Many South African retailers are disadvantaging themselves by remaining on legacy systems, failing to benefit from improved efficiencies and leaving themselves vulnerable to competition from more progressive organisations.
According to Greg Chamberlin, product manager: retail and consumer products at SAP Africa, high capital, maintenance and new technology implementation costs have typically hindered South African retailers in migrating from their legacy solutions.
"A common misperception amongst local retailers is that modern enterprise solutions are both expensive and difficult to implement and maintain," says Chamberlin.
One solution to this dilemma is to have a dedicated IT solution provider host a solution. "Not only does this allow retailers to focus on their core business and dramatically decrease the cost of ownership, but exposes them to the latest technology and best practices. Now even small and medium enterprises can afford to operate the best retail solutions," he explains.
"SAP and its partner eco-system, through mySAP.com Application Hosting, have redefined the application hosting business, rocketing it into a new era of application service providing," says Chamberlin.
mySAP.com Application Hosting is a building block of SAP 's e-business solution, mySAP.com. It combines software, implementation, infrastructure and service and support. Under the application service provision scenario, carefully selected partners host standard pre-configured SAP Retail solutions for one or many customers.
"The retailer can access the system using a browser via the Internet or a virtual private network (VPN). As all applications are seamlessly integrated with the Internet, the need to purchase expensive hardware; buy and manage software licenses; and train IT staff is eliminated."
The SAP Retail solution has been pre-configured based on global best retail-specific practices. "As a result implementation time is minimal and can measured in weeks, not months," says Chamberlin. "The solution is priced per user per month providing retailers with a reliable solution at a predictable cost.
"Now, with the minimum of time, cost, effort, risk and infrastructure, local retailers can enjoy a world class retailing solution."
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