The latest developments in SAP Japan intend to further assist customers in innovating and driving digital transformation in the face of an ever-evolving business landscape today. The German tech giant’s local unit has been at the forefront of the modernization of many businesses by providing them with cutting-edge business software to support them in navigating the path towards becoming sustainable, intelligent enterprises.

Recently, the SAP Data and Analytics solutions, which is a core component of the SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP), have undergone significant enhancements in Japan. Improved planning and analysis and data orchestration capabilities aim to support businesses in data management, generating reliable insights and meaningful action plans, as well as optimizing the business value of corporate data. (InsideSAP Asia often references articles from websites in other languages to bring you as much information as possible.)

Key enhancements revealed in the company statement include:

• Establishing SAP Data Warehouse Cloud as a single source of truth for company-wide analytics and planning through the replication-based integration between SAP Data Warehouse Cloud and SAP Analytics Cloud solutions.
• New flexible time feature — which is based on calendars with common accounting cycles, such as those used in retail, hospitality, and consumer goods industries — allows for improved operational capabilities by providing flexibility to time dimensions in data models.
• Latest enhancements to SAP Data Intelligence include simplified replication settings for SAP data. Customers can automatically transfer data from SAP S/4HANA ( both on-premises and cloud versions), SAP ERP Central Component (SAP ECC), SAP Landscape Transformation Replication Server, Microsoft Azure SQL Database to SAP HANA Cloud, Azure Data Lake, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) S3.

Unveiling a Partner Package Program for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Edition

This month also saw the company introducing the All-in-One Partner Package Program for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Edition which is a comprehensive enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform that incorporates a number of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and advanced analytics right into its architecture.

Through the presentation of sample use cases of SAP S/4HANA Cloud for a variety of industries catering to medium-sized businesses, the latest initiative maximizes the technological investment of clients in conjunction with partner companies.

According to SAP’s press release, the SAP S/4HANA Cloud-enabled All-in-One Partner Package Program for medium-sized firms will be distributed in a predetermined order following a method that has already been outlined. SAP Partners IPS Co., Ltd., NTT DATA Global Solutions Corporation, Kobelco Systems Corporation, JSOL Corporation, Shin Engineering Consultants Co., Ltd., Focus Systems Corp., FREEDOM Co., Ltd. and Hitachi Systems, Ltd. have already expressed their support for the program. (InsideSAP Asia often references articles from websites in other languages to bring you as much information as possible.)

In November last year, Hitachi Systems, Ltd. also forged a joint business partnership agreement with premium SAP consultancy cbs Corporate Business Solutions to support the renewal of local customers’ core systems using SAP S/4HANA. Their collaboration is aimed at delivering essential services including the formulation of concepts for the visualization of data management, staged cloud migration in preparation for the SAP S/4HANA transition, and the implementation phase of the SAP ERP solution.

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Known as one of the most technologically advanced nations around the globe, Japan has been at the forefront of digitalisaton backed by the combined efforts of the government and the private sector. Against the pandemic backdrop, Japanese organisations in collaboration with technology and consulting partners have further accelerated their digital transformation strategies to address unprecedented challenges and modernise key business operations to thrive in the new world of work.

The marked increase in the digitalisation efforts in Japan is reflected in a recent report shared by Statista, a leading market and consumer data provider, which stated that the IT-consulting and implementation services market in the country has reached about 4.18 billion U.S. dollars in 2021 and is forecasted to steadily increase reaching a maximum value of 5.72 billion U.S. dollars in 2027. For instance, SAP Japan and its consulting partners have been enabling Japanese companies to run better– from delivering a disaster prevention program platform to bolstering their move to the cloud– with SAP software solutions.

Latest SAP Implementations by Japanese Corporations

Most recently, SAP Japan has supported the finance modernisation projects of Japanese corporations Ajinomoto, Kao, and Nippon Steel in partnership with the tech giant’s IT and consulting services partners Accenture, NS Solutions Corporation, and ABeam Consulting, respectively.

Ajinomoto Unifies Procurement and Purchasing

Following the launch of SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing as the company’s cloud-based procurement and purchasing platform in 2021, the Japanese multinational food and biotechnology enterprise Ajinomoto Co., Inc. went live with the SAP Strategic Sourcing Suite last month in collaboration with Accenture Co., Ltd. as its implementation partner. (InsideSAP Asia often references articles from websites in other languages to bring you as much information as possible.) SAP Ariba offers a portfolio of market-leading solutions and software for sourcing both direct and indirect materials and services, accelerating sourcing cycles and achieving sustainable sourcing savings. 

Anchored on the Ajinomoto Group’s company-wide operational reforms, the food company established the Ajinomoto Digital Business Partner Co., Ltd. (ADP) in collaboration with Accenture to drive consolidation and cost reduction in operations. ADP will be standardising indirect material procurement and purchasing operations as well as enhancing procurement governance and managing expenditures through SAP Ariba, essentially implementing a unified global procurement model.

