Sri Lanka will most likely entirely skip the desktop computer era completely and go straight to using mobile devices, like smartphones, tablet PCs, etc, and interact mostly via mobility, according to Peter Gartenberg, the Managing Director of SAP Indian Subcontinent, the regional unit of a software company.
The company, while starting in Enterprise-wide Resource Planning, now powers the back-end of virtually every major financial, telecommunication, infrastructure, etc. network in the world.
He said that, besides the above stated incentive to get into mobility, there were also the factors that mobile device prices were dropping every day and that mobility allowed businesses to reach customers on a mass scale. This was the thinking behind SAP's entry into mobility with its acquisition of a leader in the field, Sybase, a "perfect" extension strategy whereby SAP could now potentially have access to billions of users.
Speaking to the Business Times on the sidelines of the launch of a formal Sri Lankan office for the company, and joined by SAP Indian Subcontinent's Chief Operating Officer Alok Goel and Head of Emerging Business Priyadarshi Mohapatra, Mr. Gartenberg noted that, rather than a sales mandate, this newly launched venture would be more concerned with customer enablement, or helping customers during the ultimate step in the process following SAP software implementation. For example, with areas such as how to use applications, etc. Also implied was that SAP's long time presence in Sri Lanka, in conjunction with CSL, and its new strategic sales alliances with N*Able, PCH and JIT, would be the catalyst for future sales.
Adding to this, Mr. Mohapatra indicated that, for any business to effectively adopt SAP software, there had to be certain requirements filled and, as such, customer enablement was vital to the process.
And the new local office would provide a SAP person on the ground in Sri Lanka along with a strong partner eco-system.
Mr Goel said large businesses in Sri Lanka, which were now looking for a higher rate of, or even geographical, growth would have to better leverage their resources and so become more agile.
They would also require more sophisticated tools. Offering up the banking industry as an example, he pointed to the complexity of overwhelming volumes of data combined with the downstream implications of each transaction. SAP was one of few capable of meeting these needs. |
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