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5 Strategies for Negotiating Airfare Discounts with SAP Concur!

Timothy Shim gives us the low-down on the 5 strategies for negotiating airfare discounts with SAP Concur!

 

Negotiating Airfare Discounts with SAP Concur!

Whether it’s a short hop to a neighboring city for a client meeting or an international conference halfway around the globe, airfare costs can significantly dent your company’s budget. That’s where systems like SAP Concur step in.

From leveraging data to setting up effective travel policies, we will explore five strategies for negotiating airfare discounts with SAP Concur. But before we dive into the nitty-gritty, let’s understand what SAP Concur is and how it functions as a critical part of your corporate travel management toolkit.

5 Minute Read

  • Use SAP Concur’s robust reporting tools to gain insights into your company’s travel patterns and use this information to identify potential areas for negotiation with airlines.
  • Centralize your company’s travel bookings with SAP Concur and present your travel volume data to airlines when negotiating for discounts.
  • Use SAP Concur to plan and book corporate travel in advance, demonstrating your commitment to airlines and leveraging this in your negotiations for better rates.
  • Track airfare fluctuations with SAP Concur and use your active engagement with market trends to secure better deals from airlines.
  • Leverage SAP Concur to manage and track your company’s relationships with airlines, leveraging your loyalty and long-term commitment to negotiate for ongoing discounts.

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5 Strategies for Negotiating Airfare Discounts with SAP Concur!

SAP Concur is a cloud-based solution integrating travel, expense, and invoice management into one unified system. It aims to simplify these processes and provide a seamless, user-friendly experience.

Travel Management with SAP Concur

Concur Travel is a feature within the platform that allows businesses to manage and streamline their corporate travel processes. It offers a comprehensive range of services, including online booking tools, travel management services, and mobile applications.

These services aid companies in reducing costs, enforcing travel policies, and providing travelers with a smooth and efficient experience.

Expense and Invoice Management

Concur Expense and Concur Invoice are additional features to simplify the expense and invoice management processes. Concur Expense lets employees quickly capture and submit expense reports from any location.

That does much to reduce errors and improve compliance. Concur Invoice automates invoice processing, helping businesses manage spending and cash flow more effectively.

SAP Concur’s Impact on Business Operations

By integrating travel, expense, and invoice management, SAP Concur gives businesses visibility and control over their spending. It also offers valuable insights into spending patterns, helping companies make informed decisions and save money.

Whether a business has a small travel team or a large multinational operation, SAP Concur is designed to adapt to unique needs and deliver tangible benefits.

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Strategy #1: Understand Your Travel Data

The first step to effective negotiation is knowing your ground, and in the context of airfare discounts, that means understanding your travel data. SAP Concur shines here, providing businesses comprehensive insights into their travel habits.

Key Data Points to Focus On

First, pay close attention to your company’s frequently traveled routes, preferred airlines, and ticket classes. Focus on asking the right questions to provide the most actionable insights for your business. For example;

  • Which routes are your employees traveling the most?
  • Which airlines are they choosing?
  • Are they booking economy, business, or first-class tickets?

These data points provide a solid foundation for negotiation discussions with airlines.

Analyzing Trends and Patterns

SAP Concur allows you to analyze trends and patterns in your travel data over time. For instance, you may find that your employees travel more frequently during certain times of the year or prefer specific airlines for international flights. These patterns can provide leverage when negotiating airfare discounts.

Translating Data into Negotiation Power

Armed with this data, you can approach airlines with confidence. Showcase your loyalty to specific airlines, emphasize the volume of business you bring, and demonstrate your understanding of your company’s travel needs.

When airlines see that you know your travel patterns and preferences, they’re more likely to consider offering discounts.

Actionable Tips

  • Use SAP Concur’s reporting tools to gain a comprehensive overview of your company’s travel patterns.
  • Analyze the data to identify trends, such as the most frequently traveled routes, the most used airlines, and peak travel periods.
  • Use this information to identify potential areas for negotiation with airlines.

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Strategy #2: Leverage Your Travel Volume

Once you’ve grasped your travel data, it’s time to focus on volume. As with many things in business, higher volumes can often lead to better deals, and air travel is no different.

With SAP Concur, you can aggregate your travel data to demonstrate the volume of your bookings, forming a compelling case for discounts.

Consolidating Travel Bookings

It’s essential to consolidate your company’s travel bookings as much as possible. Instead of allowing your employees to book flights individually, use SAP Concur to centralize your travel bookings.

This simplifies the booking process and allows you to negotiate with airlines as a single, high-volume customer.

Presenting Your Case to Airlines

When you approach airlines with a substantial volume of business, you’re in a much stronger negotiating position. Airlines are always looking for consistent, reliable customers. Showing them that you provide significant business can encourage them to offer you better rates.

The Win-Win Situation

By offering airlines a substantial and steady volume of business, you’re creating a win-win situation. The airline gets a reliable source of revenue, and in return, your company gets more favorable airfare rates. This symbiotic relationship is the heart of effective negotiation.

Leveraging SAP Concur’s Tools

SAP Concur provides the tools necessary to leverage your travel volume effectively. This platform is an essential partner in your negotiation journey, from consolidating bookings to presenting comprehensive reports.

Using SAP Concur to showcase your travel volume, you can confidently negotiate airfare discounts and ensure your company gets the best possible deals.

Actionable Tips

  • Use SAP Concur to centralize all your company’s travel bookings.
  • Make a report showcasing your company’s travel volume.
  • Present this report to airlines when negotiating discounts.

Strategy #3: Utilize Advanced Booking

We’ve all heard the saying, “The early bird gets the worm,” right? In our case, replace “worm” with “discount.” Being an early bird can be a real game-changer when bagging those sweet airfare deals. And here’s where SAP Concur comes in handy, making advanced booking a breeze.

Think about it – when airlines see steady, early bookings, they’re more willing to give us a break with some discounts. Plus, it’s a stress reliever! You get to avoid the last-minute scramble for tickets, and it’s easier to plan your budget when you know the costs upfront.

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How SAP Concur Helps With Advanced Bookings

SAP Concur is like that incredibly organized friend we all wish we had. With its advanced booking feature, planning your corporate travel well in advance is simple. You can book flights, reserve hotels, and even arrange ground transport, all in one place.

The Art of Negotiation with Advanced Booking

But let’s get back to the discounts. Advanced booking can give you a leg up when negotiating with airlines. Showing them that your company is organized and committed to booking in advance can be a persuasive argument for a lower rate.

Creating a Win-Win Situation (Again!)

Just like with travel volume, advanced booking creates a win-win situation. The airlines have the security of early and regular bookings, and you get to bag those tempting discounts. It’s like a beautiful dance, and SAP Concur is your dance partner, guiding you through each step.

So, remember to plan. It’s not just about saving your sanity; it’s about saving dollars. Advanced booking with SAP Concur? That’s a smart move.

Actionable Tips

● Use SAP Concur’s booking tools to plan and book corporate travel well in advance.
● Track the cost savings achieved through advanced booking.
● Highlight your company’s commitment to early booking when negotiating with airlines.

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Strategy #4: Implement Dynamic Pricing

Next up on our list of strategies is dynamic pricing. That might sound like some sort of jargon straight out of a business textbook, but trust me, it’s more complex than it sounds. It’s all about adaptability, flexibility, and being ready to ride the ever-changing airfare prices.

Airfare prices are like a rollercoaster—they go up, down, and make sudden turns. As a savvy business, we must monitor these fluctuations and use them to our advantage. When we know that prices are changing, we can swoop in and grab those discounts when they pop up.

This is where SAP Concur struts its stuff. It allows us to track these price changes and alerts us when prices drop. It’s like having a vigilant guard dog that barks (or, in this case, sends notifications) when a good deal is on the horizon.

Dynamic Pricing and Negotiation

When you’re at the negotiating table with airlines, being able to talk about dynamic pricing can give you an edge. It shows airlines that you’re not only aware of the market trends but you’re also ready to react to them. This can make them more willing to offer special deals and discounts.

Creating Yet Another Win-Win

By now, you’ve probably noticed a pattern—we’re all about creating win-win situations. With dynamic pricing, the airlines get a customer who’s engaged and responsive to the market, and you get to save some of those hard-earned dollars.

So, let’s embrace the rollercoaster of dynamic pricing. We can ride the ups and downs with great discounts with SAP Concur. Remember, being adaptable in business is a virtue; in this case, it can save you money!

Actionable Tips

  • Use SAP Concur’s tracking features to keep an eye on airfare fluctuations.
  • Book immediately to secure the lower rate when you notice a significant price drop.
  • Mention your dynamic pricing strategy during negotiations with airlines to show that you’re an active and engaged customer.

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Strategy #5: Establish Long-Term Partnerships

Last but not least is the power of long-term partnerships. We’re not just talking about fleeting, one-off deals here. No, we’re looking at the big picture—establishing relationships with airlines that can lead to ongoing discounts.

Loyalty goes a long way in business, and air travel is no different. Airlines appreciate customers who stick around. Knowing they can count on your company’s regular patronage gives them stability.

This is where SAP Concur’s ability to track and manage your travel data shines. It helps you keep track of your company’s relationship with each airline and makes it easier to demonstrate your loyalty when negotiating for better rates.

Using Partnerships to Negotiate Discounts

When you’ve established a long-term relationship with an airline, you’re no longer just another customer—you’re a valued partner. This gives you a significant advantage when negotiating airfare discounts.

Airlines are more likely to give better rates to customers who will continue to bring them business.

The Long Game Wins

Establishing long-term partnerships is like playing the long game. Yes, it requires commitment and consistency, but the payoff can be substantial. Airlines get the assurance of your loyalty, and you get the benefit of ongoing discounts. It’s a classic win-win.

Actionable Tips

● Use SAP Concur to track your company’s relationship with each airline.
● Share this data with airlines to demonstrate your loyalty and commitment.
● Leverage your long-term relationship with airlines to negotiate for ongoing discounts.

Final Thoughts: Turning Strategies into Savings with SAP Concur

We’ve certainly covered some ground! From understanding your travel data, leveraging your travel volume, utilizing advanced booking, and implementing dynamic pricing, to establishing long-term partnerships, it’s clear that there are multiple strategies for negotiating airfare discounts.

And guess what? SAP Concur has been our faithful companion, offering us the tools and features to implement these strategies effectively. It’s more than a travel, expense, and invoice management platform.

It’s a powerful ally that helps us navigate the tricky terrain of corporate travel and airfare negotiation.