Kao Harnesses BI for Accounting and Finance

In partnership with ABeam Consulting Co., Ltd. and SAP Japan, chemicals and cosmetics multinational company Kao Co., Ltd. has implemented SAP Analytics Cloud to complement SAP Central Finance, which the company adopted back in 2018. (InsideSAP Asia often references articles from websites in other languages to bring you as much information as possible.) SAP Analytics Cloud delivers analytics capabilities such as business intelligence (BI), planning, and predictive analytics.

Integrating SAP Analytics Cloud with SAP Central Finance offered Kao processing speed, SaaS convenience, and ease of use for accounting and finance personnel’s data reporting and analysis. About 250 employees, including general managers and management accounting staff, are currently utilising SAP Analytics Cloud to capture and make timely, informed decisions on the latest global data as well as the financial and sales status by segment. Aside from significantly reducing man-hours for visualising data by around 90{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22}, the introduction of self-service BI through the SAP solution has increased the accounting and finance personnel’s sense of ownership.

Nippon Steel Migrates Financial System

Japan’s largest steel manufacturer Nippon Steel Co., Ltd. has tapped SAP Japan and NS Solutions Corporation, as the system integration partner, in its finance modernisation project.  (InsideSAP Asia often references articles from websites in other languages to bring you as much information as possible.) As part of the company’s medium- to long-term management plan, which includes business process reform, Nippon Steel has adopted SAP S/4HANA, SAP S/4HANA for central finance, and SAP BW/4HANA.

The manufacturer intends to modernise its ERP system and advance the finance processes related to steelworks to support growth, match global standards, ensure sustainability and promote transparency and productivity. SAP S/4HANA was selected to support Nippon Steel’s financial business system reform per SAP standards, encompassing accounting processes such as credit management, debt management, and general account, among many others.

SAP S/4HANA for central finance will enable Nippon Steel to centralise and transform financial data and processes with a phased ERP implementation of SAP S/4HANA. On the other hand, SAP BW/4HANA will offer the company real-time, enterprise-wide analytics being the on-premise data warehouse layer of SAP’s Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP).

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UST collaborates with customers from concept to implementation fuelled by technology, people, and purpose. For more than two decades, the leading digital transformation solutions firm has been embedding innovation and agility into various organisations with the help of its employees scattered across global offices in the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA), and Asia Pacific (APAC) regions. Last March, the Alisa Viejo-headquartered company added RISE with SAP — the German enterprise software giant’s Business Transformation as a Service (BTaaS) signature cloud offering — to its list of transformative solutions.

As a qualified partner to deliver RISE with SAP, UST continues to strengthen its position as a reliable partner that builds disruptive solutions to assist global customers in achieving business transformation, increase agility, and scale growth. UST has co-innovated with SAP to provide a portfolio of cutting-edge technologies, platforms, applications, and accelerators to support the increasing number of organisations embracing RISE with SAP.

This month, UST expanded its partnership with SAP by signing an OEM agreement that will help develop predictive, contextual, and analytical features into retail and manufacturing industries. UST Sentry Vision AI is a Software as a Service (SaaS)-based packaged solution that is readily linked with RISE with SAP and SAP S/4HANA — SAP’s complete, modular cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP) software.

Commenting on the announcement, Chris Botha, Senior Vice President of SAP Practice at UST, said:

“We are excited to take our partnership with SAP to the next level and we are committed to providing our clients with a transformational offering. UST Sentry Vision AI will enable them to embrace the Industry 4.0 movement and make their factories smarter and transform retail into a touch-free experience.”

Integrating with SAP Business Technology Platform

In order to help eliminate operational waste, manage performance, identify income leakage, and automate intricate business operations, UST Sentry Vision AI uses vision-based artificial intelligence (AI). Furthermore, UST’s AI-based vision platform intends to enable and accelerate the intelligent digital enterprise by integrating with the following SAP technologies:

• SAP BTP – an open platform from the German tech giant that is both on-premise and cloud-native. It is a key component of the software vendor’s “Intelligent Enterprise” initiative. SAP BTP unifies data management, analytics, AI, Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, and application development technologies to help expedite businesses’ innovation.
• SAP Analytics Cloud – this SaaS cloud product for business intelligence (BI), planning, and predictive analytics is used to unify and secure the cloud transformation of organisations through data-driven business decisions.

According to Cogniphi Technologies Founder and Chief Executive Officer Rohith Raveendranath, the partnership will bolster the Cogniphi AI Vistion platform (promoted as UST Sentry Vision AI) to further harness the power of vision intelligence to help organisations across different industries including healthcare, retail, and manufacturing. Cogniphi Technologies is a firm that is part of the UST portfolio. The subsidiary received a significant investment from UST in 2019.

