Abacus Consulting, a global partner of SAP known for its expertise and cutting-edge solutions, is another critical player in this transformative alliance. The synergy between the trio—SAP, Abacus Consulting, and IPAK—has been instrumental in reshaping IPAK’s business processes. By employing RISE with SAP, a comprehensive cloud-based toolkit for digital transformation, IPAK’s digital infrastructure has undergone a significant overhaul. This transition has not only been seamless but has also modernized their operations, making them more innovative and efficient.

Within a remarkable timeframe of just six months, Abacus Consulting has managed to deploy the S/4HANA Cloud solution. This swift transition, powered by cloud computing SAP software, has restructured IPAK’s operations. Innovation has been spurred across various business functions such as Total Records, Cash Management, Data Services, Integration Services, and SAP Deployment Services. This strategic move clearly aligns with the current trend among enterprises—the ‘Cloud-First’ approach—which is seen as an effective strategy to hasten the digital transformation.

“RISE with SAP is the best approach, recognized by IPAK leadership, and reflected strongly in their commitment to partnering with world-class leaders to realize their business transformation journey, thus creating great value for all stakeholders,” Abacus Consulting Technology Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Fatima Asad-Said.

Transforming IPAK’s Digital Infrastructure

As the technological landscape evolves at an exponential rate, businesses are compelled to keep pace or risk being left behind. This reality is well understood by the leadership at IPAK Group, who recognize the strategic importance of creating environments conducive to their long-term growth and sustainability. A testament to this commitment is their decision to leverage RISE with SAP, facilitated by cloud computing SAP software, to undergo a digital transformation journey.

Just as a tree reinforces its core roots to withstand storms, businesses need to strengthen their core values to thrive in the dynamic digital era. IPAK’s leadership has demonstrated this principle by successfully adopting RISE with SAP, powered by cloud computing SAP software, as a significant growth catalyst. This strategic move has substantially improved transparency, accountability, and control within IPAK’s business operations, enabling them to efficiently achieve their business objectives.

Cloud Computing Takes a Giant Leap in Pakistan

The partnership between SAP and IPAK marks a significant stage, not only for SAP’s cloud division but also for Pakistan’s burgeoning industry. As stated by Saquib Ahmad, the Managing Director of SAP in Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan, the state-of-the-art cloud solutions provided by SAP are primed to enable IPAK to significantly enhance its controls and improve its service quality. This improvement is achieved by providing seamless, bespoke solutions designed specifically to meet IPAK’s unique requirements.

“This is an important win for SAP cloud computing and a milestone in transforming the industry in Pakistan,” remarked.

In a bid to remain competitive in the digital era, IPAK’s digitalization strategy places substantial emphasis on the adoption and acceleration of cloud technologies, particularly cloud computing SAP software. This strategy has led to several positive outcomes. For one, it has resulted in significant operational efficiencies. Additionally, IPAK has gained access to industry-specific solutions and an Intelligent Automation Platform through their use of RISE with SAP.

The adherence to efficient program execution, following a methodology of defining, measuring, analyzing, improving, and controlling, is a cornerstone of SAP’s approach. This methodology ensures smooth operations and facilitates rapid, flexible implementations—an approach that has been validated through this successful partnership.

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Last month, Pakistani President Arif Alvi spoke at a ceremony in the city of Karachi to mark the launch of the Presidential Initiative for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Computing. He stated that the current government is providing all possible support to the country’s IT industry, adding that various laws have been enacted to expedite the sector’s growth and foster scientific and economic development. 

Given the rapid development of countries that focus heavily on AI and computing technologies, President Arif Alvi advised the Pakistani youth to pursue IT education in order to take advantage of the numerous opportunities available in the field globally. He said that the Pakistani government has implemented various initiatives aimed at supporting the country’s youth, including the free Digital Skill Program, which provides IT training via online classes.

