Singapore is one of Asia’s industrialised countries and one of the most competitive economies in the world that has a vibrant free-market economy, reasonable income distribution, and an established financial business framework. Since its independence in 1965, the city-state has demonstrated remarkable growth with much credit given to the government’s sound economic strategy, excellent infrastructure, numerous foreign investors, and highly skilled workforce.

Singapore’s Food Story

However, like most nations, Singapore was not spared from COVID-19’s massive global economic disruptions, especially that the country heavily relies on international trade including importing food for its 5.7million people. According to Singapore Food Agency (SFA), the country imports more than 90{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} of its food from more than 170 countries and regions– a strategy that has worked for the country for many years now. Recognising its limitation in land area and agriculture, Singapore employs long-term planning and proactive actions to safeguard its food supply, earning the nation the top spot in the Global Food Security Index for the second year running in 2019.

Moreover, the country has acknowledged that emerging trends affecting food supply such as climate change, an increasing population that is projected to grow by 50{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} in 2050, and prioritisation of local needs over international trade need to be addressed urgently. The SFA has designed three broad strategies aptly called the 3 Food Baskets to further back Singapore’s food security: Diversify Import Sources, Grow Local, and Grow Overseas.

Leveraging New Technology in Agriculture for ’30 by 30’ Goal

According to U Chee Lioy, SAP SeA Industry Cluster Lead for Public Sector, technology is key to unlocking Singapore’s food production potential. Emerging technologies in agriculture can help increase farming processes efficiencies, ensure food safety, and overcome manpower challenges– all critical to achieving the ’30 by 30’ goal.

Though all of Singapore’s 3 Food Baskets leverage technology in some ways, the Grow Local initiative is one wherein Singapore can maximise the capabilities of new technology in agriculture in securing food supply and quality. Even before the pandemic, SFA has already plotted its ambitious goal to produce 30{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} of the country’s nutritional needs locally by 2030, a significant jump from its current food production at 10{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22}. The ‘30 by 30’ initiative aims to transform Singapore’s agri-food industry into one that is highly productive and employs climate-resilient, resource-efficient, and sustainable technologies.

Chee Lioy mentioned emerging technologies in agriculture that Singapore can maximise to improve farming efficiencies such as sensors that can measure soil and weather conditions, camera-equipped satellites, and drones that can even help distribute bugs into fields as a form of natural pest control. He also mentioned that robots will soon bring automation to farming processes such as weeding, fertilising, seeding, and pruning plants.

He highlighted that these technologies have become more affordable and accurate in providing data that will allow farmers to take necessary actions to ensure products are of high quality.

SAP’s Solutions for Agribusiness

With regards to ensuring food safety, Chee Lioy emphasised the importance of keeping track of the sources of food supplies and how SAP can support this critical challenge. Organisations can leverage SAP’s Agribusiness Platform, a single logistics platform, to help manage their supply chain, which includes quickly identifying any unsafe food sources and creating accountability in the supply chain.

SAP offers a wide range of solutions that helps organisations run core business processes along the entire agribusiness value chain more efficiently. SAP’s Agribusiness Platform touches various areas of the agribusiness such as Agricultural Production and Farming, Origination and Trading, Commodity and Food Processing, Food Supply Chain Management, and Marketing and Sales.

Chee Lioy stressed that using the right skills and tools will help Singapore overcome its manpower challenges. For instance, Ukrainian grain producer MGrain leveraged SAP S/4HANA to help the company streamline business processes and reduce manpower requirements, which resulted in increasing the company’s exports sixfold with only double its previous manpower.

SAP has more upcoming innovations for the agribusiness including new SAP Fiori apps for SAP Agricultural Contract Management to create, maintain, price, and mass-price contracts and integration of SAP Integrated Business Planning for Supply Chain with SAP Farm Management by Vistex, among others.

The post How New Technology in Agriculture Can Boost Food Security in SG appeared first on InsideSAP Asia.