Thrilled to have UST embark on an OEM agreement with SAP, Chris Ritterhern, Center of Excellence for SAP Business Technology Platform, remarked:

“The company’s experience in supply chain and focus on Industry 4.0 – along with its innovative understanding of robotic technology as woven into business processes for SAP technologies – is a great foundation to bring new solutions to our customers.”

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Japan’s climatic variations, rugged topography, and location in both the Pacific earthquake belt and Ring of Fire make the country prone to natural disasters– from violent earthquakes and typhoons to tsunamis. In recent years, SAP technology has been leveraged by some Japanese organisations to help them better prepare for any looming natural hazards. 

For instance, Tokyo-based manufacturing company Hakusan Corporation partnered with SAP in 2018 to advance the development of “myShindo”, a smartphone application that measures the intensity of earthquakes with an iPhone/iPod touch/iPad attached at the building frame. The application harnessed SAP Leonardo in creating a more fully-featured product and SAP Cloud Platform for the collection of the intensity data. SAP Japan and Hakusan’s partnership goes all the way back in 2016 under the One Billion Lives initiative.

Developing a Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Platform

In 2019, Oita University Disaster Mitigation and Reconstruction Design Education and Research Center also collaborated with SAP Japan alongside Zainasu Co., Ltd., a member of the SAP Partner Open Ecosystem, to develop EDISON (Earth Disaster Intelligent System and Operating Network). Powered by SAP HANA and SAP Leonardo, EDISON, which leverages Big Data, ML, and AI, is capable of locating spots in the Oita Prefecture prone to disaster as well as building better infrastructure focused on safety. PREIN, a disaster prevention and mitigation platform coined from PREdictive INsights, is a product of the EDISON collaboration.

Sharing about the EDISON development, Disaster Prevention Bureau of the Living Environment Department of Oita Prefecture and the Commerce, Industry, Tourism, and Labor Department of Oita Prefecture commented:

“As the development of advanced technologies such as drones, AI, and satellite data progresses, it is important to utilize advanced technologies in disaster prevention and mitigation. In this prefecture, a study group on the utilization of advanced technologies for disaster prevention (disaster prevention) We have set up a tech study group) and are proceeding with discussions on strengthening disaster prevention capabilities using advanced technology.

Sharing disaster information is also an important theme at the disaster prevention tech study group, and in the prefecture, Oita University disaster mitigation and reconstruction design education and research Based on the agreement with the center, we are promoting cooperation such as providing disaster prevention information to EDISON. We will continue to work to improve regional disaster prevention capabilities while maximizing the vitality of the private sector.”

NTT Data Corporation Joining Forces with SAP Japan and Zainasu

Fast forward to today, NTT Data Corporation Kansai, a part of NTT Data Group, has joined SAP Japan and Zainasu under an agreement to work together for the availability of PREIN in local governments across Japan. (InsideSAP Asia often references articles from websites in other languages to bring you as much information as possible.) Specifically, NTT West Group and NTT Data Group will be handling the sales component while NTT Data Kansai and Zainasu will be taking charge of the launch and operational support.

PREIN can help streamline the disaster response work of local governments with the platform’s capability to centrally manage and perform advanced analytics on disaster risk and forecast information. Moreover, NTT Data Kansai can link the comprehensive disaster prevention information system “EYE-BOUSAI” with PREIN, providing governments a dashboard that shows the degree of risk to enable them to create evacuation plans faster. EYE-BOUSAI is a cloud-based comprehensive disaster prevention system developed by NTT Data that provides real-time information not only in the event of a disaster but also before it occurs to enable both local and private organisations to lead early evacuation strategies to protect lives and properties.

Below is the preview of the project’s implementation methodology:

1. The PREIN platform powered by SAP HANA centrally manages disaster information held “EYE-BOUSAI” and each institution distributes disaster prevention, mitigation, or prediction data

2. SAP Analytics Cloud’s numerical model and ML capabilities provide risk assessment and simulation of disaster risk based on these data.

3. SAP Analytics Cloud acts as a repository for the scenarios required for disaster prevention, mitigation, and disasters as well as the local governments and private companies BCP.

SAP Japan, Zainasu, and NTT Data Kansai’s signing ceremony was held last 27th October 2021 at NTT Data Kansai.

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Team Youth Forward, comprising Rada Prapaikornkiet and Kanjaree Suppawittaya from Saint Joseph Convent School, Thailand, emerged as the top winner in the recently concluded ASEAN Data Science Explorers (ASEAN DSE) Regional Finals 2021. The winning entry focused on empowering farming towards a sustainable future of the ASEAN Community covering SDG 2 – Zero Hunger, SDG 4 – Quality Education, and SDG 8 – Decent Work and Economic Growth. 2021 marks the fifth-year milestone for the ASEAN DSE competition with a renewed focus on UN SDGs that target climate and sustainability.