 

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SAP: Malaysian Companies Yet To Gain From Sustainability Plans

New research from Oxford Economics and SAP has revealed that Malaysian companies have yet to gain from their sustainability plans.

 

SAP: Malaysian Companies Yet To Gain From Sustainability Plans

Sustainability goals are a key part of any company’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) efforts, but many companies still find it difficult to derive significant value from their sustainability strategies.

Verena Siow, President and Managing Director of SAP South East Asia, share key findings from new research from Oxford Economics and SAP that showed that Malaysian companies have yet to gain from their sustainability plans.

While 60% of businesses don’t think it’s difficult to be sustainable and profitable at the same time, just 4% say that they actually benefited significantly from their sustainability strategies.

That may be due to a disconnect between the organisations’ plans and its actions. While 63% of Malaysian businesses have a clearly communicated sustainability plan, only 23% have incentivised leaders to achieve those goals, and only 33% say that their employees are active participants in their efforts.

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It is an encouraging sign that businesses across South East Asia are increasingly mindful of sustainability practices along their entire supply chain, including those of their suppliers.

There is no time to waste to move beyond strategy and to achieve real, tangible results. In three years, almost a third of businesses expect significant value from their sustainability strategy – and we believe that with the right focus, this number can be even higher.

Public, private and plural partnerships are quintessential to affect the required change for a green economy in ASEAN. Business leaders in South East Asia should not perceive sustainability action as a risk mitigation measure only. It is an opportunity to realize new sustainable revenue streams, find new efficiencies, and build new business models based on low-emission, circular, and ultimately regenerative concepts to benefit both the organization and for our society at large.

 

Regulatory Compliance : Sustainability Driver + Challenge In Malaysia

Sustainability strategies are largely driven by regulatory compliance in Malaysia, with survey respondents noted that these are the primary drivers in their businesses:

  • the threat of regulatory mandates : 52%,
  • operational efficiencies : 54%, and
  • market reputation (48%).

That focus aligns with regulatory compliance being the second biggest benefit derived from sustainability so far (39%), behind only reduced carbon emissions.

It’s clear that organisations may need to refocus their strategies to achieve greater value from sustainability. Too much focus on compliance was cited as the third highest challenge to sustainability success by Malaysian respondents, trailing only the lack of reinvention of business strategy and ineffective data.

 

Data Is Key To Improving Sustainability Outcomes

According to the survey, the key to improving sustainability outcomes will be the effective use of organisational data to make more informed decisions.

Accurate data was ranked as among the most significant activities to help reach carbon reduction goals, only trailing sustainable sourcing and monitoring energy among respondents.

Unfortunately, ineffective data for decision-making is considered a moderate challenge for 75% of Malaysian businesses. The research also found that:

  • less than a quarter (23%) businesses have calculated their total organisational carbon output,
  • although a majority (77%) have begun the process in some areas.

Of the businesses who have made begun measuring their carbon, only 33% actually made changes to their processes based on the data. More obviously needs to be done.

Just over a third (35%) of Malaysian respondents said they had invested in data analysis to measure sustainability in their business, while half (50%) said they were training staff how to capture sustainability data.

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Malaysian Companies Need Sustainability Leadership

Action on sustainability is needed urgently in Malaysia, and has to be driven from the top down.

Beyond the impact on the environment, just 21% of Malaysian businesses say that their workforces are not even aware that missing sustainability targets will drive customers to their competitors.

Businesses that have obtained value from their efforts have these qualities :

  • they set clear expectations at the strategic level,
  • they apply the transformative power of technology and data management, and
  • they engage with important audiences such as employees, supply chain partners and policymakers.

“Sustainability leaders go beyond vision to ensure that sustainability initiatives are acted upon,” said Edward Cone, editorial director, Oxford Economics. “They communicate with key constituencies both inside and outside the company, and they use integrated technologies to measure and track performance in a way that drives accountability.”

 

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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

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IBM Expands Power10 Server Line With New Models!

IBM just expanded the Power10 server line with new mid-range and scale-out systems with flexible consumption options!

Here is what you need to know…

 

IBM Expands Power10 Server Line With New Models!

IBM announced a significant expansion of its Power10 server line on July 12, 2022, with the introduction of new mid-range and scale-out systems.

The new IBM Power10 servers tout improved performance, scalability and flexibility with new pay-as-you-go options for clients looking to deploy new services quickly across multiple environments.

Joining the Power10 E1080 server that was introduced in September 2021, are these new models :

  • Power10 Midrange E1050 – a 4-socket rack server
  • Power S1014 – a 1-socket, 4U server
  • Power S1022 – a 2-socket, 2U server
  • Power S1024 – a 2-socket, 4U server

These new servers offer 2x more cores, and more than 2x more memory bandwidth than the previous Power generations.

 

IBM Partners Ready To Leverage Power10 Server Capabilities

The newly expanded IBM Power10 Server Line now offers a flexible and broad range of servers for data intensive workloads such as SAP S/4HANA, and SIBS from Silverlake Axis.

The Power10 Midrange E1050 server, for example, delivers scale (up to 16 TB) and 4-socket performance for clients who run BREAKTHROUGH with IBM for RISE with SAP.

Regional banking solution provider, Silverlake Axis, is also ready to leverage the increase compute capabilities and scalability of the new Power10 servers for their Integrated Banking Solution – SIBS.

“Today’s highly dynamic environment has created volatility, from materials to people and skills, all of which impact short-term operations and long-term sustainability of the business,” said Steve Sibley, Vice President, IBM Power Product Management.

“The right IT investments are critical to business and operational resilience. Our new Power10 models offer clients a variety of flexible hybrid cloud choices with the agility and automation to best fit their needs, without sacrificing performance, security or resilience.”

 

 

IBM Offers Power10 Server Line With Flexible Consumption Options

IBM also recently announced new flexible consumption choices with pay-as-you-go options, as well as by-the-minute metering for IBM Power Cloud.

These flexible consumption models offer clients more opportunities to lower their cost of running OpenShift solutions on IBM Power, compared to alternative platforms.

In addition, the IBM I subscription offers clients a comprehensive platform solution with hardware, software as well as support and services included in the subscription price.

 

Please Support My Work!

Support my work through a bank transfer /  PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

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Chop Cheong Bee Now A Leader In Smart Farming!

This is how Chop Cheong Bee has now become a leader in smart farming!

 

Chop Cheong Bee Now A Leader In Smart Farming!

Datuk Jeffrey Ng Choon Ngee, General Manager of Chop Cheong Bee Sdn Bhd (CCB), recently explained how they are now a leader in smart farming.

Having established CCB in 1997, his business has grown from marketing live chickens, to managing 14 poultry farms throughout Melaka that supply Malaysian consumers with 1.5 million chickens every month!

“Traditionally, poultry farming was done manually, with plenty of people overseeing the poultry farms. This method poses numerous risks such as diseases and contact between human and chickens,” he said.

“We use technology to improve poultry farming methods and elevate our production efficiency and output. Our aim was to provide the best care possible for the chickens while minimising the risks of poor production and mortality to reduce the operational costs.”

As a result, CCB was able to establish numerous poultry farms, with the objective of turning those farms into profitable assets with high profit margins.

Among the solutions they implemented was the SAP Business One (B1) business management software, which allowed them to connect and and streamline processes for greater efficiency.

CCB has also implemented Internet-of-Things (IoT) technologies. Data from sensors can be streamed in real-time; such as the amount of feeds and water consumed by the chickens, the ambient temperature and lighting exposure, as well as changes in chickens’ weight and so on.

“The best part about the system is that the workers do not need to be there physically to know all this information. Using a smartphone, the worker can just snap pictures or take videos of the farm, the houses and the chicken and immediately consult with the veterinary experts via text messages or video calls,” explained Datuk Jeffrey. “Our operations are now more efficient than ever before.”

 

Chop Cheong Bee @ SAP Roundtable With Mydin

Datuk Jeffrey was speaking at a media roundtable organised by SAP entitled A Growing ASEAN, A Hungry Population: Building Resilient and Sustainable Food Supply Chains’ held recently.

Also in attendance was Mydin Mohamed Holdings Berhad IT Director Malik Murad Ali who shared on how this homegrown Halal hypermarket and retail chain grew from being a store in Kelantan in 1957 to a nationwide network of more than 50 stores, presence in seven major malls and multiple retail outlets.

Mydin had also digitised its processes to realise greater productivity and efficiencies.

Meanwhile, SAP Malaysia Managing Director Hong Kok Cheong who had hosted the Malaysian session said that tackling food waste in Southeast Asia and Malaysia is an issue should be prioritised.

“There is a growing need for safe, and fresh food and the answer is greater digitalisation efforts and integration, collaboration across industry players – and gaining visibility into where products come from, how long they’ve been in transit, and when they’re set to expire. Retailers and suppliers need to document the who’s, what’s, where’s, and when’s of every aspect of the food supply chain, not only for consumer safety and protecting their brands – so that there’s more accurate traceability standards,” said Hong.

All this leads to supply chain visibility – and more efficient direction of the region’s food sources, especially when it comes to fresh produce.

“Businesses need to have a ‘digital core’ to become intelligent enterprises with streamlined efficiency across operations, integrate with partners and suppliers. This way there’s accountability to stakeholders and consumers – track and manage sustainability, coupled with the origin of food being produced,” said Hong.

 Long and short of it all, businesses need better visibility to predict demand, consumer tastes and preferences (via intelligent insights), so they can meet the demand with the optimum resources, and avoid overordering/service that can result in wastage,” concluded Hong.

 

Please Support My Work!

Support my work through a bank transfer /  PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp

Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

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SAP Experience 2019 – An Intelligent Enterprise Conference

Held in the Land of Smiles, SAP Experience 2019 was an exclusive look at how key Southeast Asian companies are digitally transforming themselves into intelligent enterprises, with a focus on the experience economy.

Join us for an inside look at what went on at SAP Experience 2019, and hear from SAP and leading business leaders on how businesses can win in the experience economy!

 

What Is SAP Experience 2019 All About?

SAP 2019 is an SAP-sponsored conference on the digital transformation of intelligent enterprises to take on the challenges of the experience economy.

They invited business leaders from across the APJ region, from leading companies like Zuellig Pharma, Standard Chartered Bank and Troo.

It also served as SAP’s springboard to announce the selection of Qualtrics EmployeeXM by Ananda Development, a leading Thai real estate developer.

They also announced that SingEx Holdings selected S/4HANA Cloud to power their Global Finance System.