As businesses slowly ease into the new normal, including creating marketing strategies and roadmaps for the future of commerce, Qualtrics’ recent survey on consumer behavior during the pandemic in the Philippines and Singapore gives organisations critical insights on the pulse of the market in these changing times.

The recent Qualtrics study relates to the last study conducted by Qualtrics in May 2020, which outlines the biggest drivers of brand trust following the COVID-19 pandemic and how consumers want to be engaged. In Qualtrics’ latest study, the actions brands are taking continue to have a significant impact on consumers regardless of the changes in restrictions due to the pandemic.

Lisa Khatri, Research and Brand Experience Lead for Qualtrics in APJ said:

“Being able to identify, understand, and respond to rapidly changing expectations is business-critical during the pandemic, and long after it. The fact that preferences toward the message and the medium have changed and yet the importance of actions remains hugely important reveals brands cannot afford to stand still in how they engage consumers. 

As we move forward through the pandemic preferences and attitudes will continue to shift. This is why it is hugely important businesses use technology like Qualtrics to have an “always on pulse” of consumer sentiment and behavior tracking. Insights delivered by Qualtrics help identify the lead indicators businesses need to design and deliver the brand communications and experiences people want, and which ultimately cultivate the trust needed to succeed.” 

In this article, we will take a look at how the consumer behaviors, preferences, and expectations from brands they engage with shifted during the first 6 months of the pandemic in the Philippines and Singapore.

The Philippines Consumer Pulse

95{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} of the Philippines consumers said that brand actions impact trust in the time of a crisis. The drivers of the brand trust are consistent with May 2020 Qualtrics’ research and these are:

• (41{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22}) Not taking advantage of a crisis to maximise profits remains the most important 
• (40{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22}) Maintaining reasonable pricing
• Taking care of customers (34{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22}) and employees (23{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22})

A Shift in Communication and Engagement Platforms

The survey revealed a significant shift in communication preferences, messages, and engagement platforms in the Philippines.

The top brand communications people expect today are updates on the brand’s response to the pandemic and messages on safety and hygiene protocols. Information into products and services is down one place to the third most desired message, (50{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22}). Sales and promotion emails (45{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22}) and information on reward programs are next in the consumers’ preferences.

Facebook (84{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22}) remains the most popular engagement platform followed by online media (63{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22}), email (56{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22}), and TV advertising (51{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22}).

Singapore Consumer Pulse

In the city-state, more than 90{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} of consumers agreed that during a crisis brand actions impact trust. Similar to Singapore’s response in May 2020 and comparable the to Philippines’ consumer response, the drivers of the brand trust in the country are:

• (40{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22}) Not taking advantage of a crisis to maximise profits remains the most important 
• (37{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22}) Maintaining reasonable pricing 
• Taking care of customers (32{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22}) and employees (27{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22})

A Shift in Communication and Engagement Platforms

The top message that Singaporeans expect from brands today is sales and promotion via emails (52{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22}), which has shown an 11{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} increase from May 2020. The other messages that make up the top 5 messages consumers want are information into products and services (47{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22}), safety and hygiene protocols (43{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22}), and reward programs (41{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22}).

As for the preferred engagement platform, Singaporeans are increasingly choosing email (60{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22}), followed by Facebook (47{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22}), and Whatsapp (45{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22}). The study revealed that consumers are moving away from traditional broadcast (19{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22}) and online media (38{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22}), which showed a significant drop versus last May.

*Qualtrics surveyed 328 Singaporeans and 328 Filipinos (aged 18-65) in early September 2020.

The post Qualtrics Surveys Consumer Behavior During a Pandemic in PH and SG appeared first on InsideSAP Asia.

Currencycloud launched a Series A funding in 2011 which expanded by 2012. In the process, they were able to create an infrastructure for business-to-business (B2B) cross-border payments. CNBC reported that the investment round of the project was led by Visa, a multinational financial services corporation, and Sapphire, SAP’s venture capital arm.

