At this pivotal time, many innovative organisations are adopting SAP integration technologies to overcome challenges and future-proof their operations. In a forum held by SAP Hong Kong, local companies such as Town Gas, GP Batteries, Signify, HKTVmall, and Ocean Park shared how they stay responsive and agile in today’s digital economy.
The pandemic has caused disruptions in business and consumer behaviour on a massive scale. Many companies have been compelled to rethink their strategies, implement new technologies, and embrace digital transformation to create new value for customers.
SAP Hong Kong has been a key enabler for the business continuity of many organisations since the onset of COVID-19 last year. Specifically, SAP integration technologies have been used by local enterprises for their survival, success, and future-proofing.
At the SAPPHIRE NOW 2021 online conference, Fabian Padilla Crisol, Managing Director at SAP Hong Kong, said that the world has seen widespread adoption of new ways of working, an unprecedented supply chain disruption, and the rapid evolution of consumer behaviour in the last 18 months. Additionally, he noted that businesses are responding to these challenges by implementing cloud technologies that enable them to expand their operations to greater levels.
“While every company has its own unique challenges and objectives at this pivotal time, Hong Kong’s business leaders agree on one thing: the deadline for business transformation is already upon us,” he emphasised.
Padilla Crisol, who hosted the event, asked local business leaders about how their organisations are embracing digital transformation to respond to operational and market challenges. Applauding Hong Kong businesses for their readiness to be digital innovators, he stressed the importance for all companies to make flexible transformation a priority. With this, SAP recently launched its Business Transformation as a Service (BTaaS) offering RISE with SAP to help companies digitally transform holistically into an intelligent enterprise without a large upfront investment.
SAP Digital Solutions Enabling Business Transformation
Towngas, one of Hong Kong’s largest energy suppliers and oldest utility, launched a new online shopping platform and loyalty program called Towngas Fun to empower its customer-facing self-service capabilities during the height of the pandemic last year. With the help of SAP solutions, Towngas customers and their gas billing points were connected to the Towngas Fun platform.
Susanna Shen, Head of Corporate IT, The Hong Kong & China Gas Company Limited, noted that the company uses technology to accelerate its agility, in addition to deploying virtual desktop infrastructure to help reduce the pandemic’s impact on the business.
“We have also set up a powerful big data platform that allows us to extract insights from our data and perform predictive analytics. SAP solutions have rich functions and features. Going forward, we expect SAP technology can help support our future growth in achieving our smart energy initiative,” she further explained.
Meanwhile, GP Batteries, which sells a wide variety of products through a complex combination of traditional and online retail channels, has used SAP Intelligent Robotic Process Automation to optimise its core business processes. Leveraging an SAP platform with machine learning technologies, the organisation transforms its business operations from end to end and empowers its ecosystem. Data also aids in the company’s better understanding of its business and customers.
“As a next step, we look forward to leveraging our deep experience and industrial knowledge by making more use of artificial intelligence (AI)-driven automation in our e-commerce and manufacturing operations,” said Wilson Wong, Head of IT, Group Information Technology at GP Batteries.
For Signify, a world leader in connected LED lighting systems and energy efficient lighting products, supply chain visibility and better forecasting and responsiveness are crucial to address pandemic-related disruptions. Timothy Mak, Group General Manager of Signify Hong Kong Limited, stated:
“Traditional forecasting is no longer enough in such a volatile and complex environment. We are staying one step ahead with the help of SAP Integrated Business Planning.”
According to Mak, the solution gathers data from retailers and utilises other SAP integration technologies to help the company manufacture products on time and deliver them to local retailers and customers as required.
Helping Hong Kong Enterprises Run Best Using SAP Integration Technologies
Moreover, Hong Kong’s largest e-commerce platform HKTVmall has heavily relied on big data analytics, AI, and different technologies to efficiently operate the country’s largest residential-area courier service. Through intelligent analytics, the company was able to better capture evolving consumer demands and assist merchants in better understanding and targeting customers.
Jelly Zhou, CEO (Hong Kong) at HKTVmall, added that the company also uses SAP Commerce Cloud to help provide a simple and smooth shopping experience, with a customer-facing search feature that integrates with its backend ordering and transaction systems.
“The SAP solution also connects with our commerce channels to handle content, catalogues, and orders and help us keep our fulfilment costs to a minimum,” Zhou further detailed.
Lastly, the IT team of Ocean Park, Hong Kong’s homegrown theme park, has been prioritising the park’s digital presence to provide stable, secure, and hassle-free digital customer experiences. Eric Ho, Executive Director, Information Technology, Ocean Park Corporation, said that the challenge lies in integrating the physical and virtual experience in a seamless manner that improves the overall interaction.
“As IT professionals, we have to take the lead in the transformation process; drawing on the ideas of diverse in-house stakeholders and our technology partners to sustain the park experience for visitors within our grounds and beyond,” Ho concluded.