 

SAP Experience Talk #1 : Leading The Experience Economy

Scott Russell, President of SAP APJ, spoke on the future of Asia, specifically on how companies here are leading in the experience economy.

 

SAP Experience Talk #2 : The Future of the Enterprise

Claus Andresen (President and Managing Director of SAP SEA) spoke on The Future of the Enterprise, specifically when it comes to the Experience Economy.

Then Rudy Abrahams (Vice President of Digital Transformation Office, SAP SEA) demonstrated the power of Qualtrics’ experience management capabilities, and how they can help companies improve the experience of their customers.

 

SAP Experience Talk #3 : The Future of Supply Chain Finance

Hear from Lisa Robbins, the Global Head of Transaction Banking of Standard Chartered Bank, on the future of supply chain finance.

 

SAP Experience Talk #4 : The Future of Digital Insurance

Speaking on the future of digital insurance was Hans van Wuijckhuijse, the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Technology Officer of Troo, a life insurance joint venture of Ageas – Belgium’s largest insurer and the East West Bank, one of the largest banks in the Philippines.

 

SAP Experience Talk #5 : The Future of Retail

Ronald Lee, the Project Director of City Mart Holding – an icon of Myanmar’s retail industry with over 200 stores and 8500 employees – speak on the future of retail, in a world that’s increasingly moving towards online purchases.

 

SAP Experience Talk #6 : Futureproofing The Pharma Supply Chain

Daniel Laverick, Head of SAP and IT Solutions at Zuellig Pharma, addresses a critical problem affecting the pharmaceutical industry – counterfeit medicine – with a blockchain solution.

The same solution can also address their other issues, like cross-border trading and product recalls, with greater efficiency and more importantly, transparency.

 

SAP Roundtable : The Future of Work

The main event ended with a roundtable on The Future of Work. Hosted by Cynthia Quah, Vice President of SAP SuccessFactors SEA, it featured :

  • Catherine Ee Ling, Head of Talent Acquisition, Learning & Development, National University of Singapore
  • Ho Seng Chee, Chief Work & Culture Officer, JustCo
  • Vanee Bijayendrayodhin, Chief People Officer, Ananda Development

 

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SingEx Selects SAP S/4HANA Cloud For Global Finance System!

SAP today announced that SingEx Holdings Pte Ltd (SingEx) has selected S/4HANA Cloud to power their Global Finance System. Here are the details…

 

SingEx Digital Transformation With SAP

The global Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) market is projected to reach US$1,439.3 billion in 2025.

In the Asia Pacific region alone, the MICE industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.6% to reach US$441.1 billion by 2025.

SingEx aims to capitalise on their expertise in trade conferences and exhibitions by building a Global Finance System to support its expansion into China, the United Kingdom, India and Southeast Asia.

As part of that digital transformation journey, SingEx is working with SAP to build a scalable Global Finance System that can adapt to support the diverse requirements of the different markets.

 

SingEx Selects SAP S/4HANA Cloud For Global Finance System!

Powered by SAP’s S/4HANA solution with SAP Cloud Platform, SAP Analytics Cloud and Opentext Cloud, it will offer swift development on more comprehensive planning models, with better insights that can improve decision making.

The SAP solution for SingEx will also include feature planning, business intelligence, predictive analytics and machine learning capabilities. They will help SingEx transform into an intelligent enterprise.

 

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Ananda Development Selects Qualtrics EmployeeXM!

Qualtrics, an SAP company, just announced that Ananda Development, a leading real estate developer in Thailand, selected Qualtrics EmployeeXM to design and deliver a better experience for its 1,300-strong workforce.

Find out how Qualtrics is helping Ananda Development track and act on their employee experience data!

Qualtrics EmployeeXM

Qualtrics EmployeeXM is an employee management platform that’s designed to improve employee development and retention.

Through key metrics measurements and predictive intelligence, it lets companies measure, track and act on employee experience data called X-data.

 

Ananda Development Selects Qualtrics EmployeeXM

At the SAP Experience 2019 conference in Bangkok, Qualtrics announced that Ananda Development, one of Thailand’s leading real estate developers has selected Qualtrics EmployeeXM to design and deliver a better experience for its 1,300-strong workforce.

Ananda Development will use the Qualtrics EmployeeXM platform to capture and measure their employee experience data (X-data) across their employment journey.

Their business leaders and HR managers can view the summarised X-data, which comprises of their opinions, beliefs and sentiments, on personalised dashboards.

They can then analyse the feedback, and create employee engagement plans to better align their employees with Ananda Development’s goals.

The insights that EmployeeXM delivers will help Ananda Development’s management team become an employer of choice, to help fuel their rapid growth.

 

Qualtrics + SAP Synergy In Ananda Development

The selection of Qualtrics EmployeeXM also allows Ananda Development to leverage their existing SAP SuccessFactors platform.

In fact, this is one of the first joint deals between Qualtrics and SAP in the region, following SAP’s acquisition of Qualtrics.

By combining X-data from Qualtrics with operational data (O-data) from SAP SuccessFactors, it will help Ananda Development better understand the drivers behind their employee experience, and how they may be affecting business performance.

 

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The SAP Concur Guide To Decluttering Business Travels

As Senior Vice President and General Manager of SAP Concur APJGC, Andy Watson is a veteran business traveller in every sense of the term. He shared with us, his guide on how to declutter business travels!

This is useful, not just for business travellers, but also holiday-goers. The same tips he shares works just as well for anyone flying for pleasure, as they do for those who fly for work!

 

Business Travels Beyond “Up In The Air”

Everyone who watched George Clooney and Anna Kendrick in the 2009 movie, Up In The Air, will be amazed at how business travellers pack for their business travels.

But there is really more to such business travels than just how business travellers pack their bags for minimum hassle, and maximum efficiency.

There are many other ways to make your business travels more pain-free, even before you set off for the airport!

We will let Andy Watson explain…

 

Decluttering Your Business Travels

Owners of untidy homes and weary business travellers may not realise that they have much in common until Japanese decluttering expert Marie Kondo came along. She made the connection clear.

Just like it’s possible − with the right method − to transform your chaotic home into a neat abode that sparks joy, it’s possible to turn business travel from pain to pleasure with some technological ingenuity.

Traditionally, before making their trips, business travellers need to:

  • Manually conduct multiple searches for their desired flights and hotels. Bookings are done separately with the need to repeatedly key in personal and booking information.
  • Manually consolidate multiple bookings in one place, often in a paper-based fashion with no capability for changes or real-time prompts and updates.
  • Go through a tedious submission process for internal approval of trip.
  • Diligently safekeep paper receipts collected along the trip.
  • Laboriously go through paper receipts and key in details for claims upon return.

With modern, mobile-based travel and expense technologies, business travellers will be able to declutter all these processes, better organise their trips, and take more effective care of their own safety.

For instance, they could:

  • Use smart apps to book all flights, hotels and rental cars, streamlining travel booking, claims and invoicing management from start to finish.
  • Declutter − organise all their travel plans in one place, including personal arrangements done with their favourite travel service providers like Airbnb and Uber.
  • Receive real-time flight alerts throughout their trip, and very coolly, get notified when a better seat becomes available.
  • Link various frequent flyer accounts and reward programs on one platform, no matter whether they are travelling for business, leisure or both. This integration ability lets travellers save time on bookings and leverage a B2C experience, while staying within the policy needs of their company.

These features are particularly attractive for millennial travellers. And that’s an important demographic for corporates and travel companies to cater to because Asian millennials’ spend on international travel, according to the UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, is expected to increase by 1.6 times to US$340 billion by 2020.

In Singapore itself, Expedia found that 84% of millennials travel at least once a year, higher than baby boomers (73%) and the Generation X (82%).

  • Keep their company in the loop so it can render on-site assistance when the need arises. Modern apps can help firms proactively monitor weather, violence, system disruptions or other risks that may impact their travellers, communicate with them and connect them to expert support.
  • Take pictures of their paper receipts, submit them instantly for claims and forget about safekeeping them. Some apps can automatically create, itemise and categorise charges in expense reports.
  • Use apps to auto-submit hotel, restaurant and transportation e-receipts, or enable these vendors to submit their receipts directly to your corporate expense system. This paperless approach aids environmental preservation. Other sustainable options exist for modern apps – travellers may be able to optimise their routes based on emissions, be encouraged to consider the low carbon option of rail travel, and rent environmentally friendly cars from designated rental firms.

Looking beyond travellers themselves, all these capabilities can tidy up operations for finance managers and make their work a breeze.

The data of employees’ bookings across multiple channels all flow back to the finance team. The team gets more visibility and greater insights, so they can apply policy on direct bookings and better manage compliance and approvals.

With this same data, the finance department could anticipate needs, predict challenges, identify opportunities on the fly, and tackle everything from taxes and compliance risk to mobile phone expenses and fraud. All in all, a company could create a best-in-class experience for its employee travellers while dramatically improving its financial controls and productivity organisation-wide.

Without doubt, technology can free employees of the mundane hindrances of travel, giving them a clear mind to get their business done.

With business travel within Asia growing at twice the pace of the rest of the world, China being the world’s largest business travel market, and India and Indonesia forecast to be the globe’s fastest expanding markets over the next five years (clocking 11.3% and 8.7% respectively in compound annual growth), the time for firms to take action and put some joy into their travel and expense experience is now.

 

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2019 ASEANDSE | ASEAN Data Science Explorers Launched!

SAP and the ASEAN Foundation just announced that application for the 2019 ASEANDSE | ASEAN Data Science Explorers programme is now open! Here are the full details!

 

What Is ASEANDSE | ASEAN Data Science Explorers?

The ASEANDSE (ASEAN Data Science Explorers) programme is a joint collaboration between SAP and the ASEAN Foundation. It aims to promote and galvanise the use of data science amongst ASEAN tertiary students.

It aims to do this through two key activities – a series of enablement sessions, and a data analytics competition. Since its introduction in 2017, ASEANDSE has empowered over 5,000 youths from 287 higher education institutions in the ASEAN region.

 

The 2019 ASEANDSE Programme

The 2019 ASEANDSE programme will be carried out from February to October 2019. It starts with enablement sessions that are designed to improve the data analytics skills and knowledge of both students and lecturers at local institutions of higher learning across the ASEAN region.

These enablement sessions will be followed by a national, and then regional, data analytics competition. At these competitions, student teams of two will present their data-driven proposals using the SAP Analytics Cloud service.

