Sustainability is becoming an integral part of the business objectives of many Philippine organizations. This shift is driven in part by a need to improve efficiency and reduce costs, but also by a growing awareness of the societal and environmental benefits of sustainable practices. As businesses in the country continue to recalibrate their operations, sustainability will play an increasingly important role in ensuring long-term success.

According to research conducted by PwC Philippines titled “Hindsights, Insights, Foresights: The Future in the Present Tense”, the majority of chief executive officers (CEOs) in the nation have the intention of increasing the amount of money their companies spend on technologies. Meanwhile , more than two-thirds of respondents want the companies they work for to boost their investments in the aspects of environmental, social, and governance (ESG).

In 2015, 193 United Nations member states — including the Philippines — adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to accelerate global progress toward a better future. The 2030 Agenda includes the 17 SDGs, which are organized under the headings of “People,” “Prosperity and Planet,” and “Peace.” With its Chasing Zero initiative, SAP in the Philippines is laying the groundwork for businesses to become intelligent and sustainable in pursuit of a future with zero emissions, zero waste, and zero inequality.

Enabling Globe Telecom’s Transformation with SAP Technology and Solutions

During a recent roundtable discussion headlined “Transform Tomorrow, Today: SAP Philippines CXO Roundtable,” business executives from SAP, Globe Telecom, and Unioil shared insights on how they are reshaping the future through innovation and sustainability to ensure their organizations’ success.

According to Suzelyn Urbano, Vice President of IT Enterprise Services at Globe Telecom, Inc., innovation is both “disruptive and life-changing”. Urbano said that the telecommunications company has constantly innovated over the course of almost 10 years, always keeping the interests of its customers in mind. Since 1999, SAP and Globe have worked together to replace multiple aging legacy systems and automate tedious manual tasks through the use of SAP cloud applications, concluding Globe’s purpose-led digital transformation journey.

Urbano stated that SAP powers 70% of Globe Telecom’s internal systems. The company found that the enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform SAP S/4HANA acted as a catalyst for change, allowing it to quickly adjust to changes in the industry. Because SAP technology and solutions were already in effect across all of its departments, Globe Telecom was able to:

• Improve business processes, reduce manual tasks, enhance decision-making by making the switch to SAP S/4HANA
• Enhance usability and data accessibility with SAP Fiori applications.
• Efficiently executing financial transactions and providing error-free reports with more use of automation in the finance department.
• Gain real-time business insights from the consolidation of accounting processes.

“Empathy lies at the heart of Globe’s innovation. We look at the problems we have now and innovate from there, making sure to solve the real issues. Globe’s vision has always been making families’ dreams come true and empowering businesses to flourish to help achieve an admired nation. As we create our products, we always anchor them in that vision,” Urbano further shared.

Unioil Accelerates Innovation and Sustainability with SAP S/4HANA

Petroleum products company Unioil is another Philippine business that utilizes SAP S4/HANA ERP system to establish better operational system integration and propel the company toward a more sustainable future. Unioil’s Digital Transformation Evangelist Nestor De Guzman has recently made public the company’s groundbreaking efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

Considering the current predicament that the country is going through, De Guzman also indicated that Unioil intends to help the nation in growing its own energy supply rather than depending on the supply of energy that comes from outside the country. He thinks that Unioil is helping to bring forth a more sustainable future with its many green initiatives, such as solar farms, EV charging stations, and Smartlocker technology.

“For us, at Unioil, digital transformation involves combining the appropriate technology, leadership, and culture. Innovation begins when business executives embrace the transformation enabled by smart technologies,” De Guzman noted.

Weighing in on the topic, Gintare Zukauskaite, Innovation Lead at SAP Southeast Asia (SAP SEA), said that “disruptive thinking” is what brings about change in the world right now. She added that in order to innovate, companies need to take into account the present situation while also thinking outside the box to come up with ideas that will better their operations.

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Last January, Sindhu Gangadharan, Senior Vice President, SAP User Enablement and Managing Director at SAP Labs India, outlined five tech trends to watch out for this year. In the article, she asserted that technology serves as both a crucial driver and a key multiplier in the pursuit of sustainable development at a faster rate than would otherwise be possible. In addition to the top and bottom lines, Gangadharan stated that forward-thinking companies are including sustainability as a third dimension to driving corporate success through the Green Line initiative.

The German enterprise software giant has been leading the way for businesses of all sizes and across sectors to transition into sustainable, intelligent enterprises by leveraging its broad portfolio of cloud-based solutions around the world. With this, SAP has introduced several industry-specific solutions to partners and customers, including SAP data management solutions, designed to drive sustainability at scale and support the circular economy.

In Malaysia, sustainable technology is a particularly rising topic, made even more significant by the fact that it is a major theme under the 12th Malaysian Plan (12MP) — the country’s follow-through program for the development plan called Vision 2020, as well as the 11th Malaysia Plan. SAP continues to build on the momentum of its business strategy in Malaysia, which is aligned with the country’s most recent national initiative. Concentrating on shared prosperity, the program addresses three important aspects, including economic empowerment, environmental sustainability, and social re-engineering, amongst other things.

Accelerating Malaysia’s Sustainability with SAP Technology and Solutions

Given the unprecedented changes in digital transformation, Kok Cheong Hong, Managing Director at SAP Malaysia, noted that customers are now shifting their preferences toward more environmentally friendly products and services. He said that individuals are also making career decisions depending on their employer’s commitment to environmental responsibility. As a result, Hong believes it is critical to invest in innovation that takes into consideration natural resources while also promoting economic and social progress.

“As an enabler, we aim to provide products and services to our customers to reduce their carbon emissions, while also paving the way toward a low-carbon future together,” he remarked.

For instance, SAP customer Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd, an electrical corporation that creates, transmits, and distributes power in Sabah and the Federal Territory of Labuan, migrated its SAP landscape to SAP HANA with the help of Synnove Systems which provides SAP consulting services in the region. Hong dubbed Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd as “a good example of a forward-thinking organisation on its way to becoming a world-class utility.”

Sharing more about how sustainable technology remains one of the most important trends that are expected to scale up for organisations’ wider and more synchronous technological adoption, Hong further explained:

“What could have quickly taken another decade or so was made possible overnight in a lot of industries. This digital mandate isn’t new; it’s simply been brought into sharp focus during the pandemic. Before the pandemic, a paradigm shift towards digitisation and servitisation of the economy was already underway.”

“The chaos induced by the pandemic has simply accelerated this drive, as is evident by the marked shift in organisational spending towards digital businesses,” he concluded.

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