The Southeast Asian economy has been underpinned by SMEs as the segment stimulates domestic demand, innovation, job creation, and competition, according to the Asia Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Monitor (ASM) 2020 by the Asian Development Bank. The report also indicated that digital technology is a major contributor to the growth of SMEs in the region as it delivers the tools needed to support innovative businesses.

Additionally, in a survey conducted by SAP and Oxford Economics last April, 56{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} of ASEAN enterprises that participated believe that automation and digital technologies help organisations meet business objectives such as boosting process efficiency and reducing costs, risks, and errors. The unprecedented challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic have demonstrated that, even for SMEs, digital transformation is the way to go. SAP understands the need for SMEs to simplify business processes as the sector makes up over 80{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} of its client base.

During SAPPHIRE NOW 2021, Scott Russell, Executive Board Member, Customer Success at SAP, emphasised that digital solutions enable middle-market companies to attract customers, retain employees, optimise their processes and supply chains in order to drive economic advantage in the future. He added:

“In some ways, small and medium enterprises have elevated and are able to compete on a global scale without the need of high-cost infrastructure that their bigger counterparts have. And that’s where our technology at SAP really helps their businesses run best.”

Leveraging SAP Business Process Solutions

Meanwhile, Pannie Sia, Vice President and Head of Midmarket at SAP SEA, said that resilience is even more important now for SMEs across Southeast Asia amid the COVID-19 situation. She stressed:

“The pandemic further amplifies and accelerates the need to find new ways of doing things in the new normal. And technology underpins the way that SMEs compete in the digital economy.”

Expounding on how SAP business process solutions help SMEs recover and thrive in the post-pandemic era, Sia discussed the SAP S/4HANA implementation of JUMBO Group of Restaurants. Jumbo Group Ltd. runs a chain of restaurants in Singapore and China, as well as franchises in Asia. The company made a crucial decision of moving away from its old ERP system which had been causing problems for the last seven years.

According to Sia, Jumbo Group embarked on a digital transformation journey leveraging SAP S/4HANA as the unified platform to help them digitise their business processes in a more agile manner. By implementing SAP business process solutions, the company was able to:

• Achieve broader business objectives such as cost savings and optimisation of supplier base
• Improve the efficiency of inventory management and production
• Gain access to valuable and important data for operation and business decisions

In a statement, Ang Kiam Meng, CEO of Jumbo Group, said:

“I am confident that in the next couple of months, it will enable us to become much more efficient in our business. This project makes us a poster success story for SAP systems, and we hope to work more closely with SAP in future.”

Empowering SMEs across Southeast Asia

Also highlighted during the discussion is the early adoption of RISE with SAP by Hilleman Laboratories, a public-private organisation that deals with vaccine research. Sia stated that after going live with SAP S/4HANA with just two and a half months of implementation, the company streamlined its business processes, broke down data silos, and gained visibility in its end-to-end supply chain.

Explaining why the organisation selected SAP’s business transformation as a service offering, Serene Tan, CFO at Hilleman Laboratories, further shared in a separate SAPPHIRE NOW session:

“RISE with SAP made sense to us as it offers simplicity, concierge services, and accelerator outcomes. We can remove complexity by dealing with one company for all issues, and choose the infrastructure that fits our business without getting locked into one infrastructure as a service.”

Moreover, Tan also mentioned that having full support from SAP Services during the whole process is also very reassuring. She concluded:

“What this has meant for us is the ability to truly transform all aspects of Hilleman Laboratories’ business with faster time to value and without high upfront investments.”

The post How SAP Business Process Solutions Help Transform ASEAN SMEs appeared first on InsideSAP Asia.

Through the RISE with SAP cloud transformation program, the enterprise software giant aims to deliver business transformation as a service to help companies jumpstart their journey to the intelligent enterprise. Scott Russell, Executive Board Member and Head of Customer Success at SAP, said the solution is gaining traction in the APAC region as businesses look to accelerate their transition towards cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications.

Initially outlined in January, RISE with SAP is a collection of subscription-based software and services built on the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP). During a regional media briefing on the sidelines of SAPPHIRE NOW 2021, Russell said that more than 100 customers, including Thai Medical Glove and Ra Chem Pharma in Thailand, have already signed up for the RISE offering since its launch. Claiming that “Asia is going to lead the way” with RISE, Russell went on to say that roughly 80{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} of SAP customers on the program are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). According to Russell, the solution is not just about helping move organisations’ workloads to the cloud but also enabling them to understand which processes drive the greatest value. He maintained: 

“That’s what RISE with SAP brings – we’re bullish and we’ve received great feedback so far in the market, and we expect to continue that as we’ve got a modular breadth of capability.”