Their ASEANDSE competition proposals must tackle issues affecting their country or ASEAN in general, according to these UN Sustainable Development Goals :

  • Good health and well-being
  • Quality education
  • Gender equality
  • Decent work and economic growth
  • Industry, innovation and infrastructure
  • Sustainable cities and communities

One team from each ASEAN member state will be crowned as the national finalist before advancing to the 2019 ASEANDSE regional finals, which will be held in Bangkok on 16 October 2019.

There, the 10 national finalists will be given the opportunity to present their winning ideas to a panel of judges made up of distinguished representatives from the ASEAN Foundation, SAP and various government officials and selected NGO organisations.

 

Where To Join The 2019 ASEANDSE Programme

The 2019 ASEANDSE programme is now open for registration, until 10 May 2019. Here are the eligibility requirements :

  1. Nationals of ASEAN member countries (ie. Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam)
  2. Full-time tertiary students currently pursuing their Diploma or Undergraduate studies in one of the tertiary institutions in Southeast Asia.
  3. Above the age of 16 as at the start of the Contest Period. Participants under the age of 18 must obtain parental consent. The consent form is available upon registration.

If you meet those requirements, you can register here!

 

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The 2018 SAP Southeast Asia Intelligent Enterprise Showcase

We were recently invited to the 2018 SAP Southeast Asia Intelligent Enterprise Showcase in Manila. It kicked off with a tour of the famous Tanduay distillery, and culminated in a showcase of SAP software and services in helping major corporations transform their businesses into intelligent enterprises.

Join us for our complete coverage of this major SAP event in Southeast Asia, and learn from these success stories on how to digitally transform your business into an intelligent enterprise!

 

Tanduay – World’s Best-Selling Rum Goes Digital!

Tanduay is a 164-year old brand that rose from humble beginnings to establish itself as the world’s top-selling rum brand, taking over the crown long held by Bacardi. They recently adopted SAP S4/HANA to digitally transform their business.

Read more about Tanduay Distillers’ choice to become an intelligent enterprise using SAP S/4HANA.

 

How JG Summit Is Becoming An Intelligent Enterprise With S/4HANA

JG Summit is one of the largest conglomerates in the Philippines, and they’re driving their digital transformation into an intelligent enterprise using SAP S/4HANA. SAP software currently support between 30% and 90% of JG Summit’s operations.

Read more about How JG Summit Drives Digital Transformation With SAP S/4HANA!

 

CrowdFarmX Tackles World Hunger With SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud

CrowdFarmX is leveraging SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud to accelerate the on-boarding process for farmers across Southeast Asia. This will help them reach and help up to 10 million farmers over the next 22 years, in an effort to stave off world hunger.

Read more about How CrowdFarmX Aims To Tackle World Hunger With SAP!

 

How SAP Concur Simplifies Travel + Expense Management At Mitsui

Mitsui & Co Asia Pacific is a large multinational company with more than 43,000 employees peppered across 14 Asian and Oceania countries in its 25 offices. To become an intelligent enterprise, they deployed SAP Concur to radically simplify the travel and expense management for their staff!

Read more about How SAP Concur Simplifies Travel + Expense Management At Mitsui!

 

How SuccessFactors Help Body Shop Indonesia Retain Talent

The Body Shop Indonesia has been using SAP SuccessFactors to digitise their HR and employee processes in their digital transformation into becoming an intelligent enterprise.

SuccessFactors does not only greatly simplify the process, it also offers greater transparency. This has the end result of retaining crucial talent, and reducing their employee churn rate.

 

How Globe Telecom Is Becoming An Intelligent Enterprise With SAP

Globe Telecom is a leading full-service telecommunications company in the Philippines. They kicked off their digital transformation into becoming an intelligent enterprise with SAP in 2016.

By 2017, their operations were 20% paperless, which accelerated to 50% this year. In the next two years, they plan to be digital for 80% of their operations, with a goal of being fully digital by the year 2020.

 

The 2018 SAP Customer Forum On Intelligent Enterprise

The SAP intelligent enterprise showcase ended with a roundtable forum of their major Southeast Asian customers. Hosted by Peter Moore, Vice President of Platform & Data Management, SAP SEA, they shared their experiences in transforming their companies into intelligent enterprises.

 

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How SAP Concur Simplifies Travel + Expense At Mitsui!

Large multinational companies like Mitsui & Co have a big problem managing the travel and expense claims of their many employees.

Find out from Mitsui how they used SAP Concur to simplify that onerous task for their 43,000+ employees!

 

How SAP Concur Helps Mitsui Manage Travel + Expense Claims

Mitsui & Co Asia Pacific is a large multinational company in its own right. It has more than 43,000 employees peppered across 14 Asian and Oceania countries in its 25 offices. However, one of the stumbling blocks to continued expansion is the way they were managing travel and expense claims.

Their systems were still paper-based, and their staff were spending hours each week completing their travel requests, and making expense claims. They were also wasting time correcting errors. That’s when they look into SAP Concur.

Ikuo Hayashi, General Manager of the Information Systems Department, Planning Division,Mitsui & Co. ASIA PACIFIC who headed their efforts to digitise their operations with SAP Concur shared with us his thoughts on how SAP Concur helped streamline their travel approval and expense claim processes :

“We identified the quick wins and could reduce the time taken to complete travel and expense forms. Plus, it was straightforward to cut approval cycles and lower the cost of transactions. But most importantly, we saw Concur as a platform on which to innovate and create an eco-system.”

He also shared with us some of the quick wins they were able to achieve in a short time with SAP Concur :

  • Up to 50 percent reduction in time to complete expense claims using mobile capabilities.
  • Greater efficiency due to simplified approval processes.
  • Strengthening of regulatory compliance across Asia, despite the complexities of in-country regulations.
  • Reduction in workload IT personnel since Concur is delivered as a cloud service.

Mitsui intends to go beyond just using SAP Concur to streamline a part of their business process. Mr Hayashi and his team have plans to begin mining the data from Concur to help boost the efficiency of employee spend on travel and expenses.

“We will use the data to identify patterns like frequently used hotel chains and see how we can leverage this data to formulate group-wide policies,” he says. 

 

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How CrowdFarmX Aims To Tackle World Hunger With SAP!

On 28 September 2018, SAP announced that CrowdFarmX will use S/4HANA Public Cloud to bring on-board 10 million Southeast Asian farmers over the next 22 years.

Let’s find out from CrowdFarmX CEO David Tan on how they intend to do that in their mission to tackle world hunger!

 

How CrowdFarmX Aims To Tackle World Hunger With SAP!

The CrowdFarmX platform connects farmers directly to the global market and equips them with the technology know-how to deliver higher-quantity and quality yields, potentially increasing their net yield by up to 10 times and contributing towards global food sufficiency.

By leveraging the SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud, an intelligent ERP (enterprise resource planning) suite, CrowdFarmX will be able to accelerate the on-boarding process for farmers across Southeast Asia. Let’s find out from CrowdFarmX CEO David Tan on how they aim to accomplish that.

Currently, 80% of global food supply is provided by small farmers in a USD6 trillion-dollar industry, but these farmers receive low economic returns for their labour despite increasing consumer demand.

Through smart contracts, CrowdFarmX links them directly to wholesale distributors and retailers, helping the farmers to gain a greater cut of the selling price. Farmers can also leverage brand marketing and financing resources, as well as opportunities for exclusive partnerships with retailers to boost sales through Food Cradles that will be rolled out across the region.

The end-to-end visibility of the supply chain also increases food safety, ensuring that quality food such as pesticide-free produce gets onto tables.

 

How S/4HANA Public Cloud Helps CrowdFarmX

CrowdFarmX will leverage S/4HANA Public Cloud to drive and integrate production planning and management of associated business processes like sales & distribution, procurement, supply chain, finance control and monitoring.

The SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud reinforces predictive analytics for optimised growth, supporting integration of the supply chain with customers, and supporting the track and trace of safe produce from farmers. The SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud implementation is expected to go live in December 2018.

CrowdFarmX aims to impact more than 1,000 Southeast Asian farmers under a pilot phase by 2020, providing access to sophisticated agriculture technologies that were not readily available before.

This includes IoT irrigation monitoring systems and data analysis on micro-climates and soil moisture, enabling them to maximise the yield per square foot of land by up to 10 times. The higher levels of crop production secures food sufficiency for a growing world population especially amidst declining farmer populations.

 

Who Is CrowdFarmX?

CrowdFarmX is part of the Netatech Group of Companies, one of Singapore’s leading integrated solutions provider for water and food sustainability technologies. The CrowdFarmX Singapore Food Cradle was established in 2014, comprising of a high-tech greenhouse, automated seeding line, post-harvest packing and cold storage facilities.

With more than 20 farm technologists, researchers, agronomists at the helm, the CrowdFarmX Food Cradle engages in agricultural research and development, farm network connection and safe food production supplying to premium supermarkets islandwide.

 

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How JG Summit Drives Digital Transformation With SAP S/4HANA

JG Summit is one of the largest conglomerates in the Philippines, touching the lives of virtually every Filipino. They just revealed how they are driving their digital transformation using SAP S/4HANA. Here are the full details!

 

JG Summit Primer

JG Summit had its origins in 1957, when Universal Corn Products Inc. was established to operate a cornstarch plant in Pasig City. It has since grown into one of the biggest and most diversified conglomerates in the Philippines.

Its 200-odd companies engage in many aspects of Filipino lives from air transportation, banking, food manufacturing, hotels, petrochemicals, power generation, as well as real estate and property development, and telecommunications.

 

JG Summit Drives Digital Transformation With SAP S/4HANA

On 7 November 2018, Carlos Santos, the Chief Information Officer of JG Summit Holdings Inc. briefed us on how JG Summit is driving their digital transformation with SAP S/4HANA.

The JG Summit digital transformation project kicked off on 31 July 2018, as part of Lance Gokongwei (JG Summit’s President and CEO) to spur new growth.

“Customers in today’s digital shift expect great service experience among all platforms. The challenge for us now is to effectively use the latest technologies that would support a more immersive and interactive customer experience,” said Gokongwei.

Helping JG Summit successfully complete their digital transformation is the SAP Philippines team, as well as the SAP Digital Business Solutions (DBS) project teams.

“SAP is uniquely positioned to help our customers compete and adapt in the digital economy. With SAP S/4HANA at the heart of the intelligent enterprise, our customers can reimagine their businesses with a digital core that provides real-time insights and agility. We believe that the best run SAP, together with JG Summit’s vision to be the leading digital conglomerate in the Philippines, with our full support will be able to realize that ambition,” said Scott Russell, President of SAP Asia Pacific Japan.

