SAP is helping Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Pakistan navigate their digital transformation journey in a post-COVID economy by providing agile SAP ERP products and solutions across all industries.
SMEs are one of the largest and the most important sectors of Pakistan’s economy, according to Dr. Syed Akhtar Hussain Shah, Member of Private Sector Development & Competitiveness, Planning Commission of Pakistan. By enhancing the standard of living of vulnerable segments of society, SMEs also play a critical role in influencing national growth policies, job creation, and social cohesion.
The contribution of the SME sector to the world’s leading and rising economies demonstrates its importance today. Although SAP serves large businesses with over 90{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} of the Fortune 500 companies being its customers, around 80{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} of its customer base are SMEs.
As for Pakistan, the global software technology giant offers different solution categories in the market. In a recent online roundtable session hosted by SAP, Saquib Ahmad, Country Managing Director at SAP Pakistan, shared:
“The challenges brought about by the pandemic have shown that digital is the way to go even for small and mid-sized businesses. With SMEs accounting for about 80{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} of its customer base, SAP understands their need to optimise and simplify IT processes.”
Agile solutions from SAP, along with its ERP tools designed to respond to the individual demands of enterprises working in different industries, are dedicated to driving long-term digital transformation.
From accounting and financials to reporting and analytics, SAP solutions — including SAP S/4HANA, RISE with SAP Cloud, SAP Business One, and SAP Business ByDesign — enable SMEs to navigate a sustainable digital transformation journey without straining their costs and resources.
“As a single, affordable solution to manage entire small enterprises, businesses can benefit from up-to-date information and can enable themselves to react promptly while growing profitably,” Ahmad stated.
SAP ERP Products Cater to Specific Needs of Pakistan’s SMEs
Furthermore, the virtual conference also joined by SkyElectric PVT Ltd IT Manager Waseem Khan, Kashmir Cooking Oil & Banaspati CIO Farhan Tufail, and By The Way (BTW) by Din Industries Director Irfan Muneer highlighted how their companies have embarked on their digital transformation journey through SAP’s business management software and ERP solutions.
Solar energy solution provider Sky Electric PVT Ltd. has implemented SAP’s solution to help it achieve its goal of making renewable energy more accessible by constructing a distributed and intelligent energy storage system that can be administered via the internet. SkyElectric’s Waseem Khan stated:
“The implementation of SAP allowed us to upgrade the automation of all these critical functions and move further ahead than ever before in a very short time.”
On the other hand, Kashmir Cooking Oil & Banaspati, a brand of United Industries Limited (UIL), is set to go live with SAP’s customised ERP tool in a bid to ensure food safety and comply with strict industry standards. Kashmir Cooking Oil & Banaspati’s Farhan Tufail said that the company places a strong emphasis on understanding and fulfilling consumer demands. He stressed:
“With SAP solution, our ability to keep up these standards have further increased as it streamlines the entire business process under one platform, making things easier than they ever can be.”
Meanwhile, fashion brand By The Way (BTW) by Din Industries has increased its order handling capacity while utilising the same number of resources by also deploying SAP’s ERP solution to streamline inventory and sales processes for its stores across Pakistan. BTW’s Irfan Muneer explained:
“While affordability is one of the main obstacles in the digitisation of SMEs, it is this very aspect and scalability of SAP that has enabled us to adopt this tool without straining our resources.”
In an interview with BR Research in November, SAP MD Saquib Ahmad further emphasised:
“We, at SAP, provide that flexibility. We are interoperable with other ERPs. And this is our competitive advantage in this market. We work with all kinds of software.”