TechCrunch reported that other big investors during the round include the French bank BNP Paribas, Japan’s SBO Group, Thailand’s Siam Commercial, and the Bank International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s investment arm. Meanwhile, Currencycloud had existing investors such as Google Ventures (GV) and Sapphire Ventures.

Currencycloud facilitates cross-border digital payments that are done through a set of remittance APIs.

The APIs allow businesses to integrate their existing services with Currencycloud’s platform so they can initiate remittances to other countries. The platform covers multiple cross-border transaction areas such as foreign exchange, inbound money collection, multi-currency digital wallet services, and outgoing payments.

At present, the platform has started a momentum because of the increased remittance flows between countries.

World Bank reported that in 2018, the remittance flows to middle and low-income countries hit a sky-high record of $529 billion. To date, over $50 billion has been transferred between 180 countries.

Some of the popular finance apps that use Currencycloud includes Moneze, Monzo, Starling, and Revolut.

With the new funding gathered, Currencycloud is looking to enter the Asian market because of its high adoption rate for finance apps. They are considering a new office in Singapore, a country with a stable and progressive plug-and-play business environment.

Singapore has been stirring up a commotion in the tech industry and has been attracting businesses—both local and abroad. It’s as if it has been giving out invitations to invest tech in the country. It has also been warmly welcoming start-ups.

For example, Datavard, a Germany-based SAP provider for more than two decades, decided to open a Singapore office in 2017. Ekrem Namazci, APJs’ regional managing director, identified Singapore as the next logical step for the company because of its leading high-tech advancement with a young population that openly embraces innovation.

With a new Singapore office in the plans, Currencycloud may have the opportunity to expand its services to more businesses in Asia with the possibility of opening its doors to more investors and customers.

The post Currencycloud to Open Office in Singapore appeared first on InsideSAP Asia.

Ernst & Young (EY) announced via PR Newswire that they are currently supporting Blockchain Wine Pte Ltd, a company based in Singapore, in operating its wine marketplace. The latter has recently launched the wine marketplace aptly named ‘TATTOO,’ which stands for ‘traceability, authenticity, transparency, trade, origin, and opinion.’

The said marketplace was developed to become accessible for consumers from the Asia Pacific region. It leverages EY’s ObsChain blockchain platform, which functioned as a place for consumers to purchase premium wine products. At present, the TATTOO Wine marketplace offers a wide selection of wines from countries such as Australia, France, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, and the United States. Their ultimate goal is to assist wineries of varying sizes from everywhere else in the world in offering their products to the Asia Pacific market by utilising the blockchain and e-commerce technologies.

The marketplace featured a secure, blockchain-based platform that will use digital tokens. These digital tokens identify the authenticity, provenance, and quality of both new and vintage wines. In the process, it will also reduce, even eliminate, the need for intermediaries while promoting cost efficiency.

Blockchain Wine Pte. Ltd.’s Founder and Chairman, Tim Tse, echoed the purpose of the marketplace and pointed out the traceability of the product from the point of origin to the consumer or buyer through direct delivery. He was quoted saying:

“TATTOO helps reduce layers of distribution and helps address the issues of counterfeit wines, optimizes supply chains, facilitates trade, and empowers both wineries and consumers.”

While the platform is based on EY’s OpsChain platform, the user-friendly experience was made possible by the SAP Commerce solution. This brings us back to the timely launch of SAP’s newest data centre in Singapore, which aims to support the deployment of platform-enabling businesses in the region. The wine marketplace allows a two-way process: for wineries to upload catalogs of their products and for consumers to browse and purchase from the given selections.

Meanwhile, the shipments are tracked and managed on the public Etherium Mainnet, a blockchain protocol that is developed and deployed to areas where transactions are broadcasted, verified, and then recorded. The EY Opschain features the integration of the commerce front-end and onboarding tools, which allow wineries to link their respective production systems to the Ethereum blockchain.