JG Summit may have just deployed S/4HANA, but they have already been running SAP software like Concur and SuccessFactors. SAP software currently support between 30% and 90% of JG Summit’s operations.

 

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Exclusive : Tanduay Distillers Factory Visit + Rum Tasting Tips!

Famed Filipino rum company, Tanduay, invited us to their main distillery in Manila to showcase their latest digital transformation initiative with SAP S/4HANA. We were also given an exclusive tour of their plant, and privileged to learn how to taste rum from mixologist and Tanduay brand ambassador Lee Watson.

 

Tanduay Makes The World’s Best-Selling Rum

A 164-year old brand, Tanduay rose from humble beginnings to establish itself as the world’s top-selling rum brand in 2018, taking over the crown long held by Bacardi.

After its acquisition by the Lucio Tan group 30 years ago, the brand underwent plant modernisation and expansions, which greatly increased their production capacity. Today, they have three separate facilities – all ISO-compliant, with the Cabuyao plant recently completing its ISO-9001:2015 certification.

In 2014, Tanduay Distillers Inc. President and CEO, Lucio “Bong” K. Tan Jr, took over the reins of the company. He kickstarted the global expansion of the brand. that ultimately led to Tanduay wresting the crown from Bacardi in just 4 years.

Recently, Tanduay opted to begin their digital transformation by adopting SAP S/4HANA, with seven modules – Materials Management, Production Planning, Warehouse Maintenance, Sales and Distribution, Enterprise Asset Management, Finance and Controlling.

Adopting S/4HANA would allow them to greatly automate their current processes, and cut the number of steps from procurement to the delivery of the final product. It will also allow them to greatly reduce paperwork, and the workload of their staff.

 

Lee Watson Teaches How To Taste Rum!

Tanduay also took the opportunity to showcase their famous Gold and Silver Asian Rum. They brought in mixologist and Tanduay brand ambassador Lee Watson to teach us how to taste rum. Now you can learn from him, and give it a try too!

 

The Tanduay Distillery Tour

We were given a tour of their main distillery just outside of metro Manila. If you want to see how they make the world’s most popular rum, you must check out this video!

 

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The Economist : Malaysia LEAST CONFIDENT On Future-Readiness!

In a shocking report presented yesterday, The Economist Intelligence Unit revealed that family businesses in Malaysia are LEAST CONFIDENT in Southeast Asia about their future-readiness. What exactly does the report state, and what does this mean for Malaysia?

 

The Economist : Malaysia LEAST CONFIDENT On Future-Readiness!

At an Economist Intelligence Unit event at the Majestic Kuala Lumpur, EIU’s Corporate Network global editorial director, Andrew Staples, revealed some sobering statistics from their study of family business leaders from Southeast Asia :

  • Malaysian family businesses report the lowest levels of confidence in the future-readiness of their people, business environment and technology.
  • They are the least likely to adopt new business models, offer new products and services, and enter new markets.
  • Not surprisingly, they have the least confidence in their employees’ digital proficiency or development of new skills.
  • They also ranked very low in being prepared for technologies like data analytics, machine learning, automation and cloud computing.

Interestingly, the Economist Intelligence Unit’s report also pointed out that :

  • Malaysian family businesses believe that government regulations are the biggest threat to their growth over the next three years.
  • So they see large foreign companies and other local SMEs as their best partners for the next three years.
  • They are focused on leveraging those partners to drive costs down, instead of developing new products and services or to enter new markets.

 

The Economist, MDEC and SAP On Malaysian Family Business Future-Readiness

Now, the Economist Intelligence Unit’s study brings up some questions :

  • Do the results actually resonate with reality on-the-ground?
  • Is the low readiness due to a lack of funds, lack of opportunity, or lack of understanding about the value of digital transformation?
  • How can these family businesses and SMEs, in general, boost their confidence and ability to transform their businesses?

So we sat down with Andrew Staples, the EIU’s Global Editorial Director; Gopi Ganesalingam, Vice President of Enterprise Development at MDEC; and Duncan Williamson, Managing Director of SAP Malaysia, for an exclusive media briefing and Q&A session.

On the burning question of the future-readiness of Malaysian family businesses and SMEs in general, the panel identified talent retention as a key issue :

“People don’t leave companies, they leave managers. You need to put time and effort into changing the company culture, and the mindset of the managers to retain talent. People start to call you when you are recognised as a great place to work. I think there is a tremendous opportunity for us in Malaysia to address the movement of talent. More people want to come back to Malaysia now, and if we can address the challenge of making Malaysia a great place to work, the threat (of losing talent) will diminish,” said Duncan Williamson.

“The work culture is changing, the ecosystem is changing. These are helping to retain talent, and bring the talent we lost back to the country. In the last two to three years, more companies are redomiciling in Malaysia, than there are companies leaving Malaysia; and there are good talent coming back to Malaysia. It’s a good change, and it’s very positive right now,:” said Gopi Ganasalingam.

They also have some advice for businesses in Malaysia :

“Business leaders need to focus on the outcomes. The organisations that are successful are the ones that clearly define the outcomes, and hold their management team accountable for those outcomes. You can then build the technology you need to deliver those outcomes, but you have to be clear on the outcomes to start with,” advised Duncan Williamson.

“The gig economy will be a major change in the way we work, particularly for the younger generation. At MDEC, we already run a programme call eRezeki to educate Malaysians about the earning a living through the gig economy. Co-working spaces are also changing the way we work, and set-up our businesses. They will also change the way our talents are being trained, Gopi Ganasalingam pointed out.

 

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The Dimension Data Managed Cloud Platform Revealed!

Dimension Data just announced that they are expanding their enterprise-grade Managed Cloud Platform (MCP) across Asia Pacific. Here in Malaysia, they are introducing the Dimension Data Managed Cloud Platform in partnership with the NTT Group.

 

The Dimension Data Managed Cloud Platform Explained

Building on the success of their global and regional Managed Cloud Platforms, Dimension Data is introducing their MCP in Malaysia, to better serve their clients and meet local demand for enterprise-grade hybrid cloud services.

The Dimension Data Managed Cloud Platform allows clients to securely deploy their applications and workloads into the cloud, while preserving data sovereignty. This platform also comes with built-in automation to help clients manage and capitalise on the benefits of multi-cloud environments.

SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud Premium Partner

Dimension Data is one of only five global SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud Premium Partners, so it’s no surprise that the Dimension Data Managed Cloud Platform supports SAP S/4HANA in addition to other business enterprise applications and business productivity suites.

Compliance & Certification

The Dimension Data Managed Cloud Platform is certified to be compliant with SOC1 Type II, SOC2 Type II, ISO:22301, ISO:27001, and ISO:9001.

Multi-Cloud Capable

Dimension Data Managed Cloud Platform is multi-cloud capable. Its Managed Services Operation Portal allows you to provision, deploy, monitor, and manage multiple instances from other cloud service providers like Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services.

Enterprise-Grade Security & Reliability

Partnering with the NTT Group allows the Dimension Data Managed Cloud Platform to deliver enterprise-grade security and reliability. They tout a modern data centre with robust backup and disaster recovery capabilities to ensure business continuity. This allows their clients to create a hybrid environment that is highly scalable and responsive to their business needs, without worrying about security or reliability.

 

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Claus Andresen : Riding The SEA Of Digital Disruptions!

SAP believes that family businesses in Southeast Asia have the potential to disrupt industries and drive economic growth, but they need to embrace digital innovations. Claus Andresen of SAP Southeast Asia explains why, with the help of a new study by The Economist Intelligence Unit.

 

Family Businesses In Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia (is a high-growth region, where family businesses make up a significant proportion of SMEs. These family businesses are aware of the rapid change in technology and markets, and these are impacting their outlook and strategies.

In a new SAP-sponsored study by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Southeast Asian family businesses ranked the pace of technological change as their foremost area of concern – one that may present the most significant threat to their growth over the next three years.

 

Q&A With Claus Andresen

At the of the SAP Leonardo briefings at the new SAP Leonardo Center Singapore, we sat down with Claus Andresen, President and Managing Director of SAP Southeast Asia, to talk about the new study, and importance of digital innovation to these family businesses.

“The landscape and dynamics of family businesses in Southeast Asia is unique, with many of them still being in the first or second generation. Given their small or medium sizes, these businesses have the competitive advantage of being agile and nimble, which put them in a better position to adapt to the rapid pace of change in the market,” said Claus Andresen.

“When we look at the broader SME segment in Southeast Asia, SMEs account for between 95 to 99 percent of establishments across ASEAN, contributing massively to the GDP. This may put them in prime position to drive disruptions across industries and economic growth across the region. But to do this, these organisations should first and foremost embrace digital innovations and integrate digital technologies into their overall strategy.”

 

The EIU Study On Family Businesses In Southeast Asia

The EIU study, called “Planning for Prosperity: Assessing Family Business Future-Readiness in South and Southeast Asia“, is based on a survey of 300 family business executives across eight countries in the APAC region – Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

According to Michael Gold, EIU Editor, “Executives in Southeast Asia show less confidence in their abilities to meet future challenges than their peers in South Asia. In order for family businesses in this fast-changing region to keep up, they will need to adapt to new technological developments and modernise their way of thinking to bring their businesses into the 21st century. Otherwise, the next generation may not throw in their chips with their parents’ companies.”

Despite feeling the pressure from the emergence of new technologies, the executives in the study are strongly confident of their organisations’ readiness to utilise new technologies like :

  • data analytics : 67%
  • machine learning : 62.3%
  • automation : 65.7%
  • cloud computing : 63.7%

 

SAP Partner-Packaged Solution For SMEs

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To support the digital innovation of SMEs in Southeast Asia, SAP announced the availability of SAP-qualified partner-packaged solutions for SAP Leonardo.

These are fixed-scope packaged solutions that offer predictable prices, and are structured to provide a fast return on investment.

  • Packages based on SAP software together with a partner’s services and intellectual property, with a fixed scope and a fixed price,
  • A rigorous qualification process, with validation of the partners’ ability to deliver,

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The SAP Leonardo Digital Innovation System Explained!

Great companies are created on the back of innovative products or services. But to maintain their greatness, these companies need to keep innovating. This is becoming increasingly difficult because the development of new technologies is outpacing the ability of many companies to adapt, much less innovate. This is where SAP Leonardo comes in.

