As customer experience becomes an increasingly important focus for businesses globally, SAP is well-positioned to help organizations excel in this aspect. Last year, the German software giant acquired Emarsys, a provider of an omnichannel customer engagement platform that aims to help brands accelerate time to value and achieve faster business outcomes.

The SAP Emarsys Customer Engagement Platform is a part of the wider SAP Customer Experience portfolio, which also includes the SAP Service Cloud, SAP Commerce Cloud, SAP Marketing Cloud, SAP Customer Data Cloud, and SAP Sales Cloud solutions.

Personalization is still a top priority for digital marketing leaders, according to global research and advisory firm Gartner. Additionally, its recent report has noted that relevant and timely communication is critical for educating customers, reducing friction, and building brand loyalty in customers.

Highlighting Emarsys’ ranking in the latest Magic Quadrant for Personalization Engines, Gartner recognizes SAP for its industry-specific templates to ease user adoption as well as measurement, reporting, service, and support.

Sameer Patel, Chief Marketing and Solutions Officer at SAP Customer Experience, believes the company’s position as a Leader in the report reinforces the overall features of the SAP Customer Experience portfolio. He stressed:

“With the integration of Emarsys, SAP Customer Experience powers a foundation of omnichannel personalized engagement, meeting customers where and when they choose to engage, on their preferred channels and on their terms.”

Delivering Personalized Omnichannel Experience to Customers

Meanwhile, Sara Richter, Chief Marketing Officer at Emarsys, said:

“With 91{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} of consumers saying they are more likely to buy from brands that provide relevant offers and recommendations, personalization is an essential part of this approach. We believe that this report, and our Leader placement within it, validates our vision for personalized, customer-centric commerce and that we offer the right technologies to help brands connect the dots and produce a true 1:1 customer experience.”

Moreover, Emarsys has established its customer base in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region by expanding its footprint with offices in various countries including Singapore, Hong Kong, and China.

Particularly in Singapore, online fashion retailer Love, Bonito selected the SAP Emarsys Customer Engagement platform to help the company remove organizational silos and create automated personalized customer experiences across email, paid, and on-site channels. As it was using disparate IT tools, the company initially struggled to personalize digital communications throughout each phase of the customer lifecycle.

Following a quick implementation after choosing the SAP Emarsys solution, Love, Bonito was able to achieve a 67{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} increase in lead to first-time buyer conversion, a five-fold increase in active customer expenditure, and a 32{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} rise in average order value.

SAP Japan Launches SAP Emarsys Customer Engagement Platform

Furthermore, SAP Japan has also begun to offer the SAP Emarsys Customer Engagement Platform, adding it to the company’s SAP Customer Experience product offerings.

Announcing that the company has started the domestic provision of the solution, Yasushi Tomita, Vice President and Head of SAP Customer Experience at SAP Japan, said he felt that it was necessary to provide more Business-to-Consumer (B2C) specific functions due to customer requests.

“Therefore, we strengthened SAP Customer Experience with Emarsys to deliver even more value as a whole. From the marketing stage to after the customer purchases the product, we provide the value of the customer journey that cannot be achieved by CRM (Customer Relationship Management) alone,” he emphasised.

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Sinar Mas Land is Indonesia’s first property developer to implement an SAP Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM) solution in an effort to focus on data-based aspects in order to serve consumers strategically and appropriately.

Through the company’s integrated CRM system, prospective customers can browse its website in a secure and comfortable environment. Data is then passed on to SAP Marketing Cloud where developers can create more accurate segments.

On the other hand, Hindustan Zinc Limited launched Evolve as India’s first non-ferrous metal buying digital marketplace by a producer with a goal to reshape how metal marketing is done in the country.

Powered by SAP Commerce Cloud (Hybris) and SAP Business Technology Platform, Evolve connects communities and buyers on a single platform and aims to provide a hassle-free experience with a “three-click buying option.” The project was awarded the Customer Excellence – Sales, Marketing & Service Award at the SAP ACE Awards in 2020.

Hindustan Zinc Revolutionises Non-Ferrous Metal Buying Experience

Chetan Trivedi, CIO at Hindustan Zinc Limited (Vedanta Group), said during an online discussion that the functionality is delivered to the company’s smallest customers first. By utilising SAP Customer Experience solutions, Hindustan Zinc successfully deployed the platform to the smallest customers in India.

