“Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engines,” have been, for over a century, the time-honored words indicating that the most famous automobile race in the world, the Indianapolis 500, is officially underway. The Indy 500 is run each year on Memorial Day weekend at the end of May.

However, this year another race, and one of far more importance in the long run, has now started – just a couple of weeks earlier than The 500. SAP fired the starting gun May 15, 2017 with the announcement at its annual SAPPHIRE Conference in Orlando of its new SAP Leonardo platform.

SAP’s Leonardo is designed to support a suite of emerging technologies including advanced data analytics, machine learning, and the Internet of Things. These were all expected to be a part of this new platform. But not expected by many of the 30,000 attendees at SAPPHIRE was the announcement that Leonardo will also support Blockchain.

SAP has announced a partnership with IBM to integrate the Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger initiative with Leonardo. The platform is designed to facilitate the integration of Blockchain into SAP’s applications. It will also enable SAP’s Application Partners to more readily develop Blockchain enabled applications. And, it will allow SAP customers who choose to, to also develop their own custom blockchain enabled applications fully integrated with their SAP apps.

SAP’s Ariba arm had already announced its partnership with Everledger for Blockchain enabled supply chain provenance and track and trace functionality. But the full scope of SAP Ariba’s blockchain initiative was not made clear until the announcement at SAPPHIRE that Ariba will be integrated with Leonardo.

Furthermore, over time, Ariba’s 2.5 million customers worldwide will be ported to the Blockchain. SAP Ariba customers and other SAP customers who use the Leonardo platform will be able to integrate their business ecosystems via the Blockchain with other SAP / Ariba trading partners. And they'll be able to integrate with other Blockchain ecosystem partners who are not using either Ariba or other SAP applications.

I cannot overstate the importance of this announcement. In 1981, the PC market lacked business credibility. The small computers from Radio Shack and from little startup named, oddly enough, Apple were widely regarded as “toys”. Then IBM announced that it was going to make a Personal Computer designed to be used in business (and powered by an operating system delivered by a small software startup called Microsoft). Practically overnight, personal computers gained great prominence and traction in both the business and consumer marketplaces.

In 1995, the Internet, World Wide Web, and Ecommerce were primarily the world of enthusiasts and hobbyists. Then Microsoft, by that time the world’s largest software company, announced that it was pivoting to the Internet not only delivering its branded Internet Explorer web browser, but also web enabling its Office suite of products. Again, this placed a stamp of approval on the Internet that tremendously accelerated adoption.

By 2007, cell phones were becoming widely used, and Blackberry even had phones that would allow sending and receiving of email. But it was only with Apple’s announcement of the first iPhone that year that the transition to mobile computing as we understand it today began in earnest.

In each case, emerging technologies were first recognized and developed by a small cadre of “true believers,” pioneers, and early adopters. But, the “Crossing the Chasm” model developed decades ago by Geoffrey Moore clearly and accurately delineates that new products and emerging technologies must make the transition from early adopters to early majority before they can be assured of widespread acceptance in the market.

A key component of meeting that challenge and a key milepost of that acceptance is the active support of key players in the market. One of the first questions I asked several years ago when I came to understand the potential of Blockchain was, “Where are the major application software companies with this?” And, when I’m speaking on Blockchain to executives around the world, it’s the same question that I am frequently asked, also.

We can now answer unequivocally, that SAP is on board and fully committed to Blockchain. This doesn't mean everything they are doing and planning will be delivered overnight. But it does mean we’ll see an increasing presence in the market of Blockchain capable applications from SAP and their partners. History shows us that their competitors, including Oracle and other major applications software companies in industry verticals and geographies around the world will quickly move to maintain competitive parity by making similar announcements in the very near future.

Some skeptics will claim that this won’t happen. Other skeptics will claim it won’t make any difference as Blockchain doesn't need the support of major players. Both kinds of skeptics will be wrong.

Meanwhile, the race is now on. Ladies and gentlemen, if you haven’t started your blockchain engines already, it is time to do so. Blockchain has just moved from prologue to principal. You think you’ve seen a lot of change and growth in the past few years? You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!