To date, AWS has maintained the number 1 position in the ongoing battle for cloud supremacy, having achieved US$17.5 billion in sales last year. Gartner researchers peg the total value of that market at $30 billion in 2017, rising to US$83.5 billion by 2021. Microsoft, currently the number 2 cloud services provider, had also competed for the Symantec business, according to the memo.

While SAP has increased spending with Microsoft and Google over the past 12 months, the AWS memo disclosed that “our SAP internal share of wallet stays pretty stable at 70 per cent.” The new contract is for the base layer of computing and storage services, as well as other tools for data management, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT).

The Symantec contract represents more than a seven-fold increase in the cybersecurity company’s spending with AWS. According to the memo, this means that AWS “has been able to capture more than 80 per cent” of Symantec’s cloud spending. Symantec will migrate its Managed Security Service, Network Protection and Website Security Service products to AWS within 18 to 24 months, according to the memo.

Although not insignificant at $200 million, the annual revenue from the SAP and Symantec deals represents less than 1 per cent of the AWS annualised revenue. AWS reported revenue of $11.5 billion for the six months ending June 30, according to a regulatory filing. Perhaps not surprisingly, the news resulted in little change to the share prices of all three companies. AWS declined to comment on the contents of the memo.

“SAP announced its multi-cloud strategy more than two years ago,” said a spokesman for SAP in a statement. SAP’s plan continues to be to maintain a presence on the world’s largest public clouds, such as AWS, Microsoft, Google, International Business Machines Corp. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. The SAP statement reinforced that the company “believes in the power of collaboration”. SAP declined to comment on the AWS agreement outlined in the memo.

“We do not disclose details of the agreements underlying our relationships,” said Sheila Jordan, CIO, Symantec in a statement. “As our cloud business has evolved, we have continuously evaluated our business relationships with our cloud partners.” The statement went on to say that Symantec is committed to a multi-partner cloud strategy and works with multiple partners including AWS, Azure, Oracle and other global and regional suppliers.

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“Customers are no longer making decisions based on price and product,” said Giles House, general manager, SAP Sales Cloud, SAP. “They’re basing it on trust. And while customers have evolved, most CRM systems have not. To overcome this gap, sales need to be faster, more connected and intelligent to stay ahead of the constantly changing customer and build relationships that go beyond one-off transactions.”

As part of this summer’s rebranding, SAP Sales Cloud encompasses SAP Hybris Sales Cloud, SAP Revenue Cloud and CallidusCloud’s configure-price-quote (CPQ) and contract lifecycle management (CLM) products.

Deutsche Telekom AG selected SAP for its out-of-the-box solution that reduces complexity, improves usage and reduces the time to market by simplifying the CPQ process and eliminating the need for specialised IT skills.

Cooler Master Corp., a leading Taiwan-based thermal technology firm, replaced its previous platform with the SAP C/4HANA suite to build a sales model improving both after-sales business and forecast management.

The KSB Group, a global manufacturer of pumps and valves based in Frankenthal, Germany, has adopted the SAP Sales Cloud solution as a core element in their digital strategy.

“Our legacy system was quite challenged by the complex sales and service processes we have at KSB,” said Hansen Willerding, program lead, SAP Cloud for Customer solution, KSB Group. “Our sales and service teams have access to relevant data now, increasing speed and efficiency of our processes, but also offering our customers a better service.”

Integrated into SAP Sales Cloud, CallidusCloud’s Datahug automatically ranks prospective sales according to their likelihood to close, enabling sales managers to identify at-risk leads and to eliminate leads with a low probability of closing.

The overall SAP C/4HANA solution also incorporates CallidusCloud’s incentives and compensation management capabilities, with SAP reporting that benchmark testing indicates that the solution is improving commission calculations 15-fold – sufficiently fast to enable real-time intelligent recommendations.

A total of 20 SAP customers are now exploring ML innovation with SAP software and four of them have already gone live with the ML capabilities, which leverage insights uncovered in historical data to train the ML model to predict customer preferences to increase sales process efficiencies.

“Working with prospective clients means establishing meaningful connections,” said JP Kato, CRM manager, Insight Enterprises Inc., one of the four companies already live. “In order to help them run smarter and maximise their IT investments, Insight has implemented SAP Sales Cloud and machine learning. The predictive analytics and deep-learning algorithms allow us to efficiently determine our clients’ needs and allocate the appropriate sales resources to intelligently connect with the businesses that would benefit most from Insight Intelligent technology solutions.”