It can be noted that in 2020, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has made an invitation to German tech giant SAP to establish software development laboratories in the country. Khan mentioned that Pakistan has been leveraging digital solutions, notably in the areas of responding to citizen concerns, enhancing business processes, and improving operational efficiencies. Meanwhile, the efforts of the Pakistani government in focusing more on digital transformation were recognised by SAP CEO Christian Klein. Expressing appreciation for these endeavours, Klein emphasised the company’s commitment to shaping young software engineers through training and education. In an earlier statement, he hoped that this new generation of engineers will be advantageous to several IT development projects in the country.

The Contribution of SAP in IT Sector Development

Meanwhile, SAP Pakistan MD Saquib Ahmad believes the country’s IT sector should have a five-year relief package. Calling for a simplification of the tax regime for the industry, Ahmad added that the government’s special tax relief program was “an encouraging decision” that would aid in increasing the country’s export revenue. Despite this, he stated that because of inconsistencies in tax regulations, IT investors and specialists expressed confusion and are now looking for uniformity in the system.

Sharing more about the role of SAP in the IT industry, he explained that the private sector in Pakistan — including textile, food, agriculture, telecommunications, healthcare, and fashion sectors — is progressively embracing digital transformation to meet the needs of organisations in an ever-changing business environment today. According to the SAP Head, a cloud-first approach, which involves the usage of a cloud product rather than developing a non-cloud-based solution, supports enterprises in saving costs and improving scalability, while also minimising errors and allowing for more standardisation and collaboration.

“The next era of computing will be defined by intelligent enterprises. Organisations need to cut through the hype and be more useful and efficient to be an intelligent enterprise to make the world run better using emerging technologies,” he highlighted.

Additionally, Ahmad indicated that SAP was already experiencing significant success in its close cooperation with Pakistan’s digital leaders and that the company was actively working to eventually realise the “Digital Pakistan” goals. This is done by continuing to promote youth skills development and training in partnership with several major universities, he added.

“Going forward, SAP’s plan for 2022 is to tap on other industries to help them optimise costs, efficiency, and customer experiences,” the SAP Pakistan MD concluded.

The post Pakistan MD Highlights Role of SAP in IT Industry Growth appeared first on InsideSAP Asia.

According to SAP Pakistan’s Country Managing Director Saquib Ahmad, the company is teaming up with the Pakistani government to support the “Digital Pakistan” vision. The creation of a digital ecosystem, including infrastructure and institutional frameworks, is a key goal of the Digital Pakistan Policy. It aims to enable the provision of cutting-edge digital services, as well as innovative applications and content. Additionally, the policy adopts a comprehensive strategy that is primarily focused on information and communications technology (ICT) as the main driver of every industry towards socio-economic growth.

Detailing more about the partnership with the government, SAP MD Saquib Ahmad shared:

“…co-innovating with the digital leaders to drive large-scale digitalisation across the country while also imparting digital literacy and training to ensure a holistic growth.”

In a recent press event in Karachi, Ahmad stated that digital innovation relies heavily on the use of the cloud and that many companies around the world are exploring a cloud-first approach for their IT operations. He added that instead of developing non-cloud-based technologies, adopting cloud services gives organisations the needed support for decreasing complexity, minimising costs, enabling real-time decision-making, and facilitating new avenues for digital business innovation.

Noting that cybersecurity continues to be one of the most challenging concerns that businesses encounter in today’s digital world, Ahmad went on to emphasise the company’s plans to step up its efforts to deliver greater online security for its customers.

Accelerating Digital Transformation with SAP Cloud Computing Technologies

Aside from helping small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the country, the SAP MD also revealed that over 90{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} of Pakistan’s public and private sectors — including organisations in the fields of utilities, banking and finance, telecommunications, automotive, and the military — are utilising SAP solutions to optimise their mission-critical processes. He further highlighted how the tech giant’s cloud offerings enable enterprises in improving their end-to-end operations and innovating with new services in the cloud while at the same time, lowering costs and discovering opportunities for the development of the public and private industries.