SAP Director for Blockchain Exploration, Thomas Uhde, shared that the project was one of the first commerce integrations of SAP software to a blockchain platform. He noted that there is “great potential in bringing scalable consumer-friendly front-end on a blockchain-based digital market.”

Waddesdon Wine Rothschild Collection’s CEO, Christopher Campbell, shared his excitement on the future of the marketplace:

“Waddesdon Wine markets wines from the Rothschild chateaux and other prestigious chateaux. We look forward to offering our wines within the TATTOO marketplace.”

EY’s Global Blockchain Leader, Paul Brody, shared his thoughts on the standing of the current era in terms of production data and the Ethereum Mainnet. He said:

“…thousands of companies will routinely be pushing production data onto the Ethereum Mainnet – creating, offering, and selling digital tokens that represent their products and services to consumers. This is what the mainstreaming of blockchain business looks like today.”

With the coming of this marketplace platform, the distribution and purchase of wines from all over the world are made more accessible and more convenient, especially for enthusiasts with no capacity to travel and make a purchase.

The post EY Announces Support for TATTOO Wine Marketplace appeared first on InsideSAP Asia.

Head of SAP.iO Foundries Asia Pacific and Japan, Lalitha Bhaskara, shared SAP’s commitment to Singapore’s dynamic startup ecosystem, which is why the inaugural acceleration program was held in Singapore.

SAP.iO Foundry has been investing in and accelerating entrepreneurs building software which is fueling an early-stage ecosystem of innovation for SAP. Aside from Singapore, SAP.iO Foundries are also located in other major startup hubs like Berlin, Munich, New York City, Paris, San Francisco, Tel Aviv, and Tokyo.

Rise of female entrepreneurs in SAP Intelligent Enterprise startups

Female entrepreneurs made up 40{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} of the first cohort. This has proven SAP’s belief in diversity which is also in line with the SAP.iO’s No Boundaries initiative.

SAP.iO Foundry Singapore’s first startups include:

1. Adaface – identifies the best engineering talent much faster than conventional interviews by enabling and automating first-round tech interviews.
2. Flowcast – provides greater visibility to customers by using patented machine learning algorithms which utilises untapped, complex data for automate credit decision making.
3. Luxtag – uses blockchain-enabled tech to determine product counterfeits and frauds.
4. Notarum – automates corporate due diligence provided by reducing busywork using a modern workflow tool and offers
5. Pulsifi – uses artificial intelligence to predict outcomes to identify, develop and retain employees.
6. SizeNFit – an e-commerce add-on that helps reduce returns and increase sales.
7. TADA – helps brands attract, engage and retain customers by offering a data-driven customer advocacy and engagement platform.

In celebration of the startups’ achievements, an invite-only demo day for the SAP Intelligent Enterprise will be held tomorrow, November 5, 2019. The event will provide opportunities for corporate innovation leaders to meet and greet startups and to witness a live demo of the solutions they provide.

The post SAP Intelligent Enterprise Brings Startups to Life appeared first on InsideSAP Asia.

Channel Asia asked eight leading cloud computing experts based in Southeast Asia. They have shared that the abovementioned factors impact the market on top of the changing market dynamics in Indonesia and Singapore. This is creating an ecosystem of cloud providers that is more collaborative with VMware as the glue.

The cloud computing experts came from emerging startups and established technology providers. They represented the entire cloud ecosystem in Asia and had skills in platforms such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Microsoft Azure, Oracle, SAP, ServiceNow, and VMware.

Workloads

Varoon Rajani, Blazeclan’s CEO, acknowledged the existence of multiple battlegrounds in the cloud market.

He said:

“I believe enterprise workloads will be the biggest battleground for the next three years. AWS aligned with SAP early to become platform certified for running SAP workloads, but now Microsoft Azure and GCP have got platforms certified for SAP also.”

He further emphasised that the top vendors are united in pursuing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.

