In an effort to help businesses cope with the Covid-19 disruption, SAP, the market leader in enterprise application software, has opened up access to selected technology solutions to help organisations with their business continuity efforts.
SAP is providing free access to SAP Ariba Discovery, the world’s largest business network until December 31, 2020, so any buyer can post their immediate sourcing needs and any supplier can respond to show they can deliver.
There is also free access to Qualtrics Remote Work Pulse to help organisations understand how their employees are doing and what support they need as they adapt to new work environments. Additionally, businesses can also access the SAP Value Lifecycle Manager, an industry benchmark tool that supports businesses to measure, monitor and optimise value across their enterprise.
These developments were announced at the SAP Forward Together virtual event held today, when Rachel Barger, President & Managing Director, SAP South East Asia encouraged organisations to “innovate and transform” to elevate their competitiveness in a post-COVID-19 world.
SAP had also announced the results of its poll of 4,500 Southeast Asian business leaders, revealing the extent of COVID-19’s impact on businesses across the region, and concerns about long-term prospects. The survey revealed that 40% of the businesses polled are still adopting a “wait and see” approach in response to the pandemic.
Implications of COVID-19 on SEA businesses
Majority of regional business leaders (63%) surveyed have already seen changes in customers’ purchasing behaviour and motivations since the start of 2020, although 21% of businesses are unsure or lack insight on changes in their customer’s needs.
Amidst this shift, organisations are still moving conservatively with their digital transformation efforts, with many adopting a protective stance with the mindset that disruption from COVID-19 will pass in due course.
Although businesses have pivoted their operations towards e-commerce and online selling, smaller businesses still worry over implementation costs of digital platforms and juggling operations to meet the sudden influx of demand.
Supply chain and operations are also other aspects that businesses are keeping a close watch on, with 22% of businesses expecting significant change in the future.
As businesses make sense of the new post-pandemic economic reality, worries and uncertainty over the long-term prospects of growth and survivability has emerged as the foremost concern.
Over 80% of regional businesses leaders surveyed expect significant/massive impact to change their business model or operations, with just 1% expecting “business-as-usual” in the long run.
Prior to the COVID-19 crisis, the drivers of technology were focused on cost reduction and productivity. The goal was to make well run businesses run better.
As a result of the the Covid-19 pandemic, the role of technology has evolved to achieve resiliency, deliver profitability and for companies to act sustainably, said the survey statement.
