In partnership with NTT DATA Philippines, Philippine Airlines (PAL) aims to fully embrace SAP’s intelligent enterprise solutions across its critical business processes — including supply chain, procurement, finance, and human resources (HR) —- as part of a wider digital transformation strategy.
During SAP’s Q4 2021 Earnings Conference Call, SAP CEO Christian Klein noted that the company’s success with its Business Transformation as a Service (BTaaS) offering RISE with SAP helped to propel the company’s SAP S/4HANA initiative forward. He added that SAP currently has nearly 5,000 S/4HANA cloud customers and that the company’s win rate against competitors in the fourth quarter was more than 70{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22}. Klein further detailed:
“Many large customers are moving to S/4HANA enabled by RISE with SAP. This includes CVS, Panasonic, IBM and Standard Chartered Bank and a number of wins overall, including Siemens, Philippine Airlines, Allianz Technology, and Jungheinrich.”
“One of our customers, Philippine Airlines, is ready to take advantage of the anticipated recovery in travel. They chose SAP for our comprehensive understanding of the airline industry and its key business courses,” he revealed.
To help the company achieve its goal of a comprehensive digital transformation, PAL has forged a partnership with NTT DATA Philippines to assist the organisation in implementing SAP’s intelligent enterprise solutions. As the Philippines’ only full-service network airline and a pioneer in the aviation industry, PAL Senior Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer Nilo Thaddeus Rodriguez stated that the company is committed to utilising 21st Century innovative solutions to increase the efficiency of its business operations. He explained:
“A true digital transformation will strengthen interdepartmental collaboration and promote sound decision-making as we tackle the challenges of global competition. This will benefit our customers who look to us for reliable service as the nation’s flag carrier and largest international airline.”
Furthermore, the modernisation program intends to enable PAL in boosting operational productivity, improving enterprise decision-making skills, and enhancing the employee experience by implementing new technologies.
Partnering with NTT DATA to Implement SAP’s Intelligent Enterprise Solutions
As an SAP global strategic partner with a presence in more than 30 countries, NTT DATA collaborates with the German tech giant to improve industry-specific solutions needed to support organisations in their digital transformation journeys. The company recently received the SAP Asia Pacific Japan Award for Partner Excellence 2022 for SAP Concur Solutions. SAP and NTT DATA, both of which have a significant global footprint, have been working closely to leverage the former’s Industry Cloud solutions and the latter’s business services and industry expertise, as well as integration accelerators.
Relying on NTT DATA’s capabilities in SAP implementation and management, PAL’s modernisation project — which started during the COVID-19 pandemic — incorporates different SAP solutions into the company’s respective business processes. These include SAP S/4HANA enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform on Microsoft Azure, SAP SuccessFactors Human Experience Management (HXM), and SAP Concur’s expense management solutions.
According to PAL Senior Vice President for Supply Chain Management Alvin Kendrich Limqueco, NTT DATA and SAP are expected to contribute to equipping the PAL management with accurate data so that they can make informed decisions that enable them to quickly adjust to change.
“This project will help make PAL stronger, more agile, and more resilient as we continue to fulfill our mission of bridging the Philippines and the world with our signature Buong Pusong Alaga or heartfelt service,” he said.
SAP Southeast Asia (SAP SEA) President and Managing Director Verena Siow dubbed the project as a strategic partnership that the company truly envisioned. She said that it is a market-making collaboration and well beyond the Philippines, SEA, and SAP globally.