Moreover, this month also witnessed SAP Pakistan’s partnership with NorthBay Solutions, an enterprise software outsourcing services provider with Amazon Web Services (AWS) Premier Partner status. As a cloud consulting and migration services firm with extensive experience, NorthBay Solutions intends to help SAP customers in shifting their systems to the cloud landscape as efficiently as possible. Additionally, its latest partnership with SAP presents new avenues for customers to leverage the capabilities of SAP solutions while harnessing the power of AWS Cloud.

The two companies’ collaboration is geared towards assisting clients in achieving long-term business value by accelerating their cloud migration journeys. Combining SAP’s cloud technologies and NorthBay’s consulting services, the alliance also aims to help organisations maximise the value of their IT investments.

Commenting on the innovation partnership, Ahmad remarked:

“NorthBay Solutions is a strong partner to deliver SAP solutions on Cloud. Their advanced consulting and cloud migration expertise is exceptional in the market, and we look forward to harnessing the power of this partnership in the markets we serve.”

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SMEs are one of the largest and the most important sectors of Pakistan’s economy, according to Dr. Syed Akhtar Hussain Shah, Member of Private Sector Development & Competitiveness, Planning Commission of Pakistan. By enhancing the standard of living of vulnerable segments of society, SMEs also play a critical role in influencing national growth policies, job creation, and social cohesion.

The contribution of the SME sector to the world’s leading and rising economies demonstrates its importance today. Although SAP serves large businesses with over 90{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} of the Fortune 500 companies being its customers, around 80{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} of its customer base are SMEs.

As for Pakistan, the global software technology giant offers different solution categories in the market. In a recent online roundtable session hosted by SAP, Saquib Ahmad, Country Managing Director at SAP Pakistan, shared:

“The challenges brought about by the pandemic have shown that digital is the way to go even for small and mid-sized businesses. With SMEs accounting for about 80{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} of its customer base, SAP understands their need to optimise and simplify IT processes.”

Agile solutions from SAP, along with its ERP tools designed to respond to the individual demands of enterprises working in different industries, are dedicated to driving long-term digital transformation. 

From accounting and financials to reporting and analytics, SAP solutions — including SAP S/4HANA, RISE with SAP Cloud, SAP Business One, and SAP Business ByDesign — enable SMEs to navigate a sustainable digital transformation journey without straining their costs and resources.

“As a single, affordable solution to manage entire small enterprises, businesses can benefit from up-to-date information and can enable themselves to react promptly while growing profitably,” Ahmad stated.

SAP ERP Products Cater to Specific Needs of Pakistan’s SMEs

Furthermore, the virtual conference also joined by SkyElectric PVT Ltd IT Manager Waseem Khan, Kashmir Cooking Oil & Banaspati CIO Farhan Tufail, and By The Way (BTW) by Din Industries Director Irfan Muneer highlighted how their companies have embarked on their digital transformation journey through SAP’s business management software and ERP solutions.

Solar energy solution provider Sky Electric PVT Ltd. has implemented SAP’s solution to help it achieve its goal of making renewable energy more accessible by constructing a distributed and intelligent energy storage system that can be administered via the internet. SkyElectric’s Waseem Khan stated:

“The implementation of SAP allowed us to upgrade the automation of all these critical functions and move further ahead than ever before in a very short time.”

On the other hand, Kashmir Cooking Oil & Banaspati, a brand of United Industries Limited (UIL), is set to go live with SAP’s customised ERP tool in a bid to ensure food safety and comply with strict industry standards. Kashmir Cooking Oil & Banaspati’s Farhan Tufail said that the company places a strong emphasis on understanding and fulfilling consumer demands. He stressed:

“With SAP solution, our ability to keep up these standards have further increased as it streamlines the entire business process under one platform, making things easier than they ever can be.”

