KUALA LUMPUR: Disruptive technologies would continue to shake-up the status quo for many industries.
SAP Malaysia managing director Duncan Williamson in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), no companies or traditional industries are safe and that it is the large enterprises that are the most prone to be disrupted.
"If you look at the disruption that is coming into the market, it generally comes from outside the industry. It usually does not come from industry you are in.
"Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos summed it up well by saying: ‘Frankly, I’m more worried about two guys in a garage than about my nearest competitors’,” he said at an event held in Kuala Lumpur recently.
He said being at the forefront of 25 various industries across the world places SAP in a position to help local companies 'future proof' their business models against potential disruptors.
Examples he cited are Google’s efforts to make drive-less cars, Netflix moving into the television space and fintech going into banking.
“Advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and advanced analytics should not be underestimated or disregarded,” said Duncan.
“Malaysian businesses must be immersed with any one, or all, of these influential factors to ensure their technology offerings are future-proof and able to take on these seismic shifts,” he further said, adding that businesses should continue stepping up their efforts to spur digital transformation from within at all levels.
Duncan told the audience that the SAP S/4 HANA real-time enterprise resource management suite built on the company’s HANA platform could drive instant value across various industry verticals.
“SAP S/4 HANA removes obstacles associated with legacy enterprise resource planning applications, such as batch latency, complex landscape, and manually-driven processes,” said Duncan.
He explained that SAP S/4 HANA is 'future ready' and is able to embrace advanced technologies, with companies in a reassured position to gain access to industry 'best practices'.
“If a disruptive start-up enters their market, companies with SAP S/4 HANA are in a position to adopt best practices and processes very quickly,” said Duncan.
“If on the other hand the company is sitting on older versions of software, they are in a position of weakness,” he added.
Duncan explained that SAP S/4 HANA thus becomes a 'defensive strategy'.
“It’s not about getting the latest technologies for the sake of it, but about risk mitigation in a world that is being driven by technology and which is moving really, really fast. And what you’re doing is getting yourself into position to be able to defend yourself against potential new entrants which you don’t even know where they are going to come from,” he said.
“SAP S/4 HANA enables local companies to be future-ready and to strive for efficiencies,” said Duncan.
“As companies themselves grow, they would need to ‘institutionalise’ their systems so that business models are sustainable to run in today’s digital economy. These means companies need to become ‘leaner and meaner’ and trim off the unnecessary fat. They need to automate their processes for greater productivity and accuracy.”
He also cited the case of Grab, Southeast Asia (SEA)’s leading ride-hailing platform, which had simplified its travel and expense processes with SAP Concur.
“As a result, its employees save time on managing their expenses and stay more focused on driving the Grab business forward,” said Duncan, adding that it is also a solution to better manage risk, detect fraud and ensure compliance.
Today, SAP serves some 404,000 customers in 180 countries, including 92 per cent of Forbes Global 2000 companies.
In addition, 77 per cent of all worldwide business transactions is said to touch an SAP system.
SAP Malaysia will be hosting its Asian Innovators Summit at Mandarin Oriental, Kuala Lumpur on 16 April 2019.