SAP Philippines MD Rudy Abrahams shared that this year’s industry trends in the country are aligned with what Thomas Saueressig, a Member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, shared in a recent blog.
During his appointment last August 2022 as Managing Director of SAP in the Philippines, Abrahams said that his focus as the new leader of the tech company is to address the most pressing challenges that the customers, partners, and communities face. Specifically, he mentioned driving business transformation in the cloud, building a resilient supply chain, and working towards a sustainable future.
Two months into the new year, Abrahams shared insights on the Philippines’ industry trends for 2023. Out of the eight industry trends that encompass business, technical, and social developments mentioned by Saueressig, Abrahams iterated some that are also evident in the country.
SAP Philippines: On 2023 Industry Trends
“These are the industry trends that we believe will share the world of business this 2023 and beyond. On our part, SAP remains committed to helping organizations transform into fully digital, resilient, and sustainable enterprises, enabled with data visibility into their business functions and processes to make the most critical strategic and operating decisions,” Abrahams said.
Circular Economy
In the country, the government and private organizations are championing ESG initiatives in their operations to contribute to a circular economy.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the national government regulatory agency charged with supervision over the corporate sector, the capital market participants, and the securities and investment instruments market, had earlier released the Sustainability Reporting Guidelines for Publicly-Listed Companies to promote achieving global sustainability targets such as UNSDGs and national programs such as Ambisyon 2040. In addition, the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Act of 2022 (Republic Act no 11898) has also been passed to require large enterprises to recover and manage their plastic packaging waste.
SAP Philippines MD commented:
“A circular economy fosters new business prospects while preserving the environment. The advantages of implementing circular business models will significantly outweigh the existing investments that organizations must invest in.”
“Recovery is a subset of the more significant idea of EPR. This law emphasizes the obligation of organizations to ensure that the resources and waste that is generated can be recycled or decomposed sustainably instead of ending up in landfills,” he added.
Resilient Supply Networks
According to Saueressig, building a resilient supply chain means creating real-time transparency through close collaboration and data exchange among trading partners in an open yet secured digital network. Abrahams shared a similar insight on the impact of having a resilient supply chain for business operations as well as on decarbonization. He stressed:
“As disruptions still happen across various industries, digitalizing supply chains help organizations ensure that they provide consumers consistently with the goods and services they need and reduce their carbon emissions.”
Business Transformation
Abrahams said that leveraging technology to allow for a business transformation is crucial to the adoption of ESG initiatives. AC Energy (ACEN) and Globe Group are some of the Philippine organizations that have use case scenarios wherein SAP solutions were utilized.
ACEN deployed SAP S/4HANA, which encouraged its workforce to learn new technology, and embraced a digital platform that streamlined business processes, enhanced corporate governance, reduced cybersecurity risks, and lessened paper wastage. Globe Telecom migrated to SAP S/4HANA to overcome fragmented processes and drive automation for data-driven decision making. The telco also deployed SAP Fiori for better user experience and insight gathering.