“We are so surprised, excited, and honored to be the ASEAN DSE Regional Finals Winner! We didn’t expect this at all. This journey has been memorable and life-changing for us. We learned so many new skills from this competition,” said Team Youth Forward. “Lastly, here is our message to ASEAN’s youth: Go for it! Don’t hesitate to join ASEAN DSE and your voices will definitely be heard, as our slogan: Let’s grow together as one ASEAN community that harmonizes in one vision, one identity, and become the remarkable changemakers of ASEAN’s future!”

Working Together for Sustainability Goals 

Since 2017, ASEAN Foundation and SAP have been engaging the university students in Southeast Asia through the ASEAN DSE programme to develop data-driven solutions that highlight six Sustainable Development Goals namely Clean Water and Sanitation (SDG 6), Affordable and Clean Energy (SDG 7), Decent Work and Economic Growth (SDG 8), Sustainable Cities and Communities (SDG 11), Responsible Consumption and Production (SDG 12) and Climate Action (SDG 13), by harnessing SAP’s Analytics Cloud software. The SAP Analytics Cloud solution combines BI, augmented and predictive analytics, and planning capabilities into one cloud environment.

This year, the competition was focused on insights and data-driven solutions that address climate action and sustainability. Against the COVID-19 backdrop, the ASEAN DSE conducted the data analytics challenge in a hybrid model– hosting virtual and in-person events. The awarding session for the regional competition was held on the second day of the three-day event, which was live-streamed on the ASEAN Foundation’s Facebook channel and achieved over 2,200 views.

As the top winner of the regional finals, the Thailand team was awarded the Regional Champion trophy and prize money of US$1,500. The first runner-up recognition was given to Team Sprinkle of Cambodia, comprising Chakriya Suy and Serei Neath Reasey from Kirirom Institute of Technology, who featured recycling centers as the solution for waste management covering SDG 8 – Decent Work and Economic. Team Brain Drain of Malaysia, comprising Ryan Kok Lam Liew and Jia Hui Ng from Sunway University, took the second runner-up place for their presentation that focused on prioritising e-waste covering SDG 12 – Responsible Consumption and Production.

Beyond the ASEAN Foundation and SAP Data Science Challenge

Going beyond the ASEAN Foundation and SAP data science challenge, the ASEAN DSE programme also delivered enablement sessions, both online and in-person, in partnership with Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in ten ASEAN member states (AMS) to equip the youth, including those with limited access to technology and youth with disabilities, with next-level digital skills. As a result of this collaborative effort, the programme was able to cascade SAP Analytics Cloud training to 11,782 students and lecturers in 2021, with females making up 53{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} of the youth beneficiaries.

“The ASEAN DSE initiative sets the foundation of a digital world where our ASEAN youth are inspired and motivated to create and solve challenges through technology. This will also cultivate digital inclusion by imbuing youths and lecturers with data analytics skills and nurturing and deepening a pool of homegrown talents in the region to build the workforce of the future,” said Verena Siow, President and Managing Director of SAP Southeast Asia.

“Through our collaboration with the ASEAN Foundation, we aim to empower the diverse ASEAN community to be the world’s economic powerhouse, be at the forefront of innovation, and drive sustainable economies,” she added.

Throughout the event, the regional finalists have participated in series of activities such as team building, networking sessions, storyboard presentations to build connections, strengthen their future-ready skills and grow their appreciation for being a citizen of ASEAN. On the last day, all participants engaged in sharing sessions with the ASEAN Secretariat, Permanent Mission of Brunei Darussalam to ASEAN, alumni of ASEAN DSE, and social enterprises.

“ASEAN Foundation and SAP aspire to help young people in the region to be future-ready by nurturing their 21st-century skills. Aligned with the theme of Brunei’s ASEAN Chairmanship 2021 ‘We Care, We Prepare, We Prosper,’ this programme also allows youth to better understand the shared challenges the region must overcome together and fosters a deeper sense of belonging towards the ASEAN Community. We also hope that the collaboration between ASEAN Foundation and SAP can inspire more public-private partnerships in the future to support the development of our future generation,” said Dr. Yang Mee Eng, Executive Director of ASEAN Foundation.

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ASEAN DSE is a flagship programme under the ASEAN Foundation’s partnership with SAP that encourages the youth of Southeast Asian countries to deliver data-driven, innovative, and feasible solutions that tackle pressing socio-economic in the region across the six United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This year, with a renewed focus on SDGs that target climate and sustainability, the regional data analytics competition for tertiary students recognised the 10 best all-rounded concepts based on creativity, feasibility, innovation, and the team’s ability to demonstrate the solution’s implementation.

