SAP has just hosted its first ever conference in Malta which addressed over 100 industry experts. Manos Raptopoulos, COO head and Carlos Diaz Sales, vice president innovation for SAP South Europe speak about SAP’s strategy for Malta, the country’s IT competitiveness and the evolvement of the network economy.
What are the main pillars of SAP’s global strategy?
Our strategy is based on three main pillars. The first pillar is that ours is a company driven by cloud technology. We are living in an age where 50 billion devices are connected through the internet. If social media were a country, its population would currently stand at 1.3 billion people. The level of engagement is such that social networks create expectations out of people who want to be connected as fast and easy as possible.
Manos Raptopoulos, SAP COO head COO.Everyone knows that any brand’s success is based on the level of engagement and instant feedback. The biggest challenge for most companies who are trying to reach out to their customers is how to harness intelligence and big data and how to use this information in an intelligent way to attract customers and achieve sales. This is all very complex but amid this complexity, there is SAP.
The second pillar is based on the fact that currently there is too much spending on cloud by companies with the consequence that little is being invested in innovation. This trend needs to be reversed and this is where we come in because we have the ability and the scale to apply cloud technology to help businesses that can then concentrate more on the innovation aspects of their business and on doing what they know best.
The third pillar is security. People are only willing to share with responsible vendors who they know will treat their information properly and discretely. This is why we are investing a lot in security. We are a European company and we take the EU’s data privacy policies very seriously. We have a lot of companies going on cloud and they want their data centres to remain in Europe. Besides being located in Europe, they also want to know that their database is being maintained within Europe. Globally, SAP has 12 data centres and we have another four new centres planned in Europe.
Where does Malta stand in SAP’s European current and near future strategy?
SAP was founded in 1972 and today, we have a presence in over 50 countries worldwide where through innovation and growth we are supporting over 230,000 of the world’s best-run businesses. Because SAP is an EU company, we want to help European businesses enjoy our products better.
We believe in Malta’s potential. Malta has had a clear IT strategy for a number of years and today is home to a large number of successful companies that are key players in their respective sectors. We believe that the Maltese economy has to be more extrovert and more aware of its potential. We also want Maltese youths to have the right tools and we want to help local companies improve their revenue. We do this by optimising their costs and managing their risk which makes them more competitive and more capable of generating wealth. We also want to enable more new companies and start-ups. Technology is a flat world where one no longer needs huge capitals to start off. What matters is having a great idea and having a good partner to push your idea into a reality. We have already funded around 1,200 start-ups around the world since 2012. We are currently helping a company which will be transferred to our platform so that we can take its product offer on the global market.
In what ways does SAP’s strategy for businesses differ from that of your competitors?
Our solutions help customers optimise the use of resources, innovate for growth and inspire people to be their best. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device, our technology empowers people and organisations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. We extend the availability of software across on-premise installations, on-demand deployments and mobile devices and have developed a portfolio strategy that consists of synchronised investments in applications, analytics, mobile, cloud, and database and technology.
We believe that the Maltese economy has to be more extrovert and more aware of its potential
The final difference however is not about technology but about the impact of our 25 distinct vertical solutions all backed by customer feedback. In Malta, this strategy is leaving us with very good prospects and potential. Over the past months there have been concrete steps with a number of potential leads and we hope that over the next months we will be able to make some interesting announcements.
How do you regard Malta from a competitive perspective?
We look at Malta very positively. We have seen how in the last years, Malta has recognised the immense opportunities of the IT industry and today we find it interesting how the internet and iGaming sectors are contributing so much to Malta’s economy. There is a lot of potential in IT as this can also attract more tourism and entertainment to Malta. As such, Malta’s competitiveness could be further strengthened if we seek to make the country a smart hub for the south of Europe.
SAP recently hosted a conference in Malta, during which you addressed over 100 industry experts. What do you hope to achieve through this conference?
We see a lot of potential in Malta. We decided to host this conference here simply because we feel that we can be more present. This was our first SAP event in Malta and we wanted our event to be a forum that challenges intellectuals. We have to be visionary but also practical in the solutions we create both in the private and public sector. The conference sought to present the opportunities in the global market and the latest technological developments in the areas of cloud computing, enterprise mobility and business analytics. SAP colleagues also had the opportunity to analyse the challenges of managing large volumes of data and to discuss cloud solutions.
This conference was an opportunity for SAP to sign a memorandum of understanding with MITA. What do you aim to achieve with this new agreement?
The MOU signed with MITA ties in with our help to youths. In the very near future we hope to roll out an alliance with university so that we will be able to provide students with content, online courses, to help them be more skilled and to give them tangible understandings on how to run a business.
Around 70 start-ups attended a special workshop organised purposely for them as part of this conference. Through this MOU we also want to be able to expose MITA to more innovation, new technologies and our concept of big data management.
SAP has a number of programmes in place aimed at supporting youth unemployment and technology spread whereas support to universities and young talents is a key component for SAP. We have a product, Academy Cube, which is a platform for people to register their current status and find it easier to find employment. This platform, available on www.academycube.eu, also doubles up as a database for employers and can be used throughout Europe.
In what ways would is SAP a driver of IT innovation?
Carlos Diaz Sales, SAP vice president, innovation.40 years ago we invented Enterprise Resource Planning. Then we discovered HANA. Our technology allows us to think in terms of individuals and their personal and immediate needs and expectations. When you combine the world of ERP and the unique capacities of HANA, you will be effectively looking at a totally different model. In our work, we are leveraging the cloud trend to make businesses enabled in a much faster, lighter and more effective way.
Everyone agrees that when it comes to technology, it is not enough for the private sector to innovate. The public sector needs to innovate too. How do the IT needs of the public sector differ from those of the private sector?
Technology brings together different worlds and this works also for the private and public sectors because ultimately, they both deal with people. Our technology enables us to offer precision marketing. HANA makes it possible to reach out to the very last individual at the price you are willing to pay. Ultimately, if there is a will to reach out, it does not matter if you are a private company or a public entity. For instance, we have worked with Montreal City Transport. As clients, they wanted their commuters to use technology more in order to be able to understand their commuting patterns better. We helped them through the creation of an application which in three weeks was downloaded over 10,000 times. Through this technology, we can help predict customer behaviour and drive his next actions. This is the network economy, where brands and businesses feed each other’s customers. HANA technology is making things that were not possible, possible. If the public sector can do it, even the private sector can. It’s all about willingness.
In your opinion, how can technology and innovation enable growth?
More than growth, technology will allow survival. Smaller companies can be more innovative and quicker. We are witnessing smaller utility companies innovate so quickly and this enables them to remain at the forefront.
This is the same philosophy that we promote even with our 1,500 start-ups that use our HANA technology. When we talk to start-ups and we talk to those who really love doing what they do, we see their passion and we know that no matter where they are, they can succeed.