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Witnessed by Ong Ye Kung, Singapore’s minister for education, the MoU includes the following five polytechnics: Nanyang Polytechnic, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Republic Polytechnic, Singapore Polytechnic, and Temasek Polytechnic, all of which will work closely with SAP to develop and deliver the training programs.

The university’s curriculum, which will be designed in accordance with specific industry demand, will train Singaporeans to take on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) related roles and to build up a skilled workforce to transition into these roles when they become available. The curriculum will be developed to meet the manpower and skills needs of the broader ICT industry including SAP as well as its partners and customers. The collaboration will also provide career advisory and placement services for ICT jobs, with funding support by SSG.

Over the next three years, more than 1,000 Singaporeans are expected to benefit from the collaboration, which will equip them with critical skills in Artificial Intelligence, data analytics, and the Internet of Things. According to the Ministry of Communications and Information, more than 42,000 workers specialising in data science, AI and robotic engineering will be required by 2020.

“As technological disruptions are occurring at an unprecedented pace, SSG actively seeks out collaborations with industry partners to enable Singaporeans to keep pace with the evolving skills needs in areas such as data science, robotics and AI, in order to support industry transformation,” said Ng Cher Pong, chief executive, SkillsFuture Singapore.

“Equipping the workforce with the right skillsets is critical for any organisation or economy to be future-ready and keep up with today’s rapidly evolving world of digital disruption,” said Khor Chern Chuen, managing director, SAP Singapore.

“With the SAP Skills University Singapore, we aim to facilitate education in the fields of advanced technology and complement the foundation that’s being taught in academic institutions with hands-on learning through SAP products and working experiences. This is a crucial measure in closing the gap between the demand and supply for qualified Information and Communications Technology professionals,” he said.

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The new solution for finance provides support for key finance functions including profit and loss, balance sheet, and cash flow planning while simplifying both data collection with SAP S/4HANA Cloud and analytics with SAP Analytics Cloud.

The solution enables FP&A teams to align operational and financial plans and to bring financial and nonfinancial data together to establish a single source of truth, eliminating the typical gulf between financial software and stand-alone spreadsheets and planning products.

The SAP Analytics Cloud application includes planning, business intelligence, and predictive analytics capabilities that enable organisations to automate insights that deliver organisational agility. The machine learning incorporated into the application highlights the key drivers of variances, creates forecasts, and augments data.

“Prior to working with SAP Analytics Cloud, we had created enormous amounts of data, but lacked the tools necessary to plan upon and analyse it,” said Stephen Filreis, director, SAP Program Management, Pratt Industries, an Atlanta-area manufacturer of corrugated boxes.

“Now we understand where we should target our efforts to maximise our collections group’s effectiveness. SAP Analytics Cloud has allowed us to gain visibility into this critical information and get our business users closer to data with intelligent visualisations and meaningful reporting,” said Filreis.

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Previously, without an integrated ERP solution, data was often reported in silos with few or no links between key systems and Thai KK Group was experiencing significant growing pains, negatively impacting both efficiency and productivity.

Explaining the company’s selection of SAP and Netizen, Khun Chawaeng Uvimolchai, president, Thai KK Group said, “We see technology as a strategic asset to build our competitive advantage, which will be instrumental in our plans to expand our growth across the ASEAN market.”

SAP Business ByDesign is designed to enable fast-growing, mid-market businesses like Thai KK Group to scale and compete more easily. The solution will provide real-time analytics to enable Thai KK Group to streamline its end-to-end processes and improve operational efficiency, while gaining the agility it needs to quickly adapt to new opportunities that will continue to improve the company’s bottom line.

“As one of Thailand’s fastest growing companies, we look forward to Thai KK group’s mission to continuously innovate and expand their business on the cloud by running with SAP,” said Fabio Tiviti, vice president, strategy and commercial sales, SAP Asia Pacific and Japan.

Thai KK Group will leverage Netizen’s ByDesign Arabica, which supports local business processes, accounting practices, and the local requirements of the Revenue Department of Thailand.