“2021 marks the fifth-year milestone for the ASEAN DSE competition. Initially starting as a platform to empower youths with digital skills to grow the next generation of leaders, this year, we have added climate action as a key focus in our program, This sharpened focus is aligned with the ASEAN priorities. I am proud of the diversity of ideas the participants brought to this initiative. Their passion for creating social impact is impressive. ASEAN DSE continues to play a role in educating and inspiring the future workforce by enabling youths so that we, as one ASEAN, can be a sustainable economic powerhouse,” said Mr. Atul Tuli, Managing Director of SAP Indochina.

2021 National Champions

In 2021, 714 students from ten ASEAN countries across the region competed to represent their country in the National Finals. Here are the 10 national winners to compete for the regional finals next month:

Brunei: Team Start Up- Food Waste Minimisation Towards a Sustainable World

Cambodia: Team Sprinkle- Recycle Center is the solution for waste management; To reduce municipal solid waste in urban areas

Indonesia: Team Spotindev- Bridging Sustainable Fashion in ASEAN Society

Laos: Team Growy- Food Loss and Waste Reduction to Sustainable Community: Collaborative of every sector can help us to achieve SDG 12.3 by 2030

Malaysia: Team Brain Drain: Prioritizing E-Waste: How Can Earth Keep Up with Digital Integration

Myanmar: Team Glory- Newborn to Travel: Downfall &Recovery to Tourism

Philippines: Team Amplify- ASEAN Sustainable Consumption Loop: Limiting waste and sustaining capabilities in ASEAN communities through real-time information cloud

Singapore: Team Czus- Unsustainable Necessities: Digitizing palm oil supply chains

Thailand: Team Youth Forward- Altering Collars: Empowering Farming Towards a Sustainable Future of the ASEAN Community

Vietnam: Team Dastronaut- Adaptive Urban-Industrial Symbiosis Strategy: Utilizing Municipal Waste as an Economic Source

Harnessing SAP Data Analytics Software

In 2021, the programme organised by SAP and ASEAN Foundation in collaboration with NGOs was able to deliver SAP Analytics Cloud training to 11,782 students and lecturers– a 158{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} increase from 2020 (4,563 youths and lecturers). 

Sharing their experience in the competition utilising the SAP data analytics software, Malaysia’s ASEAN DSE National Champion Team Brain Drain from Sunway University said:

“Data analytics has helped us make the process of identifying problems in ASEAN countries, analysing data, and coming up with solutions to solve the identified problems much easier. With that, we would like to thank the ASEAN Foundation and SAP as the organisers of the ASEAN Data Science Explorers for providing this opportunity for us to venture further into this field to get hands-on experience in exploring data, and creating data-driven solutions.” 

Dr. Yang Mee Eng, ASEAN Foundation’s Executive Director, explained that amidst today’s uncertainties, the organisation and SAP’s commitment to empower the ASEAN youth with future-ready skills and accelerate the growth of the digital economy in the region is reflected by ASEANDSE. Commending the participants that showcased innovative data-driven proposals, Dr. Eng stressed:

“It is a testament to what our youth can do when provided with an immersive platform to showcase their talents. We believe that if given the opportunity, our ASEAN youth can create impactful solutions for the community to prosper. We also hope that the collaboration between ASEAN Foundation and SAP can inspire more public-private partnerships in the future to support the development of our future generation.”

We, at InsideSAP, advocate sustainability practices into SAP projects through our own TRP (Talent Resource Planning) platform, InsideSAP Careers. Aside from championing contactless and paperless recruitment, we plant trees for every person hired, across every project, every month.

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In a bid to achieving an advantage in a highly competitive ramen market in South Korea, food manufacturing company Ottogi has recently partnered with enterprise giant SAP to develop a forecast model that has advanced analytics capabilities to predict market share, yet is easy to use. The company has selected SAP Cloud Analytics and SAP HANA Cloud to drive innovation and accelerate Ottogi’s journey to becoming an intelligent enterprise. 

Chang-kyu, Lee, lead of the Corporate Strategy Analytics team at Ottogi, said:

“We needed analytics that could help put Ottogi ahead of the competition. SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP HANA Cloud empower our employees to make better, data-driven decisions based on intelligent predictions.”

For Ottogi, one of the leading food companies in South Korea best known for its curry powder, instant noodles, and other popular products, accurate market share forecasting is critical to achieving its ambition of expanding its market footprint and becoming a world-renowned brand. According to Korea Customs Service, South Korean instant noodle’s growing global popularity is reflected in the export market’s revenue that reached a record high of 368.7 billion won ($319 million) during the first half of 2021, with China as the largest importer .