CloudGo’s founder and CEO, Rory Fitzpatrick, believes that the replacement of legacy on-premise applications is the priority of customers. And so will be the movements of workloads to the hybrid platform-as-a-service (PaaS) or infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) environments.

He said:

“Many organisations are looking to lift-and-shift to the first two options and need to step back and consider whether PaaS platforms are a better way to go. We find with the secure infrastructure, pre-configured database, identity, and role management and workflow automation of ServiceNow we can often get a far better result, far faster.”

Cloud specialists’ say on AI

Establishing itself as an emerging technology, some market leaders have turned to AI to achieve their business outcomes. Bijjala Radhakrishna, CEO of Total eBiz Solutions, said that AI would be cloud’s next battleground.

“The rise of cloud has created lots of data that no-one owns. This abundance of data is going to make AI, and machine learning models work better and democratise AI, which removes the need for a qualified or experienced data scientist. Instead, this can be done by automation and AI.”

He said:

Additionally, Rajani of Blazeclan said that AI, ML, and server-less services generate “insignificant” revenues despite representing key innovation areas. He pointed out that it will evolve into a battleground within the next three years.

Syner-G Technologies’ CEO, Roger Siow, said that cloud could create a platform that will facilitate the growth of AI and ML.

He said:

“Cloud vendors must also compete in user experience to gain market share. Security can also be enhanced using AI and ML to prevent complex viruses and spyware. A good example is Google Cloud using AI to improve the cloud experience of users. Gmail now can predict what you want to say in an email and help you type even before you even think of the statement. Therefore, I believe the fight now is centred on gaining market share by providing more advanced and safer features through the development of AI.”

Pro-Datech systems’ executive director and co-founder, Siew Kheng Chew, shared that customers have placed more focus on cost control over security.

“The priority is around who can provide the most cost-effective cloud. Whether hybrid cloud or multi-cloud, the conversation is still about cost. The market talks about security, but it’s no longer the main concern given the amount of solutions now available.”

Dynamics in the market

On another note, Cloud Comrade’s co-managing director and founder, Andy Waroma, identified the “three distinctive areas” that will define cloud managed service providers (MSPs) in the ASEAN market within the next 1 to 2 years.

Waroma stated that the Singaporean government would push towards the public cloud. This will be followed by the ASEAN financial services sectors’ adoption of cloud services, and then, Indonesian organisations will migrate to cloud after AWS and Google Cloud open regions in the country.

He added:

“While it can be thought of as battleground, the market will be so big that cloud MSPs will start running out of capable resources and therefore, they need to start thinking about resource optimisation through coopetition. Each cloud-focused MSP will have their own unique strengths, and rather than going head-to-head in every deal, there will be new synergies that will emerge to benefit customers, cloud platform providers, and of course, the MSPs themselves. Let the battle commence.”

Taking the next phase with multi-cloud

ViBiCloud’s COO, Ramon Hadypratomo, cited multi-cloud as the next phase for the expanding cloud market in Indonesia.

He shared not only how Indonesia’s market is growing and emerging, but also the need to improve the infrastructure and awareness of digital transformation.

He added:

“Indonesia is pursuing a multi-cloud strategy because customers are uncertain about cloud reliability. It’s like the market wants to put their eggs (cloud) in some of baskets (cloud platform) which is managed by one MSP such as ViBiCloud.”

Cloud Ace’s cloud solutions architect, Avinash Bodapati, shared that at an enterprise level, a ‘one single cloud fits all’ approach may not be able to cover everything. He emphasised how every cloud provider in the market has its own strengths, but cannot be expected to give up on its existing investments in the form of on-premises environments.”

Rajani of BlazeClan agreed with Bodapati stating that “Hybrid cloud is a reality.” There is no all-in-one single cloud platform, and large-scale businesses will opt to work with a multi-cloud approach or deploy workloads based on the cost of the underlying resource.

He concluded that although cloud players have signed up with VMware, leaders in the market have released AWS Outposts, Azure Stack, and Google Anthos, which provides individual hybrid offerings.