Thai KK group produces labels, adhesive tapes, melamine and urea moulding compounds in a factory occupying an area of 88,000 square meters, with more than 500 employees in Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia.

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Based on Huawei’s all-flash high performance storage platforms, OceanStor Dorado18000 V3 and KunLun Mission Critical Server, the powerful HANA TDI supports up to 200 SAP HANA nodes, each expandable to 32 TB. Using RAS2.0 technology, the Huawei KunLun Mission Critical Server provides superior reliability, while the Huawei OceanStor Dorado V3 ensures end-to-end high availability of SAP services.

The OceanStor Dorado V3 and OceanStor 5000F V5 series all-flash storage systems enable SAP HANA databases to be seamlessly integrated into existing data centre architecture to improve flexibility, reliability, management, and maintenance.

Using dedicated management plug-ins to work with the SAP Landscape Management platform, the solution automatically manages SAP applications, databases, networks, and IT infrastructures from end to end. In addition, Huawei storage snapshots significantly increase the setup speed of development and testing environments.

“Huawei’s SAP HANA TDI solution is an important infrastructure platform that hosts all SAP applications based on SAP-certified servers and storage products,” said Marco Ciavarella, director, SAP EMEA South Region.

“Huawei’s all-flash storage performed excellently during SAP certification, making it ideal for large-scale SAP service integration. We are pleased to work with Huawei to provide a comprehensive HANA TDI solution, which makes customer services more intelligent and efficient,” said Ciavarella.

Huawei’s solution is leveraging the Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) interface/protocol to create speed and reliability.

“Huawei is the storage vendor to put NVMe into commercial use,” said Meng Guangbin, president, Huawei’s Storage Product Line.

“Specifically designed for the heavily-loaded critical applications, Huawei’s all-flash storage meets the storage requirements of enterprise-class applications such as databases, virtual desktops, and server virtualisation. This allows it to effectively meet solid reliability and high-performance standards in SAP HANA scenarios,” said Guangbin, adding, “Huawei will work with SAP to build a high-performance data processing platform that helps enterprises accelerate core data processing.”

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UOB SmartBusiness helps SMEs to streamline and digitise their back office processes including accounting, payroll and business management simply, quickly, and securely, enabling both improved operational efficiency and reduced costs.

SMEs can link their UOB SmartBusiness account to their UOB current account, which enables automated bank reconciliations for improved speed and security.

UOB SmartBusiness features functionality from human resources software provider HReasily and mobile business software provider Enterpryze to enable use anywhere anytime.

Three package options are available, depending on the functionality required and the size of the organisation. Packages are Micro One, Micro One Plus, and Mobile One. Pricing ranges from free up to RM240 per month. Both paid packages allow a free 30-day trial.

UOB Malaysia executive director and country head of business banking Raymond Chui said the bank targets to sign up 4,000 customers for the new service by the end of next year.

“As SMEs progress through different growth stages, managing a larger and more complex business poses new challenges,” said Chui. “To help our SME customers improve their operational efficiency as they grow, UOB Malaysia is working with SAP to provide SMEs a scalable and affordable digital solution that will save time and money.”

SAP head of general business for Southeast Asia, Brad Gray, called SMEs the cornerstone of the Malaysian economy, accounting for more than 98 per cent of all the business establishments in the country.

“SMEs can up their game by further digitising their core business processes to help them achieve success with instant access to information and streamline everything from finance to talent management,” said Gray.

“UOB SmartBusiness can help SME business owners make the transition to digital and take away the hassle of managing complicated operational tasks manually, empowering them to focus on their core business models and drive business outcomes.”

This collaboration marks the first time SAP has offered SAP Business One, to Malaysian SMEs through a bank.

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The SAP Data Hub solution enables data orchestration, pipelining, governance, and agile sharing of all data across a connected data landscape.

From a single location, SAP Data Hub and Virtustream Enterprise Cloud enable organisations to speed and expand the flow of data throughout the enterprise. Virtustream enables organisations to get up and running quickly, providing a comprehensive solution installed, managed, and maintained by Virtustream, which frees up IT teams to focus on solving strategic business problems.

