During a session at the SAPPHIRE NOW 2021, SAP leaders discussed how SAP integration technologies and solutions are used to transform small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across Australia and New Zealand in a post-COVID economy.
Although SAP serves large businesses with over 90{8bf2b29f36318f0ac46ab1cc03d7035abce669a1cea16c9ed62389a818fa22fd} of the Fortune 500 companies being its customers, around 80{8bf2b29f36318f0ac46ab1cc03d7035abce669a1cea16c9ed62389a818fa22fd} of its customer base are SMEs or mid-market companies. As for Australia, the German software giant offers different solution categories for mid-market companies.
In a recent virtual discussion, Scott Russell, Executive Board Member, Customer Success at SAP, expressed the importance of driving success for the mid-market through technology. He shared:
“With our solutions, what we’re seeing is the mid-market really trying to embrace digital solutions to allow them to attract customers, retain employees, get optimisation of their processes and their supply chains to really drive economic advantage in the future.”
Meanwhile, Sofiane Ainine, Head of Mid-Market, ANZ, SAP Australia, believes there is a misconception that SAP is only for large companies. He explained:
“More than 80{8bf2b29f36318f0ac46ab1cc03d7035abce669a1cea16c9ed62389a818fa22fd} of SAP customers globally, and also very true locally across Australia and New Zealand, are mid-sized companies. This shows that the focus of SAP and the investment that we are making are on small and mid-sized companies.”
Helping Mid-Market Companies Run Best Using SAP Integration Technologies
With the pandemic accelerating the need for change, the transformation amongst SMEs becomes more critical than ever, according to Ainine. He further said:
“They need to build that resilience and that agility that they require to thrive and get back to that growth trajectory. Locally, we are supporting a lot of customers across multiple industries.”
For Australian waste management company Bingo Industries, using SAP integration technologies and SAP SuccessFactors solutions helped simplify and integrate their core HR processes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Bingo Industries has reaped immediate benefits from the mobile solution, as the single-touch payroll and other HR services not only expedited processes but also increased employee engagement activities.
“We were thrilled to see that after the first week only of going live, 95{8bf2b29f36318f0ac46ab1cc03d7035abce669a1cea16c9ed62389a818fa22fd} of their employees had adopted the mobile app. This was a game-changing outcome,” stated Ainine.
Aside from achieving 95{8bf2b29f36318f0ac46ab1cc03d7035abce669a1cea16c9ed62389a818fa22fd} employee download rates within 7 days of launch, Bingo Industries saved 50 hours every processing payroll run. It also had access to real-time dashboards and business insights about integrated people data using data lakes and Power BI.
SAP Solutions Enabling SMEs’ Transformation
Also highlighted during the session is the transformation journey of RPC Technologies, a manufacturing company in Australia. By implementing SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP Analytics Cloud, the company has addressed challenges such as lack of visibility, no access to real-time data, and multiple manual processes that were preventing them from growing as a business.
Operating on a global scale as an SME requires cost-effective, fit-to-standard solutions in a single integrated platform and SAP’s cloud solutions enabled RPC Technologies to optimise and grow its business. By implementing the solutions, the company was able to:
- Improve their production efficiency and real-time data access by 20{8bf2b29f36318f0ac46ab1cc03d7035abce669a1cea16c9ed62389a818fa22fd}
- Achieve 80{8bf2b29f36318f0ac46ab1cc03d7035abce669a1cea16c9ed62389a818fa22fd} time reduction for the month-end project costing
- Attain more than 100{8bf2b29f36318f0ac46ab1cc03d7035abce669a1cea16c9ed62389a818fa22fd} accuracy for the monthly project forecast
“We are extremely proud to deliver those game-changing outcomes for our customers and we are looking forward to support more of them,” Ainine said.
Moreover, John Crossley, Global Vice President, Strategic Lines of Business – Midmarket at SAP also mentioned in the session that SAP Upscale Commerce is coming to Australia in the next half year. Describing it as a “fantastic direct-to-consumer product,” Crossley further shared that it is not only a cloud-first tool, but a mobile-first product.