Recognising Challenges Within Ottogi

Working against the COVID-19 background, Ottogi’s Strategy Analytics team and SAP conducted a remote workshop, including user research activities, to gain insights into the pain points and user needs within Ottogi’s existing work processes. The SAP project team identified key challenges such as:

• Difficulties with data preprocessing for end users
• Consolidating disparate data and standardising units done manually with MS Excel
• Cumbersome data sharing across stakeholder groups
• Forecasting accuracy needs improvement 

Recognising these key issues drove the team to design a tool that would significantly enhance both the data preprocessing activities and the quality of their forecast model. The team also leveraged SAP Analytics Cloud to provide all stakeholders access to real time one source of data.

The team was on a mission to improve the market share forecast accuracy and enable more granular segmentation of market share data. In addition to streamlining data preprocessing to increase employee productivity, the SAP-Ottogi project team also focused on enhancing the existing workflow to make real-time sharing of market share forecasts easier across organisations and to enable data-driven decision-making.

New Forecast Model Powered by SAP Business Technology Platform

The project team proposed a new forecast model leveraging SAP Business Technology Platform, which brings together intelligent enterprise applications with database and data management, analytics, integration, and extension capabilities into one platform for both cloud and hybrid environments including hundreds of pre-built integrations for SAP and third-party applications. 

Built on SAP HANA Cloud predictive analytics library, one of the database and data management solutions under SAP BTP, Ottogi’s new forecast model resulted to:

• Increased forecast accuracy 
• Increased segmentation by geographic region, product category, and product brand, comprising 152 different values 
• Shortened forecast cycles from monthly to weekly with the new dashboard that provides more accurate market share forecasting
• Enabled marketing and sales teams to create their strategies using weekly market share analyses
• Provided accurate, in-depth insights into its current market share on a more granular level due to stronger segmentation capabilities, enabling more sophisticated and strategic decision

Having experienced the improvement in ramen market share forecasting, Ottogi is looking into extending the coverage of the forecast model to other products within its portfolio.

“Choosing SAP as an innovation partner was a crucial first step for Ottogi toward becoming an intelligent enterprise,” shared Junyoung Chang, industry account executive for SAP P&T Sales in Korea. “The successful outcome of this project proves the high potential of SAP Business Technology Platform to drive business innovation and will significantly enhance customer success.”

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While the COVID-19 pandemic has had a noticeable and well-publicized impact on sectors such as healthcare and education, it is also advancing the transformation of less visible markets including the beauty industry. In the Asia-Pacific region particularly, the beauty and personal care products market was worth USD 163.92 million in 2020 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.38{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} over the next five years (2021 – 2026).

Some of the major key players in the market in APAC are Shiseido Company Ltd., Avon Products, Inc., L’Oreal Group, Procter & Gamble, and The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. Shiseido is one of the most active companies in the region, with a diverse range of brand offerings and cosmetic products. 

Founded in 1872 in Ginza, Tokyo, Shiseido was once a family business that started as Japan’s first Western-style pharmaceuticals firm. It then turned into a premium beauty innovation company that currently operates across 120 territories around the world. Currently, it has more than 40 global brands spanning Elixir, Laura Mercier, bareMinerals, Ipsa, and several others. 

During the recently concluded Mastering SAP OnAir online conference, Francois Keet, Vice President, Head of Global Business Transformation at Shiseido Company Ltd., has highlighted the company’s strategy towards raising overall business performance and profitability to globally competitive levels. Keet was joined by Alex Andrenacci, Partner at EY, in the Perspectives session titled “Developing a Data-Driven Organization to Leapfrog the Competition.”

Keet shared that the company has made a commitment to its investors that it will increase its operating profit from 10{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} to 15{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22}, based on the 2019 results before COVID-19. Recognizing the lack of optimized processes in the company, Keet further detailed:

“As a global company today and specifically with the COVID (situation) where you have to transform and you have to really accelerate into the digital era, it was really imminent for us that we need to look at our data, our processes.”

One of the keys to realizing its vision, according to Keet, is the company’s “Think Global” mindset. In 2019, Shiseido established a business-led and sponsored transformation program called FOCUS which stands for “First, One, Connected and Unified Shiseido” to kick start its journey into becoming a data-driven organization. Just like its fellow Japanese companies that have implemented SAP solutions, Shiseido also aims to unlock the true business potential of an intelligent enterprise.

FOCUS: Running a Global Single Instance Solution on the SAP Platform

Expounding on the FOCUS program, Keet went on to say that the company shifted all the global systems from a regional focus to a global focus. He explained:

“So, the whole governance sits with our global team. The global team consists of a global project management office. We have transferred our existing IT people that were working on our systems into the business process leads that we created under this function.”

Moreover, the beauty giant also built a master data organization that takes care of standards, integrity, and ongoing maintenance of data objects. 

In addition to working with EY and Accenture on certain projects, Keet said that Shiseido has a “very strong” partnership and even executive sponsorship all the way to the SAP Boardroom. He stated that each partner has a specific role to play in the company’s digital transformation journey which includes strategy and governance.