“We look forward to bringing that to life with companies across Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, India, Vietnam, and the entire region because I think Asian companies will continue to expect to transform and lead the world going forward,” Russell added.

Expanding SAP’s Cloud Strategy in APAC

Meanwhile, Tadashi Kanzawa, Senior Vice President at SAP APJ, also weighed in on how regional organisations can transform using SAP technologies. In a session during SAPPHIRE NOW 2021, he stated that they have launched the “very comprehensive” RISE with SAP solution this year. He further shared:

“S/4HANA is the core of RISE and the BTP, the Business Network and some tools have been practiced. I believe that those solutions will be the platform to implement the intelligent enterprise.”

Moreover, Kanzawa also leads the SAP S/4HANA Cloud in enabling the success of over 400 customers and many partners in the region. He added:

“SAP is trying to launch some additional values. The biggest value here at SAP, it’s a different way to business process. Through the history at SAP, we have been working to build the best practice and some specific solutions for the industries and business functions.”

One of these specific solutions is the RISE with SAP for Modular Cloud ERP, which extends SAP’s S/4HANA core ERP solution with new software modules in other areas and lines of business.

Unveiling RISE with SAP for Modular Cloud ERP

The launch of Modular Cloud ERP was one of the major announcements at this year’s SAPPHIRE NOW. Procurement, human experience management (HXM), analytics, and governance are among the current modules included in the offering, with more planned to be added later. The modular capabilities, according to Russell, will allow businesses to map their transformation paths using a single contract and subscription service that is underpinned by a common data and security model.

Furthermore, Thomas Saueressig, Member of the Executive Board at SAP SE for SAP Product Engineering, said the modular architecture was developed in response to customers who want an agile way of embracing innovation quickly. He explained:

“The work we did in the last 18 to 24 months was really to invest in all integrations. We can now deliver a full modular cloud ERP, including industry-specific innovations from the Industry Cloud which we deliver together with our customers and partners.”

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The next steps in establishing an intelligent enterprise, according to SAP, are to develop strong business networks and to place a strong focus on sustainability. One of the tech giant’s biggest initiatives unveiled at the SAPPHIRE NOW 2021 online event for partners and customers is the SAP Business Network, a business-to-business (B2B) social network made up of 5.5 million connected businesses.

In his global keynote speech, SAP Chief Executive Officer Christian Klein shared:

“While we have all seen the power of networks in our personal lives, this networked ecosystem for businesses doing business together is unique. Members of the new SAP Business Network will be able to access a single, unified portal to gain a holistic view into their supply chain ecosystem, logistics and traceability, and equipment management and maintenance.”

Furthermore, the SAP Business Network brings together three current SAP networks to help businesses easily locate and connect with new partners who satisfy particular requirements. Under a unified user portal and shared data model, the SAP Business Network incorporates the Ariba Network for procurement, SAP Logistics Business Network for logistics and supply chain management, as well as the SAP Asset Intelligence Network for asset performance monitoring and equipment tracking.

Moreover, SAP has also launched a portfolio of new sustainability-specific products that aims to enable businesses to foster environmentally conscious initiatives and new business models. The portfolio includes the SAP Responsible Design and Production solution, ensuring that product designers can make sustainable decisions from concept to production; the SAP Product Footprint Management solution, which tracks sustainability throughout the product lifecycle; and the SAP Sustainability Control Tower solution, which provides end-to-end visibility.

Transitioning Towards the Intelligent Enterprise with SAP

Meanwhile, the enterprise software giant has also introduced RISE with SAP for Human Experience Management (HXM), a new HR module aimed at strengthening operations and planning and improving engagement and productivity. It is a rebranding of SuccessFactors, SAP’s existing cloud human capital management (HCM) platform, with new capabilities added on top of the company’s Qualtrics survey functionalities.

During the launch, Julia White, Chief Marketing and Solutions Officer and Member of the Executive Board at SAP, said:

“With the integration of SuccessFactors and Qualtrics, employee understanding is available any time. Employee experience data identifies what is going well, and areas for improvement, in a data-driven way.”

On the other hand, several companies have already made the leap to become intelligent enterprises. Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad is one of the numerous customers utilising SAP SuccessFactors to transform and modernise their HR operations in Asia. As Malaysia’s biggest standalone Islamic bank, it aims to further boost employee productivity and step up its human capital management (HCM) efforts with the installation of SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central.

According to Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad CEO Mohd Muazzam Mohamed, the company is committed to investing in the latest innovations to help employees gain their fullest potentials. He further stressed in a Bernama report:

“With the SAP SuccessFactors cloud-based solution, it empowers the bank to use the various functions that align with business priorities and get immediate commercial value. The solution’s seamless, mobile-friendly user experiences and social collaboration capabilities mean that employees can access information anywhere, anytime.”

