As COVID-19 continues to spread and cause unprecedented economic disruptions, businesses and consumers alike have had to pivot and adapt to the new normal and the accelerated shift in digitalization. It is critical now more than ever for enterprises and the global community to embrace digital technologies and build a more sustainable society.

Since its foundation in 1898, NEC Corporation—then known as  Nippon Electric Limited Partnership—has been committed to providing “solutions for society” that ensure the safety and assurance of people, support fairness in society, and boost efficiency in economic activities. As a self-proclaimed social value creation company guided by its corporate message of “orchestrating a brighter world,” the company aims to facilitate digitalization, remote and safe working environments, and labor-saving initiatives to further contribute to producing new social value projects. 

In a press release regarding the company’s response to COVID-19, President and CEO of NEC, Takashi Niino said:

“Even during this global crisis, the NEC Group is continuing business operations so as to serve our valued customers, partners, stakeholders, and people around the world by working to support the social infrastructure and enabling a more safe and secure environment. All while giving the highest consideration to the safety and health of NEC Group employees and their families.”

Becoming an Intelligent Enterprise with SAP Solutions

As part of its digital transformation strategy in becoming an intelligent enterprise with SAP, NEC Corporation started its project to modernize its procurement of indirect materials with SAP Ariba solutions. With the cloud-based procurement system, NEC expects to reduce spend, enhance operational efficiency, and increase compliance in its procurement process. NEC Management Partners Co. Ltd.—based in Kanagawa, Japan—will be the first to roll-out the solution, with the rest of the group companies both domestically and globally to follow.

NEC Corporation will be implementing the full suite of SAP Ariba solutions from strategic sourcing to payment:

• SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing Suite – SAP’s software solution that supports a single, closed-loop, source-to-contract solution bundle for managing materials sourcing and suppliers across all spend categories 
• SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing – a user-friendly procure-to-pay (P2P) software solution that features streamlined catalog maintenance and a configurable interface

With these solutions that are connected to SAP Ariba’s robust supplier network, NEC Corporation will be able to negotiate the best-value sourcing agreements, achieve sustainable savings, gain better control over global spend, and simplify commerce.

Additionally, NEC is also set to introduce the following SAP software solutions to enable remote work and to achieve more efficient and advanced analytics:

• SAP Signature Management application by DocuSign – a solution that allows organizations to keep documents 100{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} digital and send them for signature from within their workspaces for a seamless, end-to-end electronic contracting process
• SAP Process Mining application by Celonis – a data-based approach to business automation that helps identify opportunities for automation and improvement, as well as prioritize, structure, and streamline projects
• SAP Analytics Cloud – SAP’s business intelligence (BI) solution that utilizes machine learning technology to highlight key business drivers and insights for better business decision-making

The post NEC Japan Initiates Transformation into an Intelligent Enterprise with SAP appeared first on InsideSAP Asia.

To help ease businesses’ burden, SAP has provided tools and resources to help them navigate through this historical period of uncertainty and disruptions. In an open-letter, Meaghan Sullivan, SAP Head of General Business and Global Partner Marketing, said:

“…we are helping small and midsize businesses navigate the current crisis while looking ahead to making a successful recovery. We are providing free access to proven tools that give our customers the assistance they need for the next few months. We are also actively listening to our small and midsize customers. They are sharing with us specific challenges in critical areas of their businesses.”

These challenges include, among others:

• maintaining business growth and functionality,
• creating contingency and recovery plans to face the looming global recession,
• maintaining high-productivity levels among employees,
• adapting to different work and collaboration models, opening up supply chain bottlenecks,
• redesigning how products and services are offered to ensure customers’ rapidly changing needs are met, and
• keeping communities engaged with their brands.

Below is a list of the COVID-19 SAP resources that aim to address these. Through the following technologies, businesses will be able to reinforce their competitiveness in the face of the coronavirus and the new normal:

Technological Tools/Resources

Since March 2020, SAP has opened up access to significant SAP software to aid businesses, communities, and governments navigate the challenges brought on by coronavirus and the new normal.

Preparing for a remote workforce

With Qualtrics, SAP has created Remote Work Pulse and Remote + On-site Work Pulse, a listening platform for companies to understand how employees are feeling, how they are adapting to newly placed work settings, and their experiences in using unfamiliar work collaboration models. In utilizing these platforms, SAP aims to help businesses equip their workforce not just with the right tools but ultimately with the proper mindset to help them navigate this new normal while still maintaining high productivity levels.

On the other side of this—if and when lockdown measures and mandates are lifted—to help in deciding when and how to transition to new working conditions, there is also Return to Work Pulse that provide businesses a means to address each employee’s unique needs in relation to returning to the workplace.

Managing Supply Chain Disruptions

To ensure a resilient supply chain, it was announced last March that access to SAP Ariba Discovery will be opened. Through here, buyers can easily post sourcing needs and vendors can respond quickly to show availability. SAP Ariba has a collection of 4 million suppliers in over 190 countries, and has waived the fees for vendors to respond to sourcing posts through June 30, 2020, with the promo code SAPARIBA2020.

SAP’s Spot Buy application offers a digital platform where small to medium-sized enterprises that do not have their own supply chain management systems, can source out supplies at a lower price point. With its three tier supplier vetting system, customers are assured vendors are properly evaluated for reliability.

Additionally, to be able to prepare and plan for the new normal in supply chain management, companies can utilize Qualtrics Supply Continuity Pulse. With this, leaders can identify potential supply disruptions and proactively offer assistance to suppliers.

Maintaining Quality Customer Engagement

Back to Business XM solutions is another technology from Qualtrics created to help companies build and maintain trust with customers, reinforce their digital presence, and manage customer relations effectively. In this new normal of forced distancing, business are finding it difficult to get a good understanding of their customers’ shifting needs. With tools such as Front Line Connect and Customer Confidence Pulse, and by creating a Digital Open Door to get customer feedback, businesses will be better equipped in taking appropriate action to meet expectations by optimizing their digital experiences.

#C19FREEACCESS

In another letter addressed to the SAP ecosystem consisting of more than 21,000 partners, CEO Christian Klein invited partners to also share their free resources and business solutions. These resources may be accessed on the SAP community C19FREEACCESS page.

Community Support

COVID-19 Tools for Government

With EY and Qualtrics, support for governments and the healthcare industry, has also been put in place to assist in effectively leading citizens through the pandemic and help the world run better during these unprecedented times.

Digital Learning Initiative

A dynamic initiative was put forward to assist students—the next generation of professionals—in continuing their education virtually. To facilitate a safe and ideal platform for conducive learning, SAP has opened access to massive open online courses (MOOCs) offered in the openSAP platform, provided free 90-day access to four selected learning journeys for universities, and other learning courses in the SAP Young Thinkers program.

In preparation for the new normal of virtual classrooms brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, SAP and Qualtrics are offering Remote Educator Pulse, Remote Learning Pulse, Higher Ed Remote Learning Pulse, and K-12 Remote Learning Pulse to academic institutions. With these, schools and universities will be better equipped in shifting to a remote learning model and staying connected with remote staff.

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