Fostering innovation and engaging in strategic collaboration are both keys to sustaining the competitive advantage of businesses. In a conversation with e27, Morikawa Hakaru, Vice President and Head of Industry and Customer Advisory at SAP shares key insights on SAP’s strategy in scaling win-win partnerships with innovation partners as it has done through the years.
In this conversation, Morikawa-san shared SAP’s priorities in Asia, particularly on expanding its innovation footprint. SAP Labs Network is a network of SAP’s core research and development entities focused on developing and constantly improving key SAP solutions. Labs in Japan and Singapore have opened in 2020 and 2022 respectively, focusing on research and product development initiatives in digital supply chain and sustainability. “Japan is a country of manufacturing. It makes sense to focus our research functionality in Tokyo in this area to get the best practices in the country to incorporate into the supply chain of our products,” Morikawa explained.
Also read: How to build a business with scalability in Asia’s vibrant economy?
“The Singapore lab’s focus is on sustainability. Sustainability is one of the biggest topics globally. Southeast Asia will be one of the hardest-hit regions if we don’t handle this challenge from a global perspective. [If managed well], Southeast Asia can be the global frontrunner,” he added.
Fostering product innovation to build customer value
Connecting businesses to enable strategic collaborations as well as to respond to urgent needs by the times is a constant priority for SAP. The organisation has the Ariba network where many use cases of businesses who have partnered amid restrictions during COVID-19 were overcome. As an online business network for buyers and suppliers, it has allowed for a global discovery capability for buyers and sellers.
Businesses from many countries utilised this given the situation over the past 2 years. In the wake of the pandemic surges, for example, temporary hospitals in Manhattan were able to speedily procure beds and other supplies through Ariba. With job displacements involved in the pandemic, as well as job demand surges in certain industry verticals like healthcare, SAP Fieldglass — a contingent workforce management software solution — has facilitated solving HR-related shortages in the healthcare field and served as a matching platform for those workers, connecting those who lost their jobs and matching them to those who have people shortages.
Also read: The future of infrastructure is in tech innovation
This became a very relevant solution for many businesses in Japan. In the endeavour to continuously improve health delivery processes, vaccine distribution, registration, helpdesk support, and the like, SAP Qualtrics has enabled various ministries of health globally to optimise experience management for its constituents by providing deep insights through advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning, thus enabling organisations to help close experience gaps and drive improved user experiences. This solution has also been effectively used by companies to learn how to support their employees better with the remote work setup.
Other strategic collaborations that SAP has engaged startups with are those with Green Token, a tracking solution using blockchain and mass balance accounting principles, enabling customers to know that the raw materials in business products are sustainably sourced, child labour free and ethically traded. The GreenToken by SAP solution was sourced from the SAP One Billion Lives initiative, the company’s flagship social intrapreneurship programme that aims to improve 1 billion lives through a portfolio of sustainable, shared-value impact ventures. Another startup that was acquired by SAP in 2021 is Signavio, a solutions platform designed to help organisations transform their business processes at scale.
Building strategic collaborations to strengthen innovation
SAP boasts a track record of nurturing innovations over the decades. As a transactions management company, many large companies have built their functionalities over SAP ERP as the core transactions management platform.
With its APIs, innovative businesses can access opportunities and integrate with the business technology platform. As many large businesses already run on SAP, these innovative businesses have potential go-to-market access through this common ground. “SAP has the strongest sales force, and can help bring these businesses to potential customers. [We also] showcase innovations through our experience centres in Singapore, Tokyo, and India. [They can be linked to a] global network, and can open up [more opportunities for ] innovation vendors across regions, even in Germany or New York,” Morikawa-san elaborated.
Also read: oVice, a virtual office platform, uses innovative technology to redefine remote work
He added, “SAP has a stronghold in certain areas, especially in the field of solutions for white-collar workers in the office. [We look for innovation partners to enrich] out-of-office solutions for our clients, such as IoT solutions [for example] in retail shops and manufacturing premises. We are open to innovations via partnerships, enabling] big plays in areas that are not SAP’s area. Working with innovative startups delivers solutions faster, benefiting SAP clients and SAP itself. Furthermore, SAP can help [through its] expertise in understanding the enterprise market, and can provide assistance to tailor-fit solutions, and facilitate access to business decision-makers.”
“There is a usual notion that ERP is completed, not innovating and that it’s a closed platform. [We are] open to collaboration. As a platform where data originated, there is a rich insight to realise in building business processes, which is important whether you are running a large or small business. In the age of innovation, working with SAP makes a lot of sense.”
Join SAP’s roundtable discussions
SAP in partnership with e27 is organising an invitation-only virtual roundtable session to gain perspectives from general partners and limited partners of leading investment firms in Southeast Asia. In this session, the stakeholders will discuss the challenges and opportunities for VC firms, frontier market plays and strategies, as well as deep dives into the potential of the spotlight countries in the region. They will also discuss their methods in supporting the growth of companies in their investment portfolio and key opportunities in their strategic plans for the future.
This 14 July, SAP and e27 will be hosting The Rise of Digital: Accelerating Growth and Customer Obsession, a webinar that will help startups gain insights about managing their digital offerings to be more effective and customer-centric. To learn more about this programme, you can secure tickets from our official page.
– –
This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by SAP
We can share your story at e27, too. Engage the Southeast Asian tech ecosystem by bringing your story to the world. Visit us at e27.co/advertise to get started.
The post SAP expands innovation initiatives in Southeast Asia appeared first on e27.