SAP plans big expansion in Thailand
Written by Admin on Sunday, September 7th, 2008
MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE
SAP plans big expansion in Thailand
SASIWIMON BOONRUANG
PATTAYA, CHON BURI : SAP Thailand will expand here based on its core ERP software, and in line with an offering of enterprise information management (EIM) technology, and aims to achieve triple its market share by 2010.
According to SAP Thailand and Philippines managing director Patara Yongvanich, enterprise application software has established a foundation for SAP, and this year the company will expand its infrastructure to enable customers to link to their legacy and other systems and have them use SAP for personal productivity, which will address the needs of the Thai market in terms of services, engineering and personal productivity.
“By 2010 SAP has the target to be first in every group with an attempt to expand the market,” Patara said, pointing out this covered business-user solutions, SMEs, business process platforms and industry solutions.
He noted organisations’ information comprised both structured and unstructured data, however the current approaches didn’t work because they were outdated, unsecured, unavailable, out of context, proprietary, inflexible, incomplete and expensive.
EIM would take on a more and more important role, he said, noting that the EIM life cycle involved information creation, information management, distribution and collaboration, reports and analyses, as well as data archiving.
It is a combination of strategy, practices and open technologies for delivering trusted, integrated and timely information.
“We help customers perceive their EIM life cycle as a framework by using SAP technology co-working with Adobe, Microsoft, Business Objects (BO), Enterprise Search, and OpenText,” the managing director noted, adding that Adobe interactive forms would replace paper and streamline complex processes.
The SAP Adobe interactive form would enable users to integrate interactive PDF documents into business processes, generating forms containing data from SAP systems, complete forms online or offline, submit data to SAP systems and allow users to print forms. Users can download active forms to complete and then upload the forms to the CRM system.
Another interface, called Duet, is a SAP and Microsoft project, with the objective of making every Microsoft Office users a SAP user by using Microsoft Outlook as an interface.
The acquisition of BO has made SAP not only number one in ERP, but also in business intelligence. “It is our strategy to purchase partners whose solutions complement SAP, and BO allows both of us to expand customer base,” Patara said. He noted that after SAP delivered EIM for six months, the company’s sales revenues worldwide increased by 81 per cent during the first quarter.
The company would also concentrate on spreading knowledge of SAP through collaboration with universities such as Chulalongkorn, Thammasat, the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce and Dhurakijpundit University.
