Johannesburg, 30 Sep 2011
Yesterday, SAP launched the next generation of its Business Suite software to customers in South Africa. Business Suite 7 Innovations 2010 - the latest release of SAP's popular Business Suite software - allows businesses to achieve process excellence through the deployment of industry-specific end-to-end processes that cut across applications and allow users to capture growth opportunities through insight gained from analytics tools embedded within the software.
SAP Africa's COO, Derek Kudsee, who opened the launch event, pointed to the fact that businesses today are continually demanding more from their software. “Instant use, instant value, lower costs, and ultimately, sustainable growth, is the name of the game. For SAP, this means constant innovation - quickly, and without disruption to our customers.”
Focusing on financials, supplier and supply chain management, human capital management, customer relationship management and SAP's complete technology portfolio, the launch event allowed SAP's existing customers to learn more about creating - and managing - a lean enterprise with minimal disruption to existing processes.
“Having already captured more than 56% of the market share in the business application space in medium and large enterprises in South Africa, we are confident this new release of our Business Suite software will be a real asset to our customers in South Africa, as it is already proving to be around the world,” said Freek Malherbe, Head of Industry Solutions, SAP Africa.
“Business Suite 7 takes us further on the path to deliver fully integrated business applications on a single platform, and improving delivery of end-to-end business processes.”
Used by both large and medium companies, the Business Suite software allows SAP customers to unwind complex business processes and rationalise costs through shared service delivery, reducing overheads and improving scalability and agility, as the economy continues evolving.
Malherbe mentions that SAP commissioned in-depth research into its customers' priorities to build the new Business Suite release. “One of the most significant findings of this research was the need for industry-specific solutions, but our customers also want innovation without disruption, along with real cost savings. Business Suite 7 delivers on all of these needs, providing on-device, on-demand, and on-premise solutions.”
Thomas Rattka, Global Customer Operations Manager at SAP, spoke at the launch event, and added: “Our customers are now able to cherry pick those business functions that are relevant to them, and use only those. We have also seen a 60% reduction in implementation time, and a real focus on industry-specific innovations, particularly in the retail, utilities, financial services and public services space.”
Rattka went on to explain that one of the main outtakes of the upgrade lies in how it enables businesses to manage leaner operations through shared services. “The overall cost savings potential derived from shared services is enormous, particularly for financial services, human resources and procurement processes. It's all about doing more for less.”
In a nutshell, SAP Business Suite 7 Innovations 2010 allows companies in all industries to deploy business applications in a step-wise manner to address specific business challenges on their own timelines, and without costly upgrades.
“Innovation without disruption is one of our most important mantras, and we believe this new release has achieved exactly that,” concluded Malherbe.