Meanwhile, fashion brand By The Way (BTW) by Din Industries has increased its order handling capacity while utilising the same number of resources by also deploying SAP’s ERP solution to streamline inventory and sales processes for its stores across Pakistan. BTW’s Irfan Muneer explained:

“While affordability is one of the main obstacles in the digitisation of SMEs, it is this very aspect and scalability of SAP that has enabled us to adopt this tool without straining our resources.”

In an interview with BR Research in November, SAP MD Saquib Ahmad further emphasised:

“We, at SAP, provide that flexibility. We are interoperable with other ERPs. And this is our competitive advantage in this market. We work with all kinds of software.”

The post SMEs in Pakistan Drive Profitable Growth with SAP ERP Products appeared first on InsideSAP Asia.

As a subsidiary of Engro Corporation, Engro Fertilizers Limited is not new to enhancing customer and employee experiences through digital transformation utilising real-time platforms. In 2019, Engro Corporation’s Board has supported the implementation of the upgraded version of SAP to ensure that its employees have the right tools to pursue growth and adapt to the ever-growing business landscape.

Successfully rolled out in October 2019, Engro’s OneSAP initiative aims to deliver group-wide visibility, improved governance, and increased efficiencies for the organisation. This follows other Pakistani companies that have implemented SAP S/4HANA to strengthen their business model, including pharmaceutical firm Martin Dow Maker Limited in 2017.

Once again accelerating digitisation, Engro Fertilizers has introduced the concept of gamification of SAP Fiori to its business operations. Through this technology, Engro Fertilizers aims to enhance sales performance and overcome employee resistance to digital change.

Expounding on why this method was used to deal with several internal corporate challenges, Nadir Salar Qureshi, Chief Executive Officer at Engro Fertilizers Limited, said:

“Last year we rolled out SAP Fiori application to facilitate our sales team to have access of live data, enabling them to serve the customer better and to strengthen the Engro brand. However, the lack of adoption due to the learning curve was a matter of concern.”

The integration of gamification into SAP Fiori by Engro Fertilizers’ commercial excellence team has led to developing a game-like interactive interface called “The Pakistan Walk”. Qureshi added:

“The Pakistan Walk, an innovative gamification initiative by the commercial excellence team, proved revolutionary in this regard which not only increased the application’s usage but also improved the performance of our sales team.”

Integrating Gamification into the SAP Fiori Software Application

Developed for SAP software and applications, SAP Fiori is a product line of SAP apps that have a device-agnostic user interface (UI) providing more than 300 role-based applications for enterprise-wide engagement across lines of business including HR, manufacturing, and finance.

On the other hand, the process of gamification is used to motivate employees to complete activities with game-like mechanics to drive results such as sales and leads. According to Engro Fertilizers, employees’ initial resistance to adopting a new technology resulted in the restricted usage of the SAP Fiori application. 

After six weeks of implementing the gamification method, Engro Fertilizers was able to achieve the following results, leading to a behavioural change where the use of SAP Fiori was ensured on a daily basis:

• SAP Fiori app was used for data and reports more than 10,000 times
• Activity messages of over 8,600 were sent
• 133 out of 136 players were engaged leading to 97{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} in engagement levels
• Average use of 73 times for each player within a month
• 80 video and 58 text testimonials were sent

Furthermore, “The Pakistan Walk” was used by players from all three levels of the sales force which include zonal, regional, and territory sales managers. To achieve key performance indicators (KPIs) based on certain functions and reports of the SAP Fiori application, users had to race through seven different stages designed as seven different Pakistani cities.

Also introduced to increase engagement are other elements like bonus rounds, live dice roll activities, video teasers, scorecards, and leader badges on steps.

Commenting on this successful management of user adoption to technological change at hand, Saquib Ahmad, Country Managing Director at SAP Pakistan, said:

“SAP has always been committed to propelling innovation in businesses while keeping the element of ease of doing business at the center. The successful gamification of SAP Fiori by Engro Fertilizers is considered a global best practice and serves as a milestone in digital transformation journey, giving an excellent solution to user resistance to new change and technology.”

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