SAP APJ President Scott Russell shared that Asia Pacific region is an emerging experience economy where consumers increasingly prefer a superior experience versus a superior product. He pointed out that the region, with over four billion people and a tech-savvy population, has more than 50{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} of Internet users and 60{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} of the world’s young people. This is a hefty market for Qualtrics XM Platform.

Russell emphasized that for businesses to close the experience gap, they should tap the majority of millennials and digital natives who are willing to pay for a superior experience. 

In a recent SAP regional event in Bangkok, Russell cited a Bain survey on the CEOs perception of customer experience. Out of the 362 firms surveyed, 80{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} thought they were delivering a superior experience to their customers. But when customers were asked, only 8{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} agreed that they received a satisfactory experience.

According to Russell, the German company values employee experiences as much as delivering excellent consumer experiences. He said:

“Was it a positive experience on the first day I got my first promotion? What about the performance review? And that time when I got feedback from my manager? Was it a great experience?”

Russell explained that for businesses to succeed in the experience economy, it is essential to understand their operational data (O-data) such as employee turnover rates, revenues, spending, and receivables. He said that though the O-data will help businesses understand what, when and how things happen across the organization, they will not be able to understand why these things happened.

“That’s where experience data is important. Why is your employee engagement score dropping? You need to understand that for your business to go forward,” Russell said.

At the start of the year, SAP acquired Qualtrics, the global pioneer of the experience management (XM) software category that enables organizations to thrive in the experience economy. The acquisition accelerated the new XM category by combining Qualtrics’ X- data and insights with unparalleled O-data from SAP software. This enables customers to manage supply chains, networks, employees and core processes better. 

To SAP Southeast Asia Vice-President and Managing Director Claus Andresen, XM is like a rollercoaster track with its twists and turns, representing operational data such as height, speed, and velocity. For example, a theme park operator will be able to capture data about the emotions of someone riding a rollercoaster and improve the rider’s experience. As stated by Andersen, that is how X-data correlates with O-data in relation to XM.

SAP SuccessFactors has already integrated Qualtrics’ XM capabilities, which enables managers to gather employee X-data throughout the employee lifecycle, gaining predictive and personal insights based on employee feedback, and empowering HR leaders and managers to act on those insights quickly.

Vanee Bijayendrayodhin, Chief People Officer at Thai property developer Ananda, shared how the company benefits from Qualtrics in improving staff retention and understanding employee aspirations. Bijayendrayodhin said:

“We’ve asked them to think about what they want, and they have initiated ideas to make their careers more satisfying with Ananda.” 

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Since Qualtrics’ launch in the APJ region in 2015, the XM software company has now surpassed the 1000 customer mark as a SAP-owned vendor, with solid expansion strategy in Southeast Asia.

Bill McMurray, Managing Director of APJ at Qualtrics said,

“Surpassing 1000 customers in such a short period is a testament to the quality of the experience management technologies, services, expertise, and support Qualtrics provides to customers and the hard work of our ever-growing team.“

He explained that Qualtrics partnership with SAP has significantly increased their focus on helping organizations succeed with XM.

“SAP is excited to join us on this journey and is heavily investing resources into helping Qualtrics and our customers during this exciting phase of growth. The opportunities presented by joining the SAP family will accelerate our growth in the years ahead, and we’re going to deliver it by staying obsessively focused on helping brands grow and succeed with XM on the Qualtrics platform,” McMurray added.

According to the Managing Director, Qualtrics is “actively evaluating the next logical steps” for expansion in APJ, with a key focus on South Korea, Hong Kong, and India markets. He mentioned that the company and the companies joining Qualtrics are in for an exciting time.

 “Alongside this, we’re continuing to invest in and grow our teams across Australia, Singapore, and Japan,” McMurray added.

The company has recently opened its offices in Singapore and Tokyo in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

At the moment, the XM specialist now operates in 9 countries including Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, housing more than 150 people in the process.

Qualtrics’ key customers in APJ and Southeast Asia are Cathay Pacific, the home carrier of Hong Kong using CustomerXM and EmployeeXM offerings to “design and deliver” an improved experience for customers and employees and GOJEK, provider of the largest mobile on-demand service and payments platform in SeA using EmployeeXM and ResearchCore services to scale and optimize the company’s rapidly expanding operations in the region.

SeA, New Battleground

Mao Gen Foo, Head of Southeast Asia, Qualtrics said,

“Across Southeast Asia we are working with brands of all sizes and across industries. Customers tell us the reasons why they choose Qualtrics are because of the scale and breadth of our capabilities, and our exceptional ability to execute.”

Foo emphasized how the XM software company helps businesses win in the experience economy by unlocking a range the business benefits including product innovations, improved NPS that has a direct impact on the bottom line, and happier and more productive workforces.

He cited experience as the new “battleground for business” in SeA saying that,

“The region’s fastest-growing brands are integrating experience into their value proposition, and as a result are in a race to the top.”

Foo highlighted that the XM has already built momentum in Southeast Asia in two years and that Qualtrics is excited to lead in the experience economy.

Scott Russell, President of APJ at SAP said,

“Organizations at the forefront of Asia Pacific and Japan recognize that XM is set to become the most important differentiating factor in capitalizing on Asia Pacific and Japan’s burgeoning economies.”

 “By infusing insights from Qualtrics experience data with operational data intelligence from SAP software, our customers in the region now have the unique end-to-end experience and operational management system to deliver exceptional customer, employee, product and brand experiences. Qualtrics is a catalyst for growth for both our customers and SAP in Asia,” Russell added.

Qualtrics’ Experience Data (X-data) that focuses on obtaining and tapping the value of outside-in customer, employee, product and brand feedback combined with the unparalleled operational data (O-data) from SAP software that enables customers to manage supply chains, networks, employees and core processes better, give businesses the opportunity for a unique end-to-end experience and operational management system.

To date, over 10,000 enterprises, including more than 75 percent of the Fortune 100 and 99 of the top 100 US business schools, rely on Qualtrics. Leveraging SAP’s 413,000 customers and global salesforce of around 15,000, the XM specialist will be able to scale rapidly around the world.

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