Shiseido now basically runs its core business processes on SAP as it has the full suite of solutions with the latest technology. To drive standardization and optimization, the Japanese firm deployed the following in a single instance on the SAP platform:

• SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management
• SAP Integrated Business Planning (IBP)
• SAP Ariba
• SAP Concur
• SAP SuccessFactors
• SAP Analytics Cloud

Keet explained that they wanted to take the best practices and quality of Japan everywhere, reflecting the Japanese phrase “Kaizen” which means “continuous improvement.” Still, he admitted that implementing a single instance solution globally is not easy and that no SAP implementation is perfect. Therefore, one always needs to improve, Keet stressed.

“And the one that makes me very, very excited is the SAP Analytics Cloud because that’s really where we will drive to become a data-driven organization. By empowering each and every manager in our organization to run the business on facts and data,” he added.

Furthermore, one attendee used the “Ask the Speaker” feature of the Mastering SAP OnAir digital event, curious about Shiseido’s approach and the role of IT project versus business specifically relating to business intelligence (BI) and ensuring the availability of data for analytics. Keet answered:

“It is my responsibility to provide standardized data, the data sources, the technology that is, in our case, the SAP Analytics Cloud or other BI solutions. It is the business’ responsibility to take that, to use those tools and develop their own KPIs and their reporting.”

“In terms of processes around the S/4HANA side, we are really driving standardization, we want to be unified,” he further said.

Shiseido’s Collaboration with SAP on Sustainability

Aside from working with the German enterprise software giant on deploying a single instance solution on the SAP platform, Shiseido has other projects underway. Just like SAP, sustainability is also very high on Shiseido’s agenda. Recently, the Japanese cosmetics giant published its second global report on its sustainability progress after laying out its medium-to-long-term targets in 2020.

Among its updates, Shiseido acknowledged that it had begun licensing its environmental technologies through the WIPO GREEN platform, which is operated by the World Intellectual Property Organisation to share sustainability solutions.

“We are working very, very closely with SAP on that (sustainability). Responsible design, responsible procurement that is really, really part of it. In fact, it was one of the key drivers as well to get our data standardized in the organization,” Keet concluded.

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Global manufacturer and provider of hybrid packaging solutions for beauty brands Quadpack embarked on a digital transformation journey to stay abreast of the company’s rapid growth in terms of size and the impending need to unify various IT systems. The modernisation project dubbed Quadpack Connect is centred on migrating its SAP Business One ERP that is on-premise to SAP S/4HANA Cloud as well as adopting other cloud solutions SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP Data Warehouse Cloud.

“The market changes very fast, and we need to change too. We are in a very old version [of SAP Business One], and to move to a current version of that system, the investment in terms of money and time would be the same as moving to a cloud system,” said Jordi Ambros, Quadpack’s Head of Business Intelligence.

Keeping Pace with Company Growth

Headquartered in Barcelona, Spain, Quadpack has offices and production facilities in Europe, the US, and the Asia Pacific region and a global strategic network of manufacturing partners. The company has been expanding its global footprint in recent years through acquisitions and partnerships. Just last week, Quadpack has appointed Korean packaging manufacturer LM as ‘Quadpack Official Partner’, a few months after sealing an agreement with Yuga in China in February– further bolstering Quadpack’s presence in the Asian market.

The company’s acquisition of two premier global beauty-packaging suppliers East Hill Industries and Louvrette in 2018 and 2019, respectively, accelerated the need for Quadpack’s ERP system upgrade to ensure that the company’s IT system can manage the changing business requirements and customer specifications. 

Migrating SAP Business One On-Premise to Cloud

Initiated in early 2019, the project Quadpack Connect designed in a phased rollout officially began in February 2020. The project aims to harmonise Quadpack, Louvrette, and East Hill Industries’ ERP systems and sets of processes and standardise Quadpack’s manufacturing facilities.

According to Ambros, the company selected SAP S/4HANA Cloud to provide Quadpack the foundation and agility to manage the company’s accelerated growth and rapidly changing business conditions. The intelligent ERP system SAP S/4HANA Cloud has built-in intelligent technologies, including AI, machine learning, and advanced analytics. The solution has the capabilities to support new business models, manage business change at speed, orchestrate internal and external resources, and use the predictive power of AI.

The project also focused on finding an analytics system to help Quadpack manage data and enable better data analytics such as migrating historical data and managing clean data from each acquired company’s data management system. The global manufacturer selected SAP Data Warehouse Cloud for data management and SAP Analytics Cloud on the reporting side to replace Microsoft’s SQL Server Integration Services for data warehousing and Microsoft Power BI for data analytics. The new system’s capability to automatically replicate data and synchronize access to data is expected to enhance internal and external customer experiences.

