Major Banks Employ SAP® for Banking and SAP® for Insurance to Address Evolving Industry Needs
SHANGHAI, China — Demonstrating that it is gaining momentum in the financial services industry (FSI), SAP Asia Pacific today announced that major banks in the region are adopting SAP’s industry specific portfolio of solutions to gain competitive advantage by managing their enterprises more efficiently and profitably. Increasingly, banks and financial institutions across several markets within the region such as Indonesia’s Bank Niaga, Korea’s Samsung Capital, Samsung Securities, Daegu Bank, Woori Credit Card and BC Card, China’s New China Life Insurance Company, and Malaysia’s Bank Islam are recognizing the business benefits that SAP® for Banking and SAP® for Insurance generate for their organizations. This announcement was made at SAP’s North Asia/South Asia Field Kick-Off Meeting 2004.
“Financial services providers come to us because their customers are more demanding than ever and worldwide deregulation means increased competition for profits,” said Hans-Peter Klaey, President and CEO, SAP Asia Pacific. “To remain competitive, they are looking to expertly manage transactions and relationships across the enterprise, achieving a single view of the customer across all interactions, transactions and lines of business,” he added. “With SAP NetWeaver™, SAP’s integration and application platform, in place, banks can cost-effectively achieve this fluid relationship and information management without having to throw out existing non-SAP systems.”
Customer Wins in the Banking Sector
“As one of the leading banks in Indonesia, our aim is to expand and raise our profile to increase our market share in this competitive region. But we’d like to accomplish this without incurring unnecessarily high costs to integrate our existing complex IT infrastructure with a new system” said Andi Mohammad Hatta, director, IT and Systems, Bank Niaga. “We chose SAP because it is the only company that can integrate and connect business processes across the various banking components. Having an integrated system will enhance our operational efficiency and effectiveness, and improve our company’s performance and efforts to compete globally. SAP’s multi-national, multi-currency solution can also help us operate across Asia Pacific, enter new markets, and collaborate within the organization and with our partner organizations.”
“SAP aims to meet the local needs of banks and financial institutions in the region by developing industry-specific solutions that cater to the local requirements of each market, regardless of whether they are located in Southeast Asia or North Asia,” said Carsten Falcke, Director, Industry Business Unit, Financial Services, SAP Asia Pacific. “We also want to partner with banks as they increase their regional footprint and target customers in other markets in Asia Pacific. In addition to helping banks achieve these objectives, SAP lowers the total cost of ownership by integrating the entire enterprise, providing a strategic infrastructure and eliminating the need for costly interfaces required by point solutions.”
SAP for Banking is a comprehensive solution with best-in-class capabilities for managing industry-specific processes. It can be easily implemented in stages according to strategic business goals, priorities, and available resources to build an effective IT strategy over time. Supporting banks and financial institutions as they grow and expand, the solution fully supports global standards and can easily adapt to new standards in the future.
SAP for Banking also helps banks meet the challenges and regulations for Basel II and the new International Accounting Standards (IAS). The Basel II industry-specific capability offers a comprehensive reporting platform for compliance with the Basel II capital adequacy accords. It serves as an integral part of SAP’s credit risk management platform for managing regulatory capital and economic capital. The Balance Analyzer capability including IAS addresses the important and evolving reporting requirements that are part of the new IAS, integrated in a single data repository with SAP’s Basel II solution, ensuring cost effective and unequalled data quality and strategic management insight.
In an era of increased emphasis on financial responsibility, regulations such as IAS and Basel II set up control mechanisms that ensure transparency and accountability within corporations as well as in their relationships to stakeholders. mySAP™ ERP aids in the certification of these data processing internal controls, giving companies better visibility and unique control over their entire administrative and operations environment.
Making Headway in the Insurance Sector
Razor-thin profit margins demand that insurance companies maintain tight fiscal discipline while keeping customers satisfied and strengthening customer loyalty through customized products and excellent service.
According to Mr. Sun Bing, chief executive officer, New China Life Insurance Company, “We wanted a solution that is flexible and enables us to be responsive to meet our customers’ changing needs. The SAP for Insurance solutions portfolio offers us a comprehensive solution that helps us deliver innovative, competitively priced products with superior levels of service”. Specifically, the company adopted mySAP™ Financials and mySAP™ HR as its next generation integrated management system platform to provide reliable support for the organization to develop quickly and securely.
SAP for Insurance integrates business processes from first customer contact through policy and product management, collections, disbursement, reinsurance, commissions and claims management. It also offers a comprehensive investment management, integrated information management, easy-to-use “smart” worker interfaces, and multilingual and multicurrency support for global operations.
“As a trusted advisor to insurance companies in the region and across the globe such as GreatWest Life, Allstate Corporation, New China Life Insurance Company and now Samsung Life Insurance, SAP has the comprehensive product suite, proven technology, and local expertise in managing business processes to serve premier insurance companies,” added Mr. Falcke.
SAP a Leading Provider for Banks and Insurance Companies Across the Globe
SAP’s thirty-two year history of success and industry leadership is proof of its ability to build and deliver solutions that meet the changing needs of customers. It is also a leading software provider to banks with growing global leadership and market share. Installations of SAP for Banking have increased 12 percent over the past year – a statistic that is well ahead of industry figures.