Similarly, SAP Korea has also revealed that businesses across different sectors in the country — from large companies to small and medium-sized enterprises, not-for-profit organisations, and start-ups — have already introduced human resource management solutions from SAP Successfactors. This includes Doosan Group, KB Kookmin Bank, Hyundai Mobis, Amorepacific, Lotte Chemical, and Kakao Enterprise.

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Conducted similarly to last year’s SAPPHIRE NOW Reimagined, SAPPHIRE NOW 2021 kicked off as a virtual event on the 2nd of June with SAP CEO Christian Klein giving the global keynote. The global session unveiled its latest innovative solution SAP Business Network designed to connect business communities and trading partners. New solutions to help customers run their best, transform business processes, and drive improved performance were also previewed at the global kick-off.

SAPPHIRE NOW 2021 New Program Design

SAPPHIRE NOW 2021 innovates with a program design that features new immersive experiences to customers in a more relatable manner. This year, the program is split into three regional events– in languages and in time zones that fit every participant’s needs. SAPPHIRE NOW EMEA and Americas digital events are scheduled on 7-10 June while the Asia Pacific conference happens on 21-24 June. Additional local events are dedicated to customers in Greater China (16-17 June), Korea (15-18 June), and Japan (12-16 July).

In all the regional events, attendees can select interactive sessions across eight dedicated content tracks and hear from thought leaders and learn from customers’ best practices that helped them accelerate digital transformation amid disruptions.

Industries Track. This broad track is further subdivided into subtracks Automotive, Banking, Consumer Products, Hi Tech, Industrial Machinery and Components, Insurance, Healthcare & Life Sciences, Oil, Gas & Energy, Professional Services, Public Sector, Retail, and Utilities.

IT Track. Focused on IT organisations, this track delves into how customers can deliver Business-Transformation-as-a-Service through RISE with SAP. Participants get access to IT subtracks such as Building an Intelligent Enterprise, Intelligent ERP with SAP S/4HANA, Data to Value, Integration & Extension, and Process Intelligence and Excellence.

Procurement Track. This track showcases how SAP helped organisations realise intelligent spend management. Featured sessions include Digital Transformation of Technologies and Processes, Trading Partner Collaboration & Innovation, and External Labor Spend Optimisation

Supply Chain Track. With the pandemic revealing the vulnerabilities of the supply chain, participants joining this track gets access to sessions that focus on building a resilient supply chain. Subtracks include Synchronised Planning, Industry 4.Now, Business Networks, and Sustainable Supply Chain.

HR Track. Aside from featuring SAP SuccessFactors HXM Suite, this track also includes sessions that would help customers look into reinventing HR such as Attracting & Developing a Future-Ready Workforce, Driving Business Value with Human Experience Management, Business Transformation with Human Experience Management in the Cloud, HR Trends & Priorities, and HR for Midsize Companies.

Customer Experience. This track features five sessions that would help organisations speed and scale customer engagements with trust and personalisation. Participants can choose from subtracks Commerce Everywhere, Data-Driven Customer Experience, Sales Evolution, Customer Care, and CX: Midmarket (SMB).

Midmarket SMBs Track. Designed for midsize companies, this track features thought-provoking insights from business leaders, industry experts, and SAP partners in the sessions Enable your Midsize Company to Thrive with SAP Solutions and Learn From Your Peers’ Success: Customer Panel Discussio

Finance Track. This track highlights how organisations can leverage SAP solutions in harnessing a unified finance and risk platform in the cloud. Participants can choose interactive sessions focused on Accounting & Compliance, Cash, Liquidity & Billing Management, Financial Planning & Analysis, Governance, Risk, Compliance & Cybersecurity, and Finance: Midmarket (SMB).

For participants who want to follow up on the tracks they attended in, SAPPHIRE NOW 2021 offers a Meet the Experts opportunity wherein attendees can have a 25-minute informative conversation with an expert.

The SAPPHIRE NOW Asia Pacific event features esteemed SAP leaders in the region namely President and Managing Director of SAP Southeast Asia Verena Siow, President and Managing Director of the SAP Indian Subcontinent Kulmeet Bawa, President and Managing Director of SAP ANZ Damien Bueno, and Senior Vice President, User Enablement, and Managing Director of SAP Labs India Sindhu Gangadharan. SAP customers who will also be resource speakers in the digital conference are Vice President – Human Resources and Systems of Asian Paints Aashish Kshetry, General Manager – People and Culture of Coles Group Tammy Ryder, and Group Chief Human Resources Officer of Bank Islam Malaysia Iskandar Shah Zulkarnain.

Experience the virtual event and register here for free access to SAPPHIRE NOW 2021.

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