SAP Philippines celebrated its 25th anniversary, providing solutions and services not only to conglomerates but as well as to small and medium-sized businesses in the country across many industry verticals such as real estate, banking, energy, and IT.

Edler Panlilio, Managing Director of SAP Philippines since 2017 said:

“As we celebrate our 25th year in the Philippines, we are all proud that many companies and institutions run better with SAP. We remain committed to our purpose of helping Filipino companies of all sizes to become intelligent enterprises and improve the lives of Filipinos through technology.”

For over two decades now, local and multinational companies leverage SAP’s end-to-end business solutions in streamlining their complex daily operations while increasing productivity and staying competitive in their respective markets. SAP continues to strengthen its presence in the Philippines since its operation in 1995, growing its number of employees from 10 to 2,000 now across four offices around the country.

SAP Philippines has received the 2020 Top Employer from Top Employers Institute for empowering best people practices and having exceptional employee working conditions. SAP Philippines has received this distinction for three consecutive years.

Delivering SAP’s Mission

Despite COVID-19’s global disruption, SAP in the Philippines continues to deliver SAP’s mission to help the world run better and improve people’s lives. The technology advocates technology innovation both for businesses and for the youth of the country.

SAP for SMEs

For the SME-dominated Philippines, MD Panlilio has been encouraging businesses to leverage SAP Business One and SAP Business ByDesign as they navigate the road to becoming an intelligent enterprise even in this unpredictable environment. The nation’s economic recovery post-pandemic lies in the ability of the SME ecosystem to thrive by leveraging technology since the sector is responsible for 2.5 million-job creations in the country. 

“These quarantine guidelines demonstrated how technology continues to play an important role in supporting business continuity. Organisations now rely more on digital tools and platforms to move labor-oriented practices into more automated and technology-oriented processes,” Panlilio said earlier in June.

SAP and the Filipino Youth

Recognising the youth’s creativity and innovativeness in addressing today’s pressing concerns, SAP has created programs such as SAP University Alliances. It is a global program that enables faculty and teachers at educational institutions and partners around the world to educate next-generation talents with SAP skills for the intelligent enterprise and the experience economy, engage with SAP events, build industry partnerships, launch graduates in the SAP ecosystem, and inspire young thinkers.

In the Philippines, there 15 universities enrolled in the program including De La Salle University-Dasmarñas, which has signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with the Gokongwei Brothers Foundation and SAP University Alliances earlier this year.

In partnership with the ASEAN Foundation, SAP supports ASEAN Data Science Explorers, another program designed to explore the youth’s potential in creating a positive social impact in Southeast Asia through technology. The recently concluded ASEAN DSE 2020 National Finals awarded two college students from Nueva Ecija University of Science and Technology to compete at the regional level to be held in November.

“SAP’s enduring purpose is to help the world run better and improve people’s lives. Over the last 25 years, our Filipino colleagues have grown our business and operational footprint significantly in the Philippines. As we look into the next 25 years, innovation and ecosystem is going to help accelerate our efforts to achieve a Digital Philippines and drive our next wave of growth,” said Verena Siow, President & Managing Director of SAP South East Asia.

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In January this year, SMEs dominate the Philippines’s business landscape comprising of 106,175 small enterprises, 4,895 medium enterprises, and a massive 887,272 units of micro business establishments. The country recorded only 4,769 large enterprises. With SMEs being responsible for 2.5 million-job creations in the country, the nation’s economic recovery post-pandemic lies in the ability of the SME ecosystem to thrive by leveraging technology. 

Karl Kendrick Chua, National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) chief, said that the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for the Philippines to address its “digital divide” and transition to becoming a digitally-powered economy. Aside from enabling the healthcare sector to face the COVID-19’s pressing challenges head-on, technology has also been at the forefront of many enterprises’ strategies for survival in these unprecedented times.

Embracing the New Normal

SAP Philippines recognises the country’s need for a 180-degree pivot to embrace and adapt to the new normal. According to SAP Philippines Managing Director Edler Panlilio, the global health crisis has changed the business landscape as employees, customers, and organisations adjust to remote working, transacting via online or virtual channels, and even managing business operations remotely.

“These quarantine guidelines demonstrated how technology continues to play an important role in supporting business continuity. Organisations now rely more on digital tools and platforms to move labor-oriented practices into more automated and technology-oriented processes,” Panlilio explained.

Panlilio stressed that even when the Philippine government decides to lift the quarantine guidelines, technological advancements will continue to grow significantly. For SMEs, he emphasised that now is the most opportune time to shift their gears towards technology as an important asset, instead of an option. This shift in perception will enable them to not only thrive in the new normal but also continue to be resilient despite possible disruptions from the coronavirus health crisis.

