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. 

The post SAP Philippines Shares 2023 Industry Trends  appeared first on InsideSAP Asia.

In recent years, Malaysia has accelerated its digitalisation efforts for both the public and private sectors to keep pace with the fast-evolving digital economy. Correspondingly, German software multinational SAP has also reinforced its growth strategy in the country following the appointment of Managing Director Kok Cheong Hong in 2019.

Under Hong’s leadership, SAP has continued to be at the forefront of Malaysia’s massive digital adoption supporting government initiatives and creating solutions for businesses and the workforce of the country. During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, SAP Malaysia has already recognised the need to support SMEs and the future workforce in line with the nation’s economic recovery and digital transformation plans. The tech giant has expressed support to the MyDIGITAL initiative launched in 2021 to propel Malaysia’s digital vision by 2030 underpinned by the “Cloud-First Strategy” among others.

This year, SAP forges ahead on the momentum of the company’s business strategy in Malaysia attuned with the country’s latest national development agenda Twelfth Malaysia Plan (12MP). Focused on shared prosperity, the initiative covers three key dimensions such as economic empowerment, environmental sustainability, and social re-engineering. 

SAP Backing Twelfth Malaysia Plan  

Globally, SAP has been paving the way for organisations of all sizes across industries to transform into sustainable, intelligent enterprises leveraging the software company’s comprehensive portfolio of cloud-based solutions. SAP has introduced several industry-specific solutions– such as SAP S/4HANA for Waste and Recycling, SAP Intelligent Returns Management, and SAP Responsible Design and Production– to partners and customers to drive sustainability at scale and support a circular economy. 

In Malaysia, SAP MD Hong expressed the company’s sustainability measures that align with 12MP. He highlighted that the initiative’s three pillars–social, environmental, and economic activities and performance– are interconnected and have an impact on each. He stated:

“Our efforts focus on helping to create a sustainable future for Malaysia, our customers, and society at large. For us, it is crucial to be a responsible business that holistically manages our performance and steers our business in an integrated way – connecting financial and non-financial performance.”

One of the goals of the prosperity initiative is to make Malaysia carbon neutral by 2050 by introducing carbon pricing and carbon tax. Similarly, SAP has earlier announced that the company is raising its ambition of achieving net-zero emissions across its entire value chain by 2030, 20 years earlier than its original 2050 timeline. 

Hong explained that enterprises can embed end-to-end sustainability across their operations through digital solutions–from product designing to tracking materials’ lifecycle– that support the principles of the circular economy such as eliminating waste and pollution, circulating products and materials, and regenerating nature.

“SAP’s data-driven approach lets businesses embed sustainability comprehensively to gain actionable insights across the value chain to enable companies to transition to low-carbon business processes,” Hong added. “We enable businesses to proactively identify the carbon impact at the beginning of the product lifecycle instead of reactively after a product has been produced.

The post SAP Sustainability Efforts Align with Twelfth Malaysia Plan appeared first on InsideSAP Asia.