“We are evolving our solution through the addition of SAP Data Hub, which brings the latest in big data management capabilities to the cloud experience our customers know and love,” said Christina Colby, SVP, Alliances, Virtustream. “Our partnership with SAP means customers can now manage mission-critical big data workloads and cloud native workloads easier than ever before, which allows them to scale their big data solutions.”

“With this deepened partnership, we’re looking forward to extending our big data capabilities to an even wider customer base so enterprises can take advantage of simple, scalable data operations and management,” said Michael Eacrett, VP, product management, P&I big data, SAP.

Virtustream customers are now able to leverage SAP Data Hub to build and bring to market scalable, data-driven applications and services, as well as the single location for data management and visibility. Virtustream Enterprise Cloud delivers a true enterprise-class cloud environment, a consumption-based cloud pricing model, and a comprehensive IT security infrastructure.

Designed to run complex, mission-critical enterprise applications, Virtustream Enterprise Cloud provides a full suite of professional services coupled with high availability and performance speeds, all backed by industry-leading service-level agreements and sophisticated security.

In addition, Virtustream’s MicroVM technology provides fine-grained measurement of compute, memory, network, and storage consumption and, since customers pay only for the resources they use, organisations eliminate overhead from unused virtual machines, reducing inefficiencies and expense.

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Providing access to an on-site support team, technical expertise, and hybrid support frameworks, the latest version of SAP MaxAttention has been extended to cover evolving business and IT needs across all SAP solutions.

“As businesses embark on their digital transformation journeys, nothing is constant,” said Silvio Bessa, senior vice president and head, SAP MaxAttention, SAP Digital Business Services, SAP. “By enhancing partnerships for SAP MaxAttention through increased collaboration, transparency and solution coverage, we’re able to help our customers create positive, proactive change as opposed to feeling forced to react to the disruption around them,” he said.

To meet both business and IT needs, a team of SAP engineers, service professionals, and managers will collaborate with organisations to review the progress of their digital transformation, address engagement challenges, and provide proactive recommendations based on SAP innovation road maps and best practices.

The new version of SAP MaxAttention provides end-to-end support for all SAP solutions, whether on-premise, hybrid, or cloud, including co-designed solutions and SAP Leonardo technologies. Implementation support is now included for cloud offerings, cybersecurity and compliance guidance, and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) preparation.

The service and support plan now enables organisations to choose from three predefined engagement levels to best meet the needs of their specific organisation. Levels range from implementation planning to the design of customised application architectures and each option is scalable to provide targeted, predictable service outcomes.

To meet evolving needs, SAP plans to continue to evolve MaxAttention to help accelerate the adoption of SAP software both in the cloud and on-premise.

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As the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) deadline rolls around, and in response to increasing consumer demand for more transparency and control over their personal data, SAP has released SAP Customer Data Cloud from Gigya, creating a competitive advantage for enterprises complying with multiple levels of regulations governing data privacy.

“Businesses now have the opportunity to turn compliance into a competitive advantage,” said Patrick Salyer, CEO, Gigya.

SAP Customer Data Cloud, which includes the SAP Customer Identity, SAP Customer Consent, and SAP Customer Profile solutions, provides a transparent, flexible, and secure digital experience to enable enterprises to improve customer retention and brand loyalty. The consent-based solution is expected to address regional consumer privacy laws, including GDPR, by centrally capturing, managing, and synchronising preferences and consent in accordance with regulations throughout the SAP system and customer lifecycle.

“Companies are using a lot of different methods and corresponding third-party data to infer what a customer wants, often resulting in a creepy personal customer experience,” said Alex Atzberger, president, SAP Customer Experience, SAP.

“SAP Customer Data Cloud will provide marketers the opportunity to ask about customers’ preferences. If customers know what personal data is being used and they have control over its use, they will be more inclined to allow that data to be used for delivering personalised content and services, ultimately improving their experience.”

“Earning the trust of your customers isn’t just a matter of compliance anymore. It’s a matter of top-line growth, bottom-line sensibility, and overall success – for every business,” said Salyer.

“Mark my words, the age of the customer is here, and only businesses that put their customers wants, needs, and preferences front and centre will thrive within it, and our colleagues across the SAP global organisation agree. With sophisticated cybercrime and ‘fake news’ on the rise and a digitally savvy public, poor data practices are a big problem that needs to be solved, and the GDPR just made solving that problem the top priority for every company,” he said.

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