Studies Show Asia Pacific Partners and Customers Benefit from SAP’s Proven, Easy to Adapt and Affordable Portfolio of Solutions for SMEs
Singapore — SAP Asia Pacific Japan today announced the addition of nearly 1,500 new small and midsize enterprise (SME) customers over 2006, translating to more than six new customers per work day. SAP® All-in-One powered by SAP Best Practices and SAP® Business One adoption raced higher in 2006 across all the regions of Asia Pacific, bringing the total SAP SME customer base in Asia Pacific to more than 5000. This rapid growth was driven, in part, by quick customer adoption of 84 localized SAP All-in-One micro-vertical solutions. These solutions were delivered to 77 channel partners in nine countries from SAP SME Solution Centres spread across Asia Pacific.
The results of IDC’s most recent biannual Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) market share analysis, reveals SAP as the leader in Enterprise Applications market for SMEs.(1) According to the research, SAP was the leader serving the APEJ SME market in 1H2006 in each application category IDC researched, including Enterprise Resource Management (ERM), also known as ERP, and including Human Capital Management (HCM); Customer Relationship Management (CRM); and Product Supply Chain (PSC), also known as Supply Chain Management (SCM).
“SAP and its partners deliver affordable and easy to deploy business management solutions for quick ROI and low total cost of ownership by building in best practice know-how,” said Steve Watts, Vice President SME, SAP Asia Pacific Japan. “In 2006, SAP Asia Pacific Japan and its partners delivered more solutions packages than ever before and saw record adoption of those solutions by SMEs in the region. This will only continue to increase as we deliver even more innovative enterprise SOA-based solutions in the coming years. We are working hand in hand with our partners through the SAP PartnerEdge program and are equally committed to customer success.”
SMEs Look to SAP for Best Practices
In another IDC custom survey sponsored by SAP of 50 existing SAP SME customers in the region, preliminary results indicated the top reasons driving respondent companies to deploy SAP solutions included the need for higher levels of integration and collaboration, as well as the ability to control business costs. SAP’s SME customers also saw higher operations and process efficiency as top benefits as a result of using their SAP systems. Further, the survey highlighted that innovation and operational excellence are top strategic initiatives in helping respondent companies achieve their growth objectives over the next one to three years. Over all, the majority of respondents regard IT, including their SAP systems, as having the greatest influence on their operational excellence initiatives, followed by those on regulatory compliance and/or industry mandates, innovation, and channel sales model.
In addition to the IDC study, SAP Asia Pacific analyzed a number of its own SAP All-in-One customers which utilized SAP® Best Practices, a global portfolio of proven industry and cross-industry business scenarios and documentation, in their implementation. One-hundred percent of respondents confirmed that the adaptability, predictability and affordability of SAP All-In-One were key to their purchasing decision. A number of specific benefits of SAP Best Practices over traditional implementations were highlighted by the respondents:
– Customers saved an average of nearly US$60,000 with SAP Best Practices, with some saving as much as US$195,000
– Deployments took half of the usual consulting and customer resources
– Deployment times were reduced an average of 32 percent with a savings of between 14 and 100 man days
– Average project duration was reduced by 10 weeks through productization from 30 weeks on average
– Solution fit out of the box was as high as 70 percent of customer requirements
SAP All-in-One customer, Maestro Engineering Pvt. Ltd (MEPL), an apparel manufacturing and exports company based in India, is just one of an increasing number of customers in the region benefiting from the accelerated time to ROI of SAP Solutions for SMEs. “Our implementation partner, Caritor India, was able to complete the entire project on time which not only helped MEPL strengthen our bottom line but also gave us an edge over our existing competitors,” said Paul Dueman, Business Analyst, Maestro Engineering Pvt. Ltd. “Through the implementation, we have witnessed a significant increase in overall operational efficiency and better customer and employee satisfaction. Not to mention we had a 100 percent return on investment in just over one year!”
Partner Profits
SME customers aren’t the only ones benefiting from SAP All-in-One delivered with SAP Best Practices. The partner ecosystem has reaped the rewards of effective and value-added deployments of SME Solution Centre packages as well. In a Q4 2006 study of SAP All-in-One partners in Asia Pacific, SAP found 82 percent felt the packages offered by the SME Solution Centre in the region would reduce the implementation cycles they experience with customers and an even greater percentage committed to using the packages for their own solution productization.
“SAP’s All-in-One packages delivered by the SME Solution Centre provide our customers with quick and on-budget implementations and lower total cost of ownership,” Rajat Mathur, chief executive, Business solutions Division, and head, Australia, ASEAN and Middle-East Wipro Ltd., SAP Asia Pacific All-in-One Partner of the Year 2006. “With the Solution Centre’s launch last year along with the PartnerEdge program, SAP is providing WIPRO and every other SME partner in the region with the world-class solutions and support to deliver value to our customers. We couldn’t have asked for a better strategic partner to meet our aggressive growth targets in the region.”
Next Evolution
Delivering the value of enterprise service-oriented architecture (enterprise SOA) “by evolution” to midsize companies, SAP Asia Pacific Japan is introducing the next version of its SAP All-in-One solutions. Based on mySAP ERP 2005, the latest evolution of SAP All-in-One solutions will enable faster return on investment with a dramatically enhanced and more intuitive user experience, streamlined business scenarios and enhanced analytical reporting.
Looking forward to later in the year, SAP plans to deliver new “SOA by design” solutions to an untapped segment of the midmarket. The solutions will leverage an entirely new platform built on end-to-end business processes and offering dramatic innovations in faster, lower-risk implementation, extreme adaptability and the complete management of the solutions in hosted and on demand alternatives for lowest total cost of ownership.
(1) IDC Asia/Pacific Semiannual Software Tracker, 1H2006. APEJ countries include Australia, New Zealand, Korea, People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia. IDC defines “SME” as a company with 10 to 499 employees.