Join us for exclusive in-depth presentations on SAP Leonardo. Find out what SAP Leonardo is all about, and how it can help companies innovate faster and better!

 

What Is SAP Leonardo?

SAP introduced Leonardo at the 2017 SAPPHIRE NOW conference, combining six key digital innovation technologies into a single “digital innovation system” – machine learning, blockchain technology, data intelligence, Big Data, Internet of Things, and Analytics.

In addition to those technologies, Leonardo also offers Design Thinking methodologies, data intelligence tools, benchmarking and more. For speedy implementation, SAP even offers “Leonardo Accelerator Packages” that are tailored for specific industries and core functions, such as IoT.

 

SAP Leonardo Centers

Since its introduction in 2017, SAP has created five SAP Leonardo Centers worldwide, with SAP Leonardo Center Singapore as the latest addition. These are interconnected hubs that serve as points of contact for companies and startups interested in SAP Leonardo.

They are part showcase, and part collaborative centers. Their real-world examples of digital innovation using Leonardo serve as inspiration for SAP customers and partners. They also offer a place for businesses and startups to experiment and innovate, jointly or in collaborative efforts.

 

Innovating With Purpose

Scott Russell, President of SAP APJ, kicked things off with his keynote speech, Asia Soaring : Innovating with Purpose.

 

Tour & Real-World Examples

For those who missed our coverage of SAP Leonardo Center Singapore, check out this tour of the SAP Leonardo demos by Thorsten Vieth, Director of Industry Innovation at SAP South East Asia. These are actual real-world examples of Leonardo at work.

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Becoming An Intelligent Enterprise With SAP Leonardo

Mala Anand, President of SAP Leonardo and Analytics, now explains how to become an Intelligent Enterprise with Leonardo. If you want to understand what SAP Leonardo is about, and how it can help your company, you must watch this!

 

Innovation, Integration & Scaling For CFOs

This presentation by Richard McLean, CFO of SAP APJ, is specific for CFOs (Chief Financial Officers). He brought in Anja Langhoff, Head of Finance Shared Services (SAP Singapore), who shared how machine learning technology helped improve the efficiency and employee satisfaction of her team. Manik Saha, CIO of SAP APJ, and McLean, also shared about the use of Leonardo analytics in the finance department.

 

Improving Customer Experience

Maggie Buggie, SVP and Global Head of SAP Leonardo Services, explains how SAP Leonardo technologies can help businesses improve customer experience.

 

The Hanon Systems Story

Hanon Systems, a manufacturer of automotive thermal and energy management solutions, was one of the first SAP Leonardo customers in South Korea. Robert Oh, their Global CIO & Business Transformation Executive, explained how Hanon Systems plans to launch a pilot program of Leonardo to achieve real-time visibility and monitoring capabilities, for better productivity as well as preventive maintenance.

Hanon Systems also plans to use Leonardo to automate data analysis of product detects to mitigate risks, and improve production quality. In short, Leonardo is expected to help them to create smart factories through real-time monitoring of sensing data, while improving their products using predictive analytics of their product quality data.

 

Connecting Innovation To The Digital Core

Paul Marriott, SVP of Digital Core & Industry Solutions, SAP APJ, summed up all the key points of the previous presentations on Leonardo, before demonstrating how artificial intelligence allows businesses to easier access business intelligence through digital assistants.

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Exclusive Tour Of SAP Leonardo Center Singapore

On 8 May 2018, SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) announced the establishment of the SAP Leonardo Center Singapore, to help their customers, partners, and foster faster innovation throughout the broader ecosystem of universities and start-ups across the Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) region.

Join us for an exclusive look at the new SAP Leonardo Center Singapore, including a tour of the digital innovations that SAP Leonardo offers enterprises and businesses.

 

SAP Leonardo Center Singapore

SAP Leonardo Centers are interconnected hubs that serve as points of contact for companies and startups interested in SAP Leonardo. They are part showcase, and part collaborative centers. Their real-world examples of digital innovation using SAP Leonardo serve as inspiration for SAP customers and partners. They also offer a place for businesses and startups to experiment and innovate, jointly or in collaborative efforts.

Leonardo Center Singapore expands SAP’s presence in the APJ region, which already boasts three SAP Innovation Centers and four SAP Labs. It will be the fifth in the global network of SAP Leonardo Centers, serving a “front-end” to assist SAP customers in transforming their businesses with SAP Leonardo and Design Thinking.

SAP Leonardo brings together the Internet of Things (IoT), Machine Learning, Blockchain technology, Big Data Analytics and Data Intelligence on the SAP Cloud Platform. It also applies SAP’s technological capabilities and deep knowledge of 25 industries to deliver the promise of Intelligent Enterprise.

“The SAP Leonardo Center in Singapore will showcase the art of the possible in digital innovation and help our customers scale quickly, easily and effectively,” said Scott Russell, President, SAP APJ. “Together with our customers and partners, we aim to leverage the SAP Leonardo Center Singapore as a think tank to drive purpose-led innovation that will ultimately improve the lives of one billion people and deliver the Intelligent Enterprise for over 70,000 customers in APJ by 2022. The SAP Leonardo Center in Singapore will play a key role in realizing our growth strategy and drive customer success in the new Intelligence era.”

 

Collaborative Hub

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The SAP Leonardo Center Singapore aims to foster a collaborative environment for businesses, start-ups, small and medium-sized enterprises to experiment and innovate.

It will also serve as a hub for SAP’s broader digital technology ecosystem including universities, startups, tech communities and accelerators.

Through the SAP University Alliances program, SAP APJ helps to educate 1.7 million students in educational institutions across the region. SAP APJ has also established 13 labs in APJ with plans to open more in the future.

 

Tour Of SAP Leonardo Center Singapore

Thorsten Vieth, Director of Industry Innovation at SAP South East Asia, took us on a tour of SAP Leonardo Center Singapore. SAP created various booths to showcase real world examples of SAP Leonardo at work.

They include traffic management of an entire city, how a smart stadium manages crowds, predictive maintenance of smart trains, and ensuring safety of drivers and passengers in smart buses.

They also showed how machine learning can be used to simplify the maintenance of home appliances with IoT capability, while providing a transparent and secure service record using blockchain technology. Such capabilities not only improve the customer experience, they also reduce costs for businesses.

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Adobe Announces New Adobe Sign + Adobe Scan Features!

Adobe just announced new Adobe Sign and Adobe Scan features. Check out their official announcement!

 

New Adobe Sign Features

Adobe Sign is designed to help organizations speed up business and plug into world-class third-party applications that deliver seamless customer experiences.

Today, Adobe rolled out new enhancements for life sciences and pharmaceutical companies, added more forms automation functionality by including a new way to collect online payments, furthered integrations with human resources and announced new cloud-based digital signature partners.

 

Some of these enhancements include:

  • Compliance with the life sciences industry: Life sciences and pharmaceutical companies using Adobe Sign can easily and confidently apply the necessary controls to comply with FDA 21 CFR Part 11, the globally-accepted regulation for electronic records and signatures in the biopharma industry, through multi-factor e-signature authentication or the more rigorous certificate-based digital signature authentication
  • Payments incorporated into forms: Customers can easily and securely collect payments from customers as they fill and sign forms.
  • Integration with SAP SuccessFactors: Create and send offer letters and onboarding forms with Adobe Sign directly from the SAP SuccessFactors workspace to engage the best talent in fast-paced markets. Once signed, approved documents are automatically stored in SAP SuccessFactors for a seamless, end-to-end digital workflow
  • Cloud-based digital signature momentum: Adobe Sign will work with new certificate digital ID providers to sign securely using their existing identity issued by their bank

 

New Adobe Scan Feature

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To further enhance the digital experience for customers, Adobe has also announced a new feature in Adobe Scan that users have been requesting for – Modify Scan. With this release, users can now add, delete or reorder individual pages and re-crop or re-clean scans saved in Adobe Document Cloud, without using powerful tools like Acrobat or Photoshop.

Adobe Scan automatically detects low light conditions and turns on your flashlight to capture a clear, bright image, every time. The app even recognizes and lightens dark shadows, including that pesky shadow of your hand taking the photo. No more worrying about finding the right light.

Adobe also improved the overall capture, cropping, and cleaning of scans in any light, powered by Adobe Sensei machine learning.

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The ASEAN Foundation And SAP Extend Collaboration To 2018

JAKARTA, Indonesia — November 29, 2017 — The ASEAN Foundation and SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced the continuation of their strategic collaboration into 2018, following a successful collaboration in its first year to bring about social impact in ASEAN.

 

The 2018 ASEAN Foundation And SAP MOU

Under the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the ASEAN Foundation and SAP, both organisations will jointly roll out initiatives under two strategic pillars next year, namely Education and Entrepreneurship.

The initiatives are aimed at equipping ASEAN youths with the skills they need to tackle society’s problems and thrive in the digital economy; build the capacity of innovative social enterprises that put young people on the path to successful careers and build a skilled workforce for the IT sector with training and workforce development programmes.

From left to right are Deputy Secretary General of ASEAN for Socio-Cultural Community His Excellency Vongthep Arthakaivalvatee, President and Managing Director of SAP Southeast Asia Claus Andresen, , ASEAN Foundation Executive Director Elaine Tan, and SAP Southeast Asia Head of Corporate Affairs Eugene Ho.

The inaugural year of this collaboration yielded positive outcomes under the following pillars:

Education

  • The ASEAN Data Science Explorers competition attracted 804 participants from 112 institutions across the 10 ASEAN member states. In the lead-up to the competition, students were trained in SAP’s Analytics Cloud software through a series of webinars and in-country seminars, with more than 600 students accessing the platform.
  • The competition solicited data-driven insights and ideas on the most pressing social issues in the region. Some highlights include the submission by Team “Omotesando” from Indonesia that aims to accelerate financial inclusion as a solution to poverty eradication through branchless banking, and the submission by Team “Tonkar Data” from Laos which proposes the adoption of smart and vertical farming in ASEAN to improve productivity in agriculture.

Volunteerism

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  • The Youth Volunteering Innovation Challenge (YVIC), under the theme “Impact ASEAN”, supported young volunteers throughout the ASEAN region in their journey to catalyze youth-led innovation for social impact and sustainable development by providing access to mentors and capital they need to start or scale up their projects.
  • 29 young volunteer innovators from ten teams across ASEAN participated in the YVIC 2017 as part of a collaborative effort by the United Nations Volunteers (UNV), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the ASEAN Foundation, the ASEAN Secretariat, SAP and with the close support of the Government of Germany.

