business and science.
Listen to openSAP podcast The Future of ERP with Laure Le
Another domain of application could be financial services, where Bars, the President of the European Quantum Industry
market prediction models are used for predicting important, Consortium, who discusses QC and its potential impact on
disruptive events to the broader economy to drive portfolio decisions. business systems.
Quantum computing is also expected to enhance machine learning,
which may accelerate for instance the training of neural networks.
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 Why is it important for Industry and SAP?
SAP in Quantum Computing
SAP began investing into quantum technologies about seven years ago. If quantum
technologies realize their potential, we may in the future be able to solve complex tasks
that even the most powerful supercomputers fail at today.

In logistics, for example, the optimal route, mode of transportation, and product quantity
for deliveries could be identified at each point in the supply chain and updated in real
time as conditions change.

For other industries too, enterprise software solutions from SAP could simulate business
processes more easily and infinitely faster. Quantum technologies could also massively
accelerate machine learning in SAP solutions by making artificial intelligence (AI) super-
intelligent and allowing training data to be fed into the software more quickly.

Read more at this SAP News article.

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 Why is it important for Industry and SAP?

SAP in Quantum Computing

SAP works with industry leaders and top research centers and participates in
several initiatives to explore quantum technology and potential use cases. For
instance, SAP has been involved in the EU Quantum Flagship from the
beginning and is a founding member of the European Quantum Industry
Consortium (QuIC), and others.

SAP is also a co-founder of the Quantum Technology and Application

Consortium (QUTAC) along with global corporations such as BASF, BMW,
Bosch, and others to advance developments in quantum computing for
practical application. Within QUTAC, SAP drives the use of quantum
computing in logistics, production, or procurement. Our focus is on
developing software applications to optimize transport routes, supply chains,
or production plans. This can help companies reduce costs, improve delivery
reliability, or avoid empty runs.

At SAP, we work to leverage the advances in quantum tech for our customers
while protecting their business-critical data.

Read more at this SAP News article.

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Relevance of QC for the Portfolio of SAP
Quantum Computing

Anomaly detection Business process optimization

Supply optimization Business process simulation Carbon footprint reduction

Risk management Logistics optimization

Fraud detection Inventory optimization

Price predictions Truck loading

Shift scheduling Sales & demand forecast

Workforce planning Marketing budget optimization

Predictive maintenance Portfolio optimization

Production planning Market simulation

Q-ML Q-Optimization Q-Simulation

Video Video Video

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SAP Quantum Computing Prototypes
Quantum eXploration / BTP Innovation

ž Production Assignment Scheduling Tabular Data Generation Quantum Safe Digital Signatures for
Quantum Optimization Quantum Machine Learning Business Documents
Recording Recording Post Quantum Cryptography
Recording
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 Quantum Computing Hypothesis
Quantum eXploration / BTP Innovation

Quantum Computing bears the potential to outperform classical machine learning,

optimization and simulation on a massive scale

1. Quantum computing will co-exist with classical processing technologies with QPUs as one additional
type of processing units besides CPUs and GPUs
2. Multiple types of quantum hardware and service provider will co-exist, which will require the need for
portability between different systems
3. Quantum computing will become relevant across the SAP portfolio, but only for specialized use-cases
4. Restricted industries and regions will require the co-location of quantum hardware and/or on-premise
installations
5. Quantum algorithms are a paradigm shift and require significant learning and enablement

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How to try Quantum Computing?
Qiskit
One of the most popular toolkits in QC is Qiskit – an open-source software development kit for
quantum computers to get into quantum computing world and investigate its potential benefits.
Qiskit currently is the largest quantum computing community in the world, with over 15,000
scientists and developers actively working in the field using the Qiskit tools and over 300,000
people using Qiskit resources to learn the fundamentals of quantum computation*.

Read here

Details
Qiskit is a Python-based SDK for working with quantum computers at the level of circuits, pulses, and
algorithms. It provides tools for creating and manipulating quantum programs and running them on
real quantum computers or on simulators (on a local computer).

It follows the circuit model for universal quantum computation, and can be used for any quantum
hardware that follows this model. Qiskit was founded by IBM Research to allow software
development for their cloud quantum computing service, IBM Quantum. Contributions are also made
by external supporters, typically from academic institutions.

Qiskit community with wide range of the resources is located at here.

More

*According to https://medium.com/qiskit/celebrating-2020-qiskits-best-year-yet-
832ccc34d397#:~:text=Today%2C%20Qiskit%20is%20now%20the,the%20fundamentals%20of%20quantum%20computation.
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How to try Quantum Computing?

Browse QC learning assets Introduction to Qiskit

Learn the basics of quantum computing, and how Get an information on how Qiskit is organized and an
to use Quantum services and systems to solve overview of practical working with Qiskit. Run Hello
real-world problems. World on a quantum processing unit!

View Go to course

Intro to QC with Qiskit Run Qiskit on simulators and real QC

After this course, you will have a fair understanding of You can run Qiskit compiled circuits on simulators and
quantum computing and Qiskit, as well as a short real quantum computers. It contains local and cloud
project demonstrating it. simulators, connection to several quantum services and
hardware systems from different vendors

Go to course Run Qiskit

Course Catalogue IBM Quantum Composer

All courses and tutorials listed. You can select by Build, simulate and run quantum circuits with a drag-
categories and by topics within the tutorials and by and-drop interface.
“badged” or new within the course lists.