On top of running SAP ERP at the core, Trivedi expounded on why the company chose SAP Hybris out of many options available in the market. He stated:

“The most important aspect was that the platform should be very robust, should be reaching functionality (from the entire order-to-cash scenario, customer onboarding to delivery) and should be future-ready as well.”

Within a year of going live, Hindustan Zinc has already achieved the following results:

• Served over 135 unique customers
• Gained more than 400 new customers registered with the platform
• Processed 1,500 orders which turn out to be around $17 to $20 million sales
• Achieved 92{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} customer satisfaction from a feedback survey of smaller customers who purchased through the platform

Meanwhile, in terms of business outcomes and the metrics to support the results the company has delivered, Trivedi said:

“We want to achieve 100{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} sales through a digital channel as Hindustan Zinc. And that means everything that we sell, whether it is finished goods or a by-product, should be sold through digital media.”

Dubbing the project as “digital disruption,” Grant Clinch, Chief Operating Officer of SAP Customer Experience APJ, is thrilled that the platform was deployed to Hindustan Zinc’s smallest customers first. He further said:

“I am really pleased that this (Evolve project) is based on SAP Commerce and SAP Customer Experience platforms. I am really looking forward to continuing the journey with Hindustan Zinc with Vedanta Group and continuing to grow into the future our strategic partnership between the organisations.” 

Sinar Mas Land Utilises SAP Customer Experience Solutions

In a session during the SAPPHIRE NOW 2021 virtual event, Sinar Mas Land’s Chief Transformation Officer Mulyawan Gani also shared that the company ended up choosing CRM solutions from SAP mainly for two reasons. He explained:

“The first is about modularity. The fact that you can actually cherry-pick from the whole bundle of CX solutions within SAP really helps because sometimes when you look at the modules that are available, you don’t really need to deploy everything at once because the whole solution is end to end.”

Gani added that integration also drove them to select SAP to partner in their CX journey type of platform. Sinar Mas Group has relied on SAP as a backend for its ERP systems for the longest time. He shared:

“When we look at the whole platform, it doesn’t make sense for us to choose another platform where there is a lot of massive integrations needed to be done.”

In response to the shift in demographics and consumer behavior of the property industry, Sinar Mas Land also began using SAP Customer Data Cloud which is integrated with SAP Marketing Cloud, SAP Sales and Service Cloud, as well as Qualtrics to run data-based marketing.

“Having one integrated platform is not only cheaper, more efficient, but more importantly, it allows us to focus on things that matter the most — our customers,” Gani emphasised.

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Despite the pandemic causing disruption in business operations across numerous sectors, a GlobalData survey has found that businesses in Hong Kong remain focused on digital transformation. As the fifth biggest financial centre and tenth-largest trading power globally, enterprises in the country are prioritising automation, blockchain, and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies as part of their transformation efforts.

With the business landscape changing tremendously as a result of the tumult of the past year, organisations that utilise SAP solutions to run their operations are well-equipped to evolve in this fast-paced new world.

Recently, the German software giant introduced RISE with SAP to help Hong Kong companies address pressing challenges and navigate business uncertainties with subscription-based cloud technologies and services.

This follows the remarks of SAP Hong Kong Managing Director Fabian Padilla Crisol during the SAPPHIRE NOW 2021 event regarding the need for enterprises to transform and take advantage of digital technologies to tackle challenges in a post-pandemic era.

“Current challenges have made transformation a business imperative. Companies in Hong Kong are inherently enterprising and we are seeing them now rapidly reassessing their business models, recalibrating their operations and accelerating their transformation journeys,” Crisol said.

Additionally, the announcement coincides with the results from an SAP-commissioned research titled CXO Outlook Survey 2021. The study identified global economic uncertainties, talent empowerment, and customer engagement as the top three concerns facing Hong Kong businesses this year.

Over 100 senior executives from many industries — including retail, consumer products, manufacturing, wholesale, property management, engineering, and construction — shared their challenges and investment outlooks in the survey.

Navigating Business Uncertainties Through SAP’s RISE Solution

SAP Hong Kong’s portfolio of software and solutions has been a key enabler for many organisations’ business continuity since the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020. This year, it has once again geared up to support companies in leveraging cloud technologies and platforms to accelerate transformation through SAP’s RISE offering.