Explaining the objective of consolidating data from different facilities and companies into SAP Data Warehouse, Ambros said:

“We want to harmonise the metadata and our KPIs. Because it’s very important for us that, for example, sales processes will have to be the same sales processes for every company. If a manufacturing facility is specialised in wood and another in plastic, it has to be the same process.”

The SAP Data Warehouse Cloud and SAP Analytics Cloud implementations are scheduled this summer while the consolidated SAP S/4HANA system will be rolled out to Quadpack’s various locations by the end of 2022.

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Backed by 40 years of expertise in the design, technology, and manufacturing industry, Computime Group Limited (Computime) continues its legacy of delivering meaningful design, superior R&D capabilities, and a problem-solving mentality amidst the global pandemic and the change in company leadership in April 2020. With Bernard Auyang’s reappointment last year as an Executive Director and the Chief Executive Officer, Computime aims to ensure a seamless transition into the electronics manufacturing and Internet of Things service space with specialised and innovative solutions.

Now, Computime is embarking on an intelligent enterprise journey with the software giant SAP leveraging a suite of business technology solutions such as SAP S/4HANA and SAP Analytics Cloud with SAP Cloud Platform as the core.

Sharing about the manufacturing solutions specialist’s digital transformation strategy, Computime CEO Auyang said:

“With SAP S/4HANA as our digital foundation, we are in a position to take advantage of other SAP innovations such as SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP Cloud Platform that deliver deep industry-specific capabilities. A high-tech manufacturing solutions organisation, like Computime, that invests heavily in research and engineering, has unique needs and we remain at the forefront of our industry by embracing the best new technologies.” 

By leveraging SAP cloud and on-premises application services, Computime will be in a better position to drive digitalisation with more speed and stability. SAP Cloud services helps enterprises accelerate innovation and adoption in the cloud with the flexibility, elasticity, and reduced complexity and costs. This will enable Computime to achieve robust end-to-end operations, reimagine and automate its business processes to make better decisions more quickly.

“As a dynamic company, proven to be committed to transforming to seize opportunities in a fast-changing technology landscape, Computime is now moving forward even faster with SAP solutions. SAP’s value-focused approach is enabling Computime to see benefits in terms of productivity, cost savings and sales, with a low total cost of ownership, while ongoing simplification will help it continue to grow as a more agile intelligent enterprise in the future,” said Fabian Padilla Crisol, Managing Director, SAP Hong Kong.

The Chosen SAP Business Technology Solutions

Computime will be adopting the following SAP solutions as it transforms into an intelligent technology-driven enterprise:

• SAP S/4HANA will be at the core of the deployment. Serving as the backbone of the transformation project, SAP S/4HANA will be integrating standardised sales, sourcing, manufacturing, finance, and reporting processes.

SAP S4/HANA automates business processes and delivers intelligent insights, helping enterprises and their employees to make smarter decisions faster. With capabilities that utilise artificial intelligence and next-generation best practices, SAP S/4HANA empowers enterprises to achieve business goals. It harnesses the power of intelligence that optimises processes, increases planning agility, and improves product quality.

• SAP Analytics Cloud is expected to bring Computime better visibility on data, produce more customised, accurate forecasts, reports, and plans as well as better manage its workflow, from research to production and shipment. The SAP solution combines Business Intelligence (BI), augmented and predictive analytics, and enterprise planning capabilities into one cloud environment. SAP Analytics Cloud supports advanced analytics enterprise-wide as the analytics layer of SAP’s Business Technology Platform.

With live integration to SAP S/4HANA, the SAP Analytics Cloud solution enables companies to monitor enterprise data in real-time. This allows enterprises to accelerate decision-making and rapidly adapt to change based on instantaneous, in-context, analytics-driven insights.

• SAP Sales Cloud, SAP’s sales automation software for enterprises and SMEs, will enable Computime to deliver an enhanced customer experience by allowing the company to quickly and more fully respond to customer requests. By streamlining and automating critical selling processes, SAP Sales Cloud empowers the sales team with intelligent recommendations and allows them to spend more time on customer-centric engagements.

• SAP Ariba Sourcing with tight integration to Ariba Network helps companies of any size drive fast, sustainable results by automating and streamlining critical tasks involved in sourcing indirect materials and simple direct materials. Moreover, the sourcing solution can help Computime improve product profitability by reducing supplier onboarding costs and compliance risk.

• Advanced SAP financial tools let Computime gain real-time insight into global cash flow and liquidity management, which ensures secure and compliant treasury operations governance.

The intelligent enterprise journey of Computime, which has 14 offices and manufacturing sites in key markets worldwide, happens in sync with the company’s efforts in the past decade to evolve from a traditional manufacturing company into a global leader in the design and manufacturing of intelligent controls.

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