Entrepreneurship

  • Under the collaboration, SAP supported 9 of out the Top 50 ASEAN social enterprises through two programmes namely the SAP Social Sabbatical and NUS Crossing the Chasm Challenge. SAP employees provided mentorship and consulting to help the enterprises run better.

The MoU was first signed on May 9, 2017 at the ASEAN Foundation headquarters in Jakarta, Indonesia. Since then, the ASEAN Foundation and SAP have been executing on all the programmes under the three pillars.

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SAP At The Asian Innovators Summit 2017

The Asian Innovators Summit 2017 was just held at the Grand Hyatt in sunny Kuala Lumpur. It focused on the new Digital Economy, which has a profound effect on the way governments and businesses operate today. Let’s take a look at what SAP revealed at the Asian Innovators Summit 2017!

 

The Road Towards 2050 : The Digital Future In Malaysia

Terrence Yong, Managing Director of SAP Malaysia, kicked off the media briefing with his views on digital transformation in Malaysia. In particular, how Malaysia can achieve the government’s National Transformation 2050 Plan (Transformasi Nasional 2050).

 

Introducing SAP Leonardo

SAP also introduced their Leonardo digital innovation system, which covers everything from the Internet of Things, Machine Learning, Big Data Analytics and even Blockchain technology. It helps SAP customers create and scale new intelligent applications.

In this video, SAP (Southeast Asia) Head of Analytics, Kathleen Muller, gives an introduction to SAP Leonardo, and how it can help SAP customers innovate, integrate and scale their solutions.

 

The MAHB Digital Transformation with SAP

Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB) Chief Strategy Officer Azli Mohamed then gave us an update on MAHB’s latest initiatives to drive greater operational efficiency and productivity through digitalisation.
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The SAP Innovations Tour @ The Asian Innovators Summit 2017

Finally, SAP took us on a tour of their latest digital solution showcase at the Asian Innovators Summit 2017. Amongst the things we saw were :

  • The SAP Digital Airport Management solution
  • The SAP Asset Intelligence Network solution
  • The SAP Digital Fleet Management solution
  • The SAP Connected Transportation Safety solution

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Claus Andresen Is SAP Southeast Asia President & Managing Director

Singapore — August 2, 2017 — SAP today announced the appointment of Claus Andresen as President and Managing Director of SAP Southeast Asia, promoted from Chief Operating Officer of SAP Indian Subcontinent. Andresen will report directly to Scott Russell, President of SAP Asia Pacific Japan (APJ).

Building on the 28-year establishment and growth of SAP in the region, Andresen will be responsible for driving SAP Southeast Asia’s sustainable growth strategy and operations. Based in Singapore, he will oversee SAP’s business across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Indochina and other emerging markets in Southeast Asia.

 

Claus Andresen is President and Managing Director of SAP Southeast Asia

“Connectivity in Southeast Asia is growing at an impressive rate and we foresee a lot more customers accelerating their digital transformation and journey to the cloud in the next few years. While the level of digital maturity in Southeast Asia varies across the region, SAP has the extensive capability to help our customers scale and succeed in this new digital economy,” said Scott Russell, President, SAP Asia Pacific Japan. “Claus brings with him the experience and vision to help our customers translate their strategy into action. I am confident that SAP Southeast Asia will continue to shine under his leadership.”

Andresen was most recently the Chief Operating Officer of SAP Indian Subcontinent, where he provided leadership to the market unit’s multi-functional sales and operations organizations, and was instrumental in making India amongst one of the fastest growing market units in SAP.

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Prior to that, he was responsible for Business Operations across SAP APJ, where he led a high-performing team to improve Sales and Operational Excellence. Andresen has over a decade of experience in various global and regional senior leadership roles in the Global Services & Support organization (now Digital Business Services), all with focus on helping customers run better leveraging technology.

“Southeast Asia plays an important role for SAP’s business. There are plenty of opportunities for us in this part of the world as more organisations understand the value that digital innovations can deliver to their business and how they operate. Across the region, we are seeing the trajectory and we are committed to helping our customers and partners build a solid foundation for their digital future,” said Claus Andresen, President, SAP Southeast Asia.

He continued, “SAP has more than 45 years of industry and enterprise business software experience and an unmatched global ecosystem that empowers customers to scale and thrive in this time of constant change. I am honored to lead the Southeast Asia’s business and bring innovations to our customers that unlock their potential. I look forward to working with my Southeast Asia team to take SAP to the next level in this growth region, as we help the region’s governments and businesses achieve their vision of a digitally-enabled ASEAN.”

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Scott Russell Appointed President of SAP Asia Pacific Japan

July 3, 2017 SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced that Scott Russell has been appointed president of SAP Asia Pacific Japan (APJ). In his new role, Scott will be responsible for growing SAP’s business and presence in the APJ region, including Australia/New Zealand, Japan, Korea, the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. He brings more than 20 years of experience in management, technology and consulting to this role.

 

Scott Russell, President of SAP Asia Pacific Japan

Scott was previously president and managing director for SAP Southeast Asia (SEA). He was instrumental in driving strategy, operations and sustainable growth for SAP across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and other emerging markets in SEA.

Between 2014 and 2016, he was the chief operating officer (COO) for SAP in APJ. In this role, he was responsible for providing leadership and direction to SAP’s multifunctional sales and operations organizations, driving productivity improvements and significantly contributing to the achievement of revenue and profitability targets.

Prior to the APJ COO role, he was senior vice president of SAP APJ Services. Before joining SAP, Scott was a managing consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers and led the Systems Integration and Application Maintenance business for IBM Australia New Zealand.

Scott succeeds Adaire Fox-Martin, who held the position of president of SAP APJ from February 2014 to April 2017. Adaire was recently promoted to the SAP Executive Board and together with Jennifer Morgan leads Global Customer Operations. Adaire oversees the SAP business in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Greater China.

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SAP Powers The ASEAN Data Science Explorers Competition

The ASEAN Foundation

Since inception in 1967 between Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has expanded to include Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam. Together, ASEAN members aim to accelerate economic growth and development.

Turning 50 his year the ASEAN Foundation is working with strategic partners to establish several new initiatives centred around building a sense of ASEAN identity. The first of these is the ASEAN Data Science Explorers (ASEAN DSE).

 

ASEAN Data Science Explorers (ASEAN DSE)

The ASEAN Data Science Explorers is a regional competition jointly organised with SAP. It encourages ASEAN tertiary students from any discipline in all ten member states to harness the power of data, highlighting the key issues in ASEAN and derive meaningful insights that lead to innovative solutions.

Titled “Today’s Youth for Tomorrow’s World”, this competition will allow all ASEAN youths to play a key role in tackling today’s social issues facing the region and help create positive change for a better future.

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By using the SAP BusinessObjects Cloud tool, the initiative encourages participants to deliver data-driven insights which highlight issues in ASEAN across six United Nation Sustainable Development Goals, namely;

  1. Good health and well-being
  2. Quality education
  3. Gender equality
  4. Clean water and sanitation
  5. Decent work and economic growth
  6. Sustainable cities and communities

Competitors will be judged along the lines of four key criteria; Visualization, Data, a Compelling story, and User experience. Through visual analysis, compelling charts and graphs, competitors must depict the datasets and give viewers meaningful insights. Volume, variety and relevance of data used to support themes are important, along with the design and creative layout of storyboards. Competitors must also be able to “Wow” judges in total user experience.

Through this initiative, it is also hoped that a competitive effort will produce better quality results towards the realisation of the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Blueprint 2025 vision of creating an ASEAN community that engages and benefits the people, and is inclusive, sustainable, resilient and dynamic.

The competition will be organised in all 10 ASEAN Member States in October, with winners of the respective in-country competitions going into a regional final that will take place in Jakarta, Indonesia in November this year.

Students can find out more about the competition and register online via the ASEAN DSE’s official website: www.aseandse.org. The registration portal is open until 16 June 2017.

 

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Cenviro moves to the cloud with SAP Suite on HANA

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 03 April 2017 – Cenviro today announced that it will be deploying multiple SAP solutions including SAP Suite on HANA with IS-U Waste Management as part of the organisation’s digital transformation. The deployment will leverage on the services of Deloitte Consulting SEA with iTelligence Outsourcing MSC as hosting partner.

Cenviro, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Khazanah Nasional Berhad, is a leader in the Malaysian green solutions revolution, providing innovative environmental solutions through a cradle-to-cradle philosophy. The company leads in all areas of waste management, from treatment to recycling, recovery and final disposal.

Cenviro also owns and operates Malaysia’s first integrated waste management centre in Negeri Sembilan, a state-of-the-art facility which meets stringent international and local standards.

One of the pressing requirements that Cenviro needed to address, as its business grows, is reconciling financial data from different sources. The management was also aware of the need to improve operational performance monitoring throughout the group of companies.

Upon evaluating several options, Cenviro decided to work with SAP and its partners, Deloitte Consulting and iTelligence Outsourcing MSC, to deploy a fully-integrated ERP (enterprise resource planning) system. In the process of evaluation, Cenviro’s management recognised that SAP had the ideal, proven solution to address these issues, and the possibility of customising unique modules tailoring to Cenviro’s requirements.

 

The Cenviro Implementation Of SAP Suite On HANA

At the initial phase of its implementation, Cenviro will look towards the SAP Suite on HANA with IS-U for Waste Management. IS-U is SAP’s industry specific solution for the utilities vertical which includes best practices for waste management within an integrated system.

The platform is designed to facilitate business process simplification and improve decision making and to pave the way for future innovations. It includes capabilities to optimize activities for performance management, sales, finance, operations and human resources. With this, Cenviro sets its sights on becoming more efficient as it consolidates its processes by leveraging business intelligence solutions.

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Ultimately, SAP waste and environmental services solution is intended to streamline and optimize commerce, service, logistics, billing, and customer engagement activities. The software will enable Cenviro to meet critical business, technical, and personnel-related requirements cost-effectively to help it offer better and more efficient waste disposal services.

“SAP has long been a forerunner in helping companies simplify their operations and our mission is to lead the global transformation in the new digital economy, empowering companies to reimagine their business using the SAP digital business framework. We’re excited to be working with Cenviro on a project of this scale and look forward to working hand-in-hand with the company as it embarks on further expansion,” said Terrence Yong, Managing Director, SAP Malaysia.