“RISE with SAP offers Hong Kong companies a holistic approach to thriving amid change. It is specifically designed to deliver fast time-to-value and flexibility to help every enterprise navigate uncertainty and increase resilience,” Crisol emphasised.

Offered on a subscription basis, SAP’s milestone offering allows customers to manage service-level agreements (SLAs), operations, and issue management in a single contract with SAP — saving up to 20{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} in total cost of ownership (TCO) over five years using SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition.

Moreover, RISE with SAP is integrated with SAP Business Technology Platform, a suite of intelligent solutions and database management platforms that enables businesses to achieve better business outcomes and demystify uncertainties through data-driven insights.

According to the CXO Outlook Survey 2021, around 57{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} of Hong Kong enterprises will prioritise improving customer engagement through digital tools and channels to overcome social distancing restrictions. Furthermore, 67{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} of executives polled say they will try to make new and more flexible work arrangements for their Hong Kong employees this year.

Addressing the above-mentioned findings, SAP also offers the following solutions to cater to the ever-growing needs of businesses:

With integrated cloud solutions that provide a 360-degree perspective of customers, SAP Customer Experience solutions aim to effectively manage customer relationships. It allows organisations to personalise engagement and offer a consistent customer experience across all channels.

Meanwhile, SAP SuccessFactors empowers HR teams to make more confident data-driven choices, enables employees for remote work and reskilling initiatives, and creates an engaging employee experience by leveraging cloud technologies.

The post SAP’s RISE to Support Hong Kong Companies’ Business Transformation appeared first on InsideSAP Asia.

In the recent six months, some SAP executive roles in Asia have gone through revamping with the same and ultimate objective to propel digitalisation in the continent, especially during the pandemic.

In the last quarter of 2020, some major role changes include the promotions of homegrown talents Nguyen Hong Viet as Managing Director (MD) of SAP Vietnam and Verena Siow as President and MD of SAP Southeast Asia. Last month, SAP APJ President Scott Russell has been promoted as Customer Success lead replacing Adaire Fox-Martin and as a new member of the Executive Board. SAP veteran Paul Marriott took over Russell’s role as SAP APJ President to further propel the software giant’s remarkable growth in the region. 

This March, SAP Indochina welcomes its new MD Atul Tuli, former Vice President and Head of Customer Experience of SAP South East Asia. As MD of Indochina, he is responsible for the overall performance of Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Bhutan, Maldives, and Nepal.

Siow, who was the Managing Director of SAP Indochina before becoming SAP SeA President, shared her confidence in Tuli taking on the MD role emphasising the critical role of SAP Indochina in the SAP SeA’s growth strategy. Siow is responsible for leading the digital growth in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam markets as well as other emerging ASEAN countries. She said:   

“We remain focused and committed to supporting our customers with technology solutions that can elevate their business for the long term. I am confident that Atul’s deep industry experience and understanding of the diverse Indochina region will be a key driver in accelerating our customers’ business transformation and contributing to their success.”

Driving the Intelligent Enterprise with SAP

Tuli brings with him over two decades of experience in enterprise software with expertise on cloud applications in the area of Customer Experience (CX). He held various sales leadership roles in Salesforce, Oracle, and Microsoft before joining SAP in 2019 as Vice President and Head of Customer Experience, SAP South East Asia. In the past two years and amidst the extraordinarily challenging 2020, he has led SAP customer adoption and success of many organisations in the region.

Expressing optimism in his new role in SAP Indochina, Bangkok-based Tuli shared:

“The Indochina region presents economic growth opportunities.”

“In Thailand, the government launched the Thailand 4.0 initiative as part of their push into the digital economy and grow industries of the future. We are also seeing an uptake of digital transformation in industries such as Telco, Public Sector, Utilities, and Manufacturing. I am thrilled to help our customers and partners thrive and succeed in the digital economy,” he added.

Thailand 4.0 is an economic model designed to propel the country’s recovery and development from the economic challenges of past economic development models that focused on agriculture (Thailand 1.0), light industry (Thailand 2.0), and advanced industry (Thailand 3.0). Thailand’s economy is projected to rebound to 4.0 percent in 2021 according to The World Bank. In sync with the fourth industrial revolution, the country’s IoT is forecasted to reach THB 65.74 billion by 2030 with consumer, manufacturing, transportation, and logistics industries driving growth.