The post Cloud Computing Experts’ Say on the ASEAN Market appeared first on InsideSAP Asia.

Reports from the Department of Statistics Singapore show that productivity declines as the labour force ages. With this, workers are being encouraged to adopt new skills that are relevant to the digital world.

Singtel employees benefit from short courses

Valerie Yeong Tan is one of those elderly Singaporean coders. She worked at Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. for 47 years as an HR department administrator. She was persuaded to enroll into bot-building courses to improve her skills.

At an interview at a new Singtel office in Singapore, she said,

Learning is a lifelong process, and I want to keep my mind active. I also hope to encourage and inspire the younger generation of workers and show them that you can learn new skills no matter how far you are in your career.

Similarly, another elderly Singaporean coder named Yeong-Tan attended Singtel’s four-day Bot Maker Training course and two-day Bot Maker Hackathon. Now, her new-found skills are being used to improve her work productivity for repetitive tasks.

Both women have no basic programming knowledge but learned from short courses.

How the government addresses the need for new skills

SkillsFuture Singapore and Workforce Singapore are government agencies that have organized programs that offer courses for new skills and help workers find jobs. Singaporeans utilized the SkillsFuture Credit, a program that subsidized government-approved training courses. In 2018, more than 430,000 workers availed the subsidy—showing almost 50{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} increase from 2017.

Singaporean businesses are also doing their part. Last Thursday, Singtel announced its plans to invest SGD45 million (USD32.7 million) over the next three years to help its employees receive upskill training to help them adapt to the digital environment. Programs will include data analytics to 5G capabilities.

In 2018, SAP SE launched a program called “SAP Skills University” in partnership with government agencies and local educational institutions. The said program was targeted towards mid-career professionals.

Singtel group’s CEO, Chua Sock Koong said,

Work, as we know it today, is very different from 10 years ago. And ten years from now, it will be very different from today. That is why we mustn’t stop evolving as an employee as a company.”

The post Elderly Singaporean Coders’ Contribution to Productivity appeared first on InsideSAP Asia.

BlackLine’s founder and CEO Therese Tucker opened the conference with her presentation, “Trust is in the Balance.” Tucker took us through the changing expectations on CEOs and CFOs. The CEO’s primary role now is to drive trust, whereas the CFO is being pulled between managing risk and driving strategy. She asks, “can we solve real business problems with technology?” According to Tucker:

“Digital transformation must be top of mind. It’s the only way out of a difficult situation.”

Joon Ar Chiang of EY conducted three live polls of the audience, revealing concerns over increasingly complicated systems and diminishing skilled workers are top of mind for in-house accountants. According to Chiang, finance needs to become forward-looking instead of reactive. Building digital know-how will become critical. He tells us:

“The transformation age demands agility… predictive and data driven approaches will be the future.”

EY’s Doris Cheng followed up to give us a prediction of the future for finance personnel, that new jobs and skills will be required. With an increase in robotics-driven finance, industrial data scientists, RPA engineers and AI auditors will be required. Businesses will require a strong ability to change.

SAP and Finance

For InsideSAP Asia, the highlight was a presentation by Richard McLean, CFO of SAP Asia Pacific / Japan. In the first time this talk was presented, McLean announced that SAP has kicked off another wave of finance transformation. With new intelligent technology, repetitive processes can now be automated, enabling finance to take a more strategic role in business. This will be achieved through

• Process automation
• Dynamic analytics
• Next-gen UX

McLean revealed that SAP’s strategy is to deliver the intelligent enterprise. S/4HANA ERP allows all operational and analytical data to be held in one place, giving businesses agility, analytics, assurance and paving the way for automation. He explained why cloud is the best choice for ERP, allowing for:

• Flexibility, granting SMEs access to the same computing power and tech of much larger companies
• Support standardization, in reference to the record-breaking deployment by NZ company Kapura
• Agility and Scalability

Cloud ERP levels the playing field. Through the intelligent enterprise, SAP is creating a culture that encourages people to explore design thinking. To fail quickly, learn quickly and continue experimenting. Finance, he tells us, should become agile collaborators and co-innovators. He said:

“Stop over thinking agility and get on with it.”