Explore Try composer

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Use case BMW
Business challenge: Project
PVC foam for corrosion protection Is applied by Industry Quantum Computing
Applications, QUTAC Application Group
Industry: Automotive multiple robots with multiple tools. Collision free and
Function: Product Planning fast coverage of all seams is only solved
approximatively today. Participants
Problem Domain: Optimization SAP, Deutsche Telecom, Lufthansa,
Bosch, BMW, Siemens, VW, Merck,
Value proposition TRUMPF, Munich RE, Infineon,
Boehringer Ingelheim
Production efficiency – Shortening the process
by one sealing can result in hundreds of Project goals:
additionally produced vehicles • Creation of a basis for a cross-industry
quantum applications portfolio
• Joint realization of referential
applications and call to cooperation
beyond the boundaries of the
Model: QUBO, Hardware: Gate-QC consortium

QC solution approach
The problem is mathematically modelled with a
quadratic constrained binary problem with set
cover constraints and was reformulated into a BMW Group
Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization Munich, Germany
www.bmwgroup.com
Problem (QUBO).
Industry: Automotive

Products and Services:

Premium cars and motos
Click here to learn more
Employees: 149,475
Revenue: €155.5 billion
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Use case SAP
Business challenge: Project
Industry Quantum Computing
To utilize trucks in the best manner, it is required to
Industry: Logistics Applications, QUTAC Application Group
pack the pallets in such a way that the load is
Function: Truck Loading balanced and can utilize the complete space. Participants
Problem Domain: Optimization SAP, Deutsche Telecom, Lufthansa,
Value proposition Bosch, BMW, Siemens, VW, Merck,
• An optimized assignment of goods to pallets TRUMPF, Munich RE, Infineon,
for a certain truck can increase the overall Boehringer Ingelheim
truck utilization.
Project goals:
• It will reduce costs, traffic jams and climate • Creation of a basis for a cross-industry
emissions. Such a combine approach can quantum applications portfolio
improve today’s uncoupled planning steps. • Joint realization of referential
applications and call to cooperation
beyond the boundaries of the
consortium
Model: QUBO, Hardware: Annealer, Gate-QC

QC solution approach
• The binary decision which product is placed
on which pallet on which position can be SAP SE
Walldorf, Germany
modeled as QUBO. www.sap.com
• It is possible to express preferences, which Industry: Technology
product should be loaded together and can
Products and Services:
consider the restrictions of a certain position in Enterprise Software
Click here to learn more
the truck.
Employees: 107,538
Revenue: €29.5 billion
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Get started with the learning pathway
Introduction to Quantum Computing and Business Applications
Here's what you will learn

Learn what is quantum computing • Intro to Quantum Computing • Qiskit open source SDK for QC • Quantum algorithms
and how it influence the future of • QC and business applications • How to run Qiskit circuits on • Intro to quantum-safe
ERP simulators cryptography
• SAP and Quantum Technologies
• How to run Qiskit circuits on quantum • Qiskit certification
computers

Quantum Computing
Discover Explore Academic Deep Dive Certification
Learning Pathway
● SAP and Quantum ● SAP Blog on Quantum ● openHPI courses on ● Quantum math basics ● Certified Associate
Technologies Computing QC Developer - Quantum
● Intro to quantum-safe
● SAP Experts at the ● SAP Blog on Annealing ● Basics of quantum Computation
Quantum cryptography
Forefront of Quantum ● SAP Blog Optimisation information using Qiskit v0.2X
Computing ● Variational algorithm
Computing Exploration
● Intro to QC with Qiskit ● Fundamentals of design
● SAP podcast on QC quantum algorythms
● Intro to Qiskit ● Use cases
and future of ERP ● Quantum computing
● Qiskit global summer
● A Milestone Towards ● Qiskit community GitHub Labs
repository school 2024
Quantum for Enterprise ● Upcoming events
Apps ● Qiskit YouTube ● Qiskit free SDK
● IBM Quantum
Free Online courses Demo / free software Composer
Certification Events
● Simulating physics
Additional resources
with computers (by
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Richard Feynman)
Helpful resources

SAP and Quantum Technologies

A Milestone Towards Quantum for Enterprise Applications

SAP Experts at the Forefront of Quantum Computing Exploration

EU Quantum Flagship

European Quantum Industry Consortium (QuIC)

Quantum Technology and Application Consortium (QUTAC)

openHPI courses on Quantum Computing

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Helpful resources

Fraunhofer IKS on Quantum Computing

McKinsey Study on Quantum Computing Market

Quantum Decade (by IBM)

QURECA: Quantum Resources & Careers

Qiskit site and Qiskit YouTube channel

IBM Quantum and IBM Quantum Learning

Visit SAP University Alliances website

Visit SAP Student Zone

Join SAP University Alliances community

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 Have fun exploring!
Your SAP University Alliances team
Email: [email protected]

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