“SAP S/4HANA is the digital core that paves the way for latest technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, real-time analytics, mobile, business networks, third-party systems, and more. With SAP solutions, Cenviro can now run its business more efficiently and in ‘real time’,” added Yong.

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SAP & IDC : The Future Of The Malaysian Internet Economy

On 24 November 2016, SAP and IDC hosted an exclusive briefing on the future of the Malaysian Internet economy. The timing is impeccable because the Malaysian government has declared that 2017 should be the “Year of the Internet Economy“.

Their analysis and opinions on how Malaysian businesses and entrepreneurs should chart their courses going into 2017 are invaluable for anyone who wants to stay relevant in the new age of the Internet economy. We all need to stay on top of the wave of new developments, or risk having it crash on us.

 

2017 – The Year Of The Internet Economy

In 2015, the Malaysian Internet economy contributed 17.8% to the GDP (Gross Domestic Product), just shy of the 18.2% target set for 2020. On the back of this rapid growth in importance, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak called on Malaysians to “embrace, adapt to changes and explore new areas of growth to accelerate the economy“.

SAP Malaysia is in full agreement of this view. In the past decade, the rate of adoption of new technologies has accelerated and technology is changing the rules of business with disruption becoming the norm. This will accelerate in 2017 and local businesses need to absorb, understand and adapt to these underpinning seismic shifts taking place, particularly with regards to Internet of Things and Big Data Analytics.

SAP Malaysia Managing Director Terrence Yong kicked off the session with his view on the Malaysian digital economy, and how IoT and big data analytics are changing the way we make, buy and sell products and services.

IDC Asia-Pacific Research Director Chin Jun Fwu then shared his findings on the adoption of the latest IoT and big data analytics here in Malaysia, before SAP (Southeast Asia) Head of Analytics Kathleen Muller touched on the impact of data analytics and the Internet of Things, particularly for SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises).

Unfortunately, the current adoption of big data analytics and IoT in Malaysia is low. The key takeaway is that price is not really the issue, but rather inertia. Even if they are aware of what they must do to adapt to the changing world, there is resistance to learning new ways.

That will have to change, soon. Otherwise, even the most established businesses may lose out to their more nimble competitors.

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SAP Ariba Celebrates Twenty Years Of Innovation

PALO ALTO, Calif. – Twenty years ago, procurement was a manual function driven largely by phone calls, faxes and handshakes. Then along came the Internet. And a company named Ariba. And everything changed. It all started with the idea that buying and selling among businesses didn’t need to be so hard. That with the right technology, companies could automate the process and interact in totally new ways that enhance their top and bottom lines.

“As one of its first fully integrated suppliers, we have improved our efficiency by processing thousands of orders and invoices through the network seamlessly.”

“What Ariba was talking about in 1996 was a revolutionary concept,” said Shelley Stewart, Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer at DuPont Company. “We took a big chance in embracing it at the time, but it has clearly paid off. Technology and networks have completely changed the way business is done and helped to move procurement from a tactical function to a strategic driver of business value.”

Zachary Engels, Senior Analyst, Sourcing, PolyOne Corporation, agrees. “For us, procurement has always been about more than just savings. Our goal is to drive supply chain efficiency on a global scale,” he said. “And although it seemed crazy at the time, we realized that technology and business networks could help us do this and increase the value we deliver to our organization.”

 

Focused on Innovation

SAP Ariba paved the way for this transition through innovations that over the last two decades have completely changed the way buyers and suppliers connect and get business done. The company for instance:

  • Launched the first online catalog for procurement.
  • Developed the first software to conduct reverse auctions.
  • Created the Ariba Network, the first business network that today is the largest, most global on the planet, with more than 2 million companies transacting nearly $1 trillion in commerce on an annual basis.
  • Delivered comprehensive suite of cloud-based procurement applications ranked first among all vendors.
  • Went live with Ariba Discovery, a global business matching service that automatically connects buyer needs with seller capabilities.
  • Rolled out Ariba Spot Buy, the first solution to combine the technology, content and expertise needed to gain visibility into unplanned buys with workflow capabilities to get them under control.
  • Released AribaPay, an electronic payment solution identified as the most Disruptive and Best B2B Innovation.
  • Delivered Guided Buying, a contextual experience that automatically leads users to the goods and services they need to do their jobs, then guides them through executing purchases in compliance with their company policies and processes.
  • Opened its platform, allowing companies to develop and deliver new commerce services that drive value for their organizations, their customers and anyone connected to the Ariba Network using open APIs.

 

Committed to Customer Success

SAP Ariba continues to push the limits of what is possible and deliver innovations that fuel business transformation.

“It’s always good to see vendors doing some hard work and heavy lifting to help their customers move faster and better, delivering innovative tools they can use to come up with new business processes, new strategies and new directions that make them much more strategic,” said Holger Mueller, Principal Analyst & Vice President Constellation Research, Inc.

Ken Redler says this is exactly what SAP Ariba has helped his company do. At a time when many were still questioning the viability of the Internet as a tool for business, Redler, the Chief Technology Officer of cSubs, whose business is helping companies procure, manage, and analyze their knowledge resources, knew it was the future.

“We had customers coming to us saying, ‘This is the way we are going to do business,’” he recalls. “So we had to put an eCommerce platform in place.”

In 2005, Redler and his team set up a catalog on the Ariba Network to give its customers a simple, consumer-like way to manage the content flowing into their organizations. Within two years, 25 percent of the company’s business was coming from it.

In 2012, cSubs took things to the next level and leveraged the network to go to market with Clarity, a new licensed content and contract management solution that gives companies centralized control of their electronic content tasks and analytics. “In doing so, we became a more strategic partner and gained a tremendous leg up in competing with much larger companies,” Redler said.

The idea of moving from bricks to clicks wasn’t something most big box retailers were even thinking about 20 years ago. Office Depot joined the Ariba Network in 1996 and created a digital procure-to-pay process that has optimized the way it operates.

“Office Depot values our long-time relationship with SAP Ariba,” said Emile Naguib, senior product manager for Office Depot, Inc.“As one of its first fully integrated suppliers, we have improved our efficiency by processing thousands of orders and invoices through the network seamlessly.”

 

Looking to the Future

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Procurement is no doubt a different function than it was two decades ago. But the transformation has only begun. “No longer just about managing spend and delivering savings, procurement today is about creating opportunities for both buyers and sellers to connect and collaborate across the entire source to settle process in totally new ways that create commerce and drive business advantage,” said Alex Atzberger, president, SAP Ariba.

This not only requires a new approach, but innovative tools to support it. And SAP Ariba is expected to remain at the forefront of delivering them.

“The forward-looking road map has never been more exciting,” said Simon Ellis, Program Vice President, Supply Chain, IDC Manufacturing Insights. “SAP Ariba is clearly on the right road to becoming the best-in-class procurement vendor. The company started as a leading procurement vendor and has continued to evolve with new and innovative solutions and a business network that help companies deliver better commerce.”

 

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Constant Innovation & Selling To Millennials @ SAP Ariba Live 2016

SAP brought Ariba Live to Asia in 2016, holding the inaugural SAP Ariba Live in Singapore. During the 3 day conference, SAP revealed the latest updates to the Ariba Network, namely Guided Buying and Light Enablement. They also revealed the future of SAP Ariba – artificial intelligence.

However, it was not all about SAP Ariba. SAP played host to a few industry leaders and academics who imparted some business wisdom to the attendees. We will take a look at two of them – iflix Malaysia CEO Azran Osman-Rani, and Professor Sean Sands from the Monash Business School.

 

The iflix Strategy Of Constant Innovation by Azran Osman-Rani

iflix Malaysia CEO Azran Osman-Rani is no stranger to us. We have had the pleasure of chatting with him on several occasions. Even catching an episode of Mr. Robot on iflix with him! He has been a dominant figure in pushing iflix from a small, unknown streaming service to a multinational service provider that recently expanded to Brunei and Sri Lanka. Find out how he achieved that with a strategy of constant innovation at iflix.

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How To Sell To Millennials by Professor Sean Sands

Sean Sands is the Managing Director of the ACRS Research Unit and Associate Professor of Marketing at the Monash Business School.

As Managing Director at the Australian Consumer, Retail, and Service (ACRS) Research Unit, Sean works with some of the biggest brands in Australia, and globally. In this role, Sean work with brands to create alignment between service experiences and brand promise to deliver meaningful interactions for customers by conducting user research, evaluating existing customer experience initiatives and designing appropriate service blueprints.

In this video, Professor Sands talks about Millennials, what makes them tick… and how to sell to them. Check it out!

 

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The New SAP Digital Boardroom Revealed

SAP is going big in the Big Data bandwagon with the launch of the SAP Digital Boardroom.  The SAP Digital Boardroom is a planned breakthrough digital approach that aims to contextualize and simply performance reporting across all areas of business in real time. It is built on the SAP BusinessObjects Cloud Solution and could utilise data from the SAP S/4HANA suite and SAP HANA Cloud Platform.

 

The SAP Digital Boardroom

The SAP Digital Boardroom provides a dashboard that gives a live snapshot of the performance and operations of the company in a heavily visualized manner to aid in the decision making process. Such data and analytics would be useful in a real board meeting.

Members of the media were given a live demo on the SAP Digital Boardroom where live visualization on SAP’s performance were shown.

The SAP Digital Boardroom also features a predictive analysis function where it could simulate the performance of the business in real time simply by adjusting certain variables.

In the presentation, we were shown the impact of a 30% increase in SAP server’s capacity to the bottom line of SAP.

Such simulation is done by simply dragging a slider and the ability to simulate such performance in a live environment will change how board meetings are conducted where strategic decisions can be simulated and decisions made more quickly. This is crucial today where businesses are expected to be more agile in today’s environment.

According to Terrence Yong, Managing Director of SAP Malaysia, “SAP Digital Boardroom is able to provide total transparency to the C-Suite executives, consisting of board members and decision-makers, with a comprehensive, real-tim eview of business performance across the entire company.

The SAP Digital Boardroom can be utilized to aid not only at the highest board level but could also be used at the operations level. We were then presented with a simulation of how SAP Digital Boardroom could be used in a stadium. The Digital Boardroom would allow the operations manager to have a live view of everything that is happening in the stadium to assist with crowd control. Once again, the predictive analysis comes in handy where it could predict if the visitors to the stadium would arrive punctually depending on weather forecast and traffic data which is fed into the SAP system.

It would be interesting to see how companies would embrace the SAP Digital Boardroom but if configured correctly, it will certainly transform the way oversight processes are performed.

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