There were many more presentations and amazing speakers, including some excellent breakdowns by BlackLine product specialists of RPA and technology that will affect the industry. The key takeaways for InsideSAP Asia were that finance must be empowered to decrease the reactive workload, whilst still increasing productivity. Doing so with the help of technology will enable finance to take on more innovative roles in business.

Overall, digital transformation allows mundane work to be replaced with high value work. This leads to further agility, further transformation and innovation.

The post Highlights From InTheBlack Singapore, 2019 appeared first on InsideSAP Asia.

First SAP.iO Foundry Singapore Applicants

The first SAP.iO Foundry Singapore will comprise 8 to 10 start-ups in the 13 weeks accelerator programme commencing July 2019. The SAP.iO Foundries programme is a global network for top-tier startups, including accelerators that help them build innovative software and deliver high value for customers. The seven other SAP.iO Foundries are in major startup hubs, including Tokyo, Paris, Berlin, Munich, Tel Aviv, New York City and San Francisco. SAP.iO Foundries have accelerated the growth of over 100 startups.

“As the most innovative country in Asia, Singapore was selected as our first SAP.iO Foundry location in South East Asia to deliver high value to our customers,” said Ram Jambunathan, Managing Director of SAP.iO. “We are excited to work with and help South East Asian startup ecosystem with our value proposition of curated mentorship, exposure to SAP data and technologies, and opportunities to meet and collaborate with SAP unparalleled, global base of enterprise customers.”

Startup Challenges

One of the biggest challenges faced by business managers is the need for continuous innovation to stay relevant. The launch of SAP.iO Foundry Singapore will support early-stage companies with a B2B enterprise focus and deliver incremental value to SAP customers. Selected startups will be provided with curated mentorship, access to SAP data and technologies, and opportunities to meet and collaborate with SAP customers. Building on the success, SAP is delighted to welcome its upcoming cohort of founders.

Startups interested in participating in SAP.iO Foundry Singapore should apply between 12 March and 15 May 2019 here.

The post Applications Open for SAP.iO Foundry Singapore appeared first on InsideSAP Asia.

SAP Business One Systems

Business software solutions company, Inecom has announced that it had been awarded ‘Top SAP Business One HANA Partner Singapore’ for the fourth successive year, securing Inecom’s position as the leading SAP Business One partner for business analytics and the next generation of business software applications.

SAP Business One is business management software designed for small and medium-sized enterprises. As an ERP solution, it aims to automate key business functions in financials, operations, and human resources. It is another powerful application from SAP SE.

The Inecom Group is a leading Asia Pacific SAP partner, with offices in Singapore, India and UAE. Established in 2002, Inecom has a proven track record of delivering world-class business software solutions with their quality accredited systems implementation methodology and complete customer care services. Inecom has completed over 400 regional implementations to date. Inecom is provider of SAP solutions as well as business analytics, cloud-hosting and disaster recovery solutions.

Leading the Way with SAP

According to a leading IT industry analyst, Forrester Research, SAP HANA is among the world’s leading Translytical databases. The term “Translytical” describes in-memory database technology that is designed to support both transactions processing and analytical processing in real-time and at the same time.

These advances and innovations are rapidly obsoleting traditional SQL database technologies, which struggle to support real-time applications, mobile applications and IOT effectively. Ms. Chua, Beng Choo, CEO of Inecom Singapore said, “We are delighted to receive recognition once again for our dedication to SAP HANA. In 2015, we recognized the coming technology shift and decided to focus entirely on SAP Business One HANA systems instead of the traditional SQL versions.”

The post Inecom Wins SAP Business One Hana Partner Award appeared first on InsideSAP Asia.