SAP SME Summit 2012 showcases ICT Solutions for Malaysian Small Businesses

Helps SMEs improve operational performance, raise productivity and reduce costs, while continuing to drive growth and expansion into new markets

KUALA LUMPUR – May 3, 2012 – SAP, the world market and technology leader in business management software, showcased its 2011 business performance among Malaysian SMEs and outlined its solutions to help SMEs improve operational efficiencies and accelerate growth in today’s increasingly challenging global markets at the SAP SME Summit 2012 held at the InterContinental Kuala Lumpur.

More than 80 per cent of SAP’s 176,000 global customers are SMEs, 90 per cent of which are in the lower middle and small enterprise markets. In Malaysia, SAP is committed to supporting the goals of Malaysia’s Economic Transformation Plan (ETP) put forth by Prime Minister YAB Dato’ Seri Najib Tun Razak to help Malaysian businesses use ICT to transform the way they work and for Malaysian SMEs to succeed in growing their GDP contribution to 40 per cent by the year 2020.

Presently, SMEs make up over 98 per cent of businesses in Malaysia and in 2011 SMEs contribute about 31 per cent to GDP, 56 per cent to the workforce and account for 19 per cent of Malaysia’s total national exports.

Delivering the keynote address at the SAP SME Summit 2012 to executives from 150 top Malaysian SMEs, SMECorp CEO Dato’ Hafsah Hashim encouraged Malaysian SMEs of all sizes to seek out best in class ICT solutions to help them drive business success within and beyond Malaysia. “To successfully compete in the global economy it is critical that Malaysian businesses adopt ICT solutions to improve operational performance, raise productivity and reduce costs,” said Dato Hafsah. “SAP has a proven track record of helping Malaysian SMEs become best-run businesses with innovative ICT solutions that are now increasingly available on mobile devices like the iPad and through cost-effective cloud computing.”

SMEs are mostly owner-managed, entrepreneurial companies. And for many entrepreneurs, business information and decision support tools tend to be a combination of static historical reports, analysis spreadsheets and gut feel, which is fine while the SME is small and easily managed on this basis. However, as the business grows it needs to sustain its flexibility and agility in the face of stiffer competition and increasing volumes of information and regulation. Business software solutions are invaluable tools to help SMEs remain lean and efficient companies while supporting business growth with quick and accurate decision making.

Typically the barriers among SMEs to the adoption of business software solutions are cost and complexity. Costs include software and services, as well as people and time. The SME faces additional hurdles, such as tighter budgets, less sophistication and organizational knowledge, technology hurdles and fewer people, meaning less time to spend on planning and analysis. Consequently, the typical SME needs outside help defining critical success factors and the relevant metrics.

“SAP’s strategy to serve the SME market is to approach the market in the way that best addresses our customers’ needs and buying preferences,” said SAP Malaysia Managing Director Serene Sia. “By working with partners and an extended ecosystem, SAP is introducing alternative business software deployment, packaging and licensing options such as software-as-a-service, cloud computing and pre-built applications. These innovations give SMEs with limited in-house IT resources, to get an advanced ICT system up and running more quickly, with minimal cost, fuss and risk.”

Mobility

Among SAP’s goals is to bring mobility to the masses and one of the key objectives for SAP’s mobility strategy was to enable any size company to mobilize. To effectively serve SMEs this means delivering ready-to-use applications that address specific business needs.

In November 2011, SAP is showcased 50 business applications for SMEs at SAPPHIRENOW in Madrid. 20 of these applications were free and 11 came from SAP’s partner ecosystem.


SAP’s broad range of mobile business solutions for SMEs allows the companies to:

· Access and act on real-time business insights – anytime, anywhere

· Increase employee productivity and accelerate decision making

· Boost customer engagement, satisfaction, and responsiveness

· Develop innovative mobile applications that meet your business needs

Not only is SAP a proponent of mobility for the business, it is also an exponent of this approach. SAP ended 2011 having deployed 14,000 iPads to 53,000 employees scattered all over the world. That includes all of its salespeople, a high proportion of IT staffers and developers, as well as many managers and senior executives. SAP is the second-largest user of iPads in the world.

Rapid Deployment Solutions

SAP has also innovated in the way in which it delivers business software solutions to customers, particularly to SMEs. SAP’s Rapid Deployment Solutions (RDS) are a set of pre-configured, fixed price offerings with a well delineated scope that can be up and running in just 12 weeks. RDS are one of the best ways for SMEs to add analytics or CRM, extend their logistics or planning capabilities or start to automate collaborative processes with partners. Using RDS, SMEs can jump start their use of ICT to transform their business in a manner that is both pragmatic and cost-effective, and that allows them to achieve rapid time to value.

Today there are more than 50 RDS offerings in market, with more being rolled out each quarter. All RDS offerings are rigorously put through and internal SAP qualification process to ensure their stability, reliability and full integration with SAP’s broad portfolio of products before being delivered to customers by experienced partners within the SAP Ecosystem.

As their businesses grow, SMEs can then choose to extend their RDS deployments with comprehensive SAP solutions, thus preserving their investment and minimising the need to retrain personnel to use new tools.

Using SAP Rapid Deployment Solutions, companies can get SAP applications up and running in no time.