As Indochina’s new MD and an expert in cloud solutions, Tuli will be instrumental to the success of RISE with SAP– the software giant’s latest concierge service to the Intelligent Enterprise offered as a Business Transformation as a Service package.

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SGV & Co. Philippines, the largest professional services firm in the Philippines that provides assurance, tax, transaction, and advisory services, has collaborated with SAP in developing an application that is specific to supporting the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation’s (PDRF) COVID-19 logistics and response. PDRF is the nation’s major private sector vehicle and coordinator for disaster management.

Following EY Malaysia’s deployment of SAP Customer Experience solutions including SAP Sales & Service Cloud for government-linked companies (GLC) and the government-linked investment companies disaster response network (GDRN) in May 2020, SGV & Co., a member of EY Global in the Philippines, has also deployed SAP Customer Experience Solutions such as SAP C4C. The selected technological solutions from SAP aim to provide optimum logistical support and responses to organisations assisting PDRF in supplying personal protective equipment (PPE) and medicines to partner hospitals and other health-related organisations.

Bill Luz, Chief Resilience Officer at PDRF, shared his appreciation of the logistical and technological support from SAP and SGV & Co.:

“Our COVID response has required us to send a wide variety of items such as PPEs, ventilators, as well as providing meals to a large number of healthcare institutions all over the country. This technology enables us to manage our supply and deploy the resources in a timely manner to different organisations.”

Through the SAP CX integrated platform, donations from private institutions and individuals will be distributed accordingly for purchasing and distributing PPEs and medical supplies to hospitals.

Recognising the need for a platform like SAP C4C during these unprecedented times, SGV & Co. Chairman and Managing Partner Wilson Tan expressed the professional services firm’s commitment to the development and implementation of the urgently and aptly needed application from SAP.

SAP Philippines’ COVID-19 Response

SAP Philippines has recently celebrated its 25th year of operations in the country empowering many organisations to run better with innovative technology. Under the COVID-19 environment, SAP continues to provide the country with intelligent technologies that would help institutions and people survive and thrive in the health crisis. The country’s rising COVID-19 cases require a continuous supply of PPEs, hospital supplies, and medicines.

Underpinning the role of technology in the country’s relief efforts during the pandemic, SAP Philippines Managing Director Edler Panlilio said:

“SAP Customer Experience Solutions go beyond the back-end to support NGOs (non-government organizations) such as the PDRF with intelligent technologies that can drive efficiency in facilitating the donations and providing access to necessary supplies. This is an example of how we remain true to our purpose of helping Filipino enterprises including NGOs to run better and, thus, improve the lives of Filipinos.” 

For businesses, SAP Philippines MD Panlilio has also been encouraging SMEs 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. 

The post SAP C4C Advances the Philippines’ COVID-19 Response appeared first on InsideSAP Asia.

Back in March, WHO had warned that COVID-19 is not just another flu outbreak. The pandemic that originated from China has put tremendous pressure on every nation’s health system as well as the supply chain. Many countries around the world are experiencing a shortage of personal protective gear like masks, gloves, and gowns to protect the frontliners treating infected patients. 

In Malaysia, recognising the impending need to provide a logistics solution for the medical supplies needed to combat COVID-19, EY Malaysia has deployed SAP Customer Experience solutions including SAP Sales & Service Cloud (aka C4C) for government-linked companies (GLC) and the government-linked investment companies disaster response network (GDRN).

The application’s focus is to provide optimum logistical support and response to organisations working to assist the Ministry of Health (MoH) supply ventilators and protective equipment to hospitals as well as other health-related organisations under its wings. Through an integrated platform, the SAP application is also capable of channelling pledges from institutions and individuals looking to contribute hospital-related items.

EY Malaysia and SAP’s initiatives in tackling COVID-19 supply chain challenges were commended by Shahira Ahmed Bazari, Managing Director of Yayasan Hasanah, an impact-based foundation striving to create real and lasting positive social and environmental changes for Malaysia. Shahira said: 

“We are heartened by the support extended by organisations such as EY and SAP that have helped the GDRN-led effort to improve our relief and support for MoH and other humanitarian assistance in a coordinated and streamlined manner. “

“We are confident that this collaborative spirit and collective effort within the private sector will continue to have a meaningful impact on the overall effort against COVID-19,” added the Managing Director.