SAP Solutions for SMEs

The SAP Philippines MD highlighted SAP Business One and SAP Business ByDesign as two of the SAP solutions that SMEs can take advantage of as they navigate the road to becoming an intelligent enterprise even in this unpredictable environment. Today, more and more businesses strive to become “intelligent enterprises” to achieve greater productivity, more efficient operations, and better cost-saving processes.

“Intelligent enterprises can collect insights better from customers, employees, products, and brands at every touchpoint as they use powerful technology to sense opportunities, risks, and trends and, turn this intelligence into action across every part of the business,” said Panlilio.

Designed for small and midsize businesses, SAP Business One (SAP B1) offers an affordable way to several key business areas. It is a single, integrated solution that captures all critical business information for immediate access and company-wide use. The SAP ERP solution boasts of its modularity and flexibility having more than 500 add-on solutions, custom-made to industries, or special functions.

On the other hand, SAP Business ByDesign is a single cloud ERP solution for fast-growing, mid-market businesses to scale and compete without the complexity and cost. The solution enables businesses to connect every function across their organisation to time-tested best practices and in-depth analytics.

SAP B1 Adoption

In the country, many SMEs that have used SAP solutions emerged to be fast-growing enterprises. 

Sta. Elena Properties is one of the SMEs that leveraged SAP B1 to seamlessly integrate their financial accounting system and deliver reports more effectively. The solution allowed the company to have access to real-time data enabling them to make sound and informed decisions.

“Optimising our financial and accounting system through technology has helped us improve our business processes and nurture the company’s growth,” said Katrina Tantoco-Lobregat, VP for Sales Marketing and Business Development at Sta. Elena Properties.

MM Steel Service Center Corporation has also leveraged SAP B1 to help steel production and delivery run 24/7. Now having full visibility into their stock items and production orders, the company can forecast demand as well as guarantee customer satisfaction.

“We have been successful in implementing SAP Business One across our supply chain. We are now always confident to fill customers’ orders. Because at any time of the day, we know exactly how much stock we have on hand, what orders are incoming and how much stock is in transit,” shared the steel manufacturer’s Accounting Supervisor Marcel Gako.

“This means zero delays across the entire supply chain. Uninterrupted supply means uninterrupted growth,” further stressed Raymond Seminiano, Supervisor at MM Steel.

MD Panlilio explained that SAP, as a purpose-driven company, is focused on helping its customers and organisations successfully manage their businesses amid new adversaries just like this pandemic. He said:

“SAP’s mission has always been to help every type of organisation in whatever size or shape, to run better. Especially in the Philippines where SMEs are essential to our thriving economy, we remain focused on providing access to technology that will support their growth and resiliency.”

While the Philippine government strives to provide incentives and aids to SMEs, SMEs, for their own sake, must stay on top of their game to innovate, find and adopt applicable solutions and technology to help them prosper during and after the pandemic.

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This is the first time SAP has offered the solution to SMEs through an Asian bank.

SMEs will be able to choose from three Business One options, with various levels of functionality to help digitise back office processes such as accounting and sales. The most basic option will be free.

“UOB has been supporting SMEs for more than 80 years and we know that ensuring efficient operations is their priority. While SMEs are keen to reap the benefits of digital technology, it can be costly to implement such technology,” said Lawrence Loh, managing director and head of group business banking, UOB.

“A survey we donated among SMEs earlier this year showed that two in five respondents indicated that cost was a barrier to using digital solutions. To help SMEs overcome this challenge, we have worked with SAP to offer a complimentary, entry-level version to help our customer begin their digitalisation journey.

“Through the collaboration, we believe our customers would benefit from the use of an enterprise resource planning solution to automate and to manage their administrative processes. Having a direct link to their operating accounts with UOB would enable them to manage their company finances more effectively.”

SAP and UOB share a common goal to help ASEAN SMEs seize growth opportunities in the new economy.

Scott Russell, president, SAP Asia Pacific and Japan, said, “SMEs are key drivers of the ASEAN economy and need to be equipped with the right infrastructure and tools to operate in today’s business environment. As more SMEs become digitally-savvy, we recognise the need to help them digitise the way they run and manage their business. UOB Biz Smart featuring SAP Business One could help SME business owners make the transition to digital and take away the hassle of managing complicated operational tasks manually, empowering them to focus on driving business outcomes.

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ISys will provide licensing, implementation and support of SAP Business One for small and mid-sized businesses in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Cochin and other cities in South India.

Rajan Gopalakrishnan, director and CEO of ISys Techworks, said, “This announcement marks an important milestone for the company. Through this association, we look forward to deliver enhanced value to our customers by bringing greater visibility and mobility into every aspect of their business through SAP B1.”

The ISys team has a decade of experience implementing ERP solutions for organisations of various sizes, and now looking forward to leveraging this expertise to provide affordable business management solutions to SMEs.

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