Sang Hoe Chow, EY ASEAN and Malaysia Advisory Managing Partner, expressed that, more than ever, the country’s healthcare frontliners need to be well-equipped and supported as they protect and save lives of their countrymen. He said:

“We believe that the SAP application as implemented by EY Malaysia will contribute greatly towards better coordinating the needs of the various government hospitals and facilities, including the distribution of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks and gloves,”

On the same note, Hong Kok Cheong, SAP Malaysia Managing Director, said that the key to a seamless supply chain is intelligence and integration. He said that the German ERP company is pleased to be providing its technologies to drive efficiency and effectiveness in facilitating better healthcare services.

On a global level, EY teamed up with SAP and Qualtrics to aid government and public health organisations worldwide by providing intelligent digital solutions to combat the pandemic. Together, they designed a comprehensive set of custom SAP and Qualtrics solutions made available in over 90 countries worldwide, including across the Asia Pacific, and can be applied in eight different languages through EY implementation and enablement services.

In a joint statement, the organisations said:

“Governments around the world are having to act quickly and decisively as they lead their citizens through uncertain times. These solutions and services help governments quickly interact with their citizens at scale by providing a means of collecting and analyzing data in real-time. This allows them to take immediate action amid an ever-changing situation and bring immense benefit to their citizens during the current crisis.”

The COVID-19 tools and resources available for governments are:

• Qualtrics COVID-19 Pre-Screening and Routing
• Qualtrics COVID-19 Dynamic Call Center Script
• Qualtrics COVID-19 Dynamic Call Center Script
• Critical Care Protocol Solution

The post EY Malaysia Deploys SAP Customer Experience Solutions for Medical Logistics appeared first on InsideSAP Asia.

Some shopping malls are closing down while some continue to thrive in the present times. Malls that are declining may have lacked efforts to offer experiences other than the usual dining, shopping and film watching. Meanwhile, malls that continued to stay in business are those that have evolved themselves to function like a community centre that offers a place to spend time after work and outside of the home.

Despite the increasing preference to shop online, malls still have a chance to redeem themselves by utilising empty or vacant spaces for innovative features.

For example, some malls offer their extra space to cultural associations or art schools. These provide customers a different kind of experience that is not within their usual interests.

Hichem Maya, the general manager of Consumer Industries and Life Science for EMEA South at SAP, pointed out that a successful space is a place people want to visit. In his statement, he added:

“You have to give people a reason to be there, and if they’re spending their time somewhere, they’re usually spending money too.”

The Generation Z are consumers born between 1996 and 2010. This generation engages more online and is tech-dependent, which leads them to reject what may be considered old, and malls are not an exception. These consumers are most likely to interact, discuss ideas and drive commerce in a virtual world.

Maya shared an encounter with a 21-year-old man named Sami, whom he met while he was waiting in front of a large mall in Dubai. He approached the man and asked questions. During their conversation, Sami shared that he did his shopping online because of its affordability and speedy delivery, plus the attractive variety of brands and offers.

With the answer obtained, Maya said:

“This young man obviously showed no interest in visiting the mall’s shops.”

Introducing a new concept for managing customer experience

Malls need to reinvent their experience model to survive in the ever-changing economic and social environment.

Maya noted the importance of convenience; hence, some of the solutions considered could include a central click-and-collect point put up at a vacant unit. He then introduced SAP’s Experience Management solutions and shared how it offers a “powerful real-time platform that seamlessly blends the physical environment and the digital ecosystem.”

Generation Z consumers, like Sami, seek for entertainment, instant gratification, seamless engagement and social affirmation. Their priority in shopping will always be a frictionless experience. And with today’s technology, this can be possible with state-of-the-art solutions that are needed to deliver the experience they want to have.

SAP software combines features such as customer identity technology, digital marketing campaigns and recommendation engine that is built based on technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).

Additionally, other features such as e-wallet and e-commerce technologies, order management, real-time inventory and social media can help in managing customer experience and enable the next phases while biometric technology and the Internet of Things (IoT) can deliver a smart fitting room and a limitless aisle opportunity. Lastly, Experience Management solutions can enable the feedback process.

This SAP technology links retailers and the mall management in delivering a customer-first approach and creating a new seamless experience for all parties involved, such as the customer, the tenant and the mall employee. This helps rid of friction in both the online and offline aspects of the businesses. It also enables all parties to answer the what and why an incident occurred and impacted the process. The experience management tool offers an opportunity to reimagine and recreate the mall experience.

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