Businesses Urged to Embrace Digitalization to Revitalize Hong Kong

HONG KONG,July 9,2020 -- "Digital transformation will power Hong Kong's business recovery and safeguard the city's long-held status as a centre of trade and innovation," SAP Hong Kong Managing Director Fabian Padilla Crisol said at the SAP SAPPHIRE NOW Vision Reimagined Hong Kong on June 16. Joined by local business leaders for the virtual event,Mr Padillo Crisol urged companies to reimagine their operations,value proposition,and business model for the digital economy.

Mr Padilla Crisol said,"The global COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the pace of the Fourth Industrial Revolution around the world. In Hong Kong,it triggered a heightened focus for businesses to leverage emerging technologies to take advantage of new opportunities and create sustainable business value. Companies that move now towards digitalization will find them well-positioned to stay ahead their competition in the long run."

Being held as a virtual event for the first time in its 30-year history,SAPPHIRE NOW has been reimagined in 2020 to focus on supporting business communities in economic recovery. In Hong Kong,SAP garnered distinguished local thought leaders to share their vision of post-COVID growth for the city's businesses in panel discussions and presentations.

Transparent supply chain

Pandemic-driven disruption is dividing businesses into those that have established a transparent global supply chain and those that need to do so.

SAP solutions harness predictive analytics,automation,and the Internet of Things to help companies implement supply chain management to better anticipate disruptions through simulations and risk assessment. The end goal is global visibility over supply and demand,accurate forecasting,and smooth collaboration with partners and customers.

"The COVID-19 crisis has made it clear that all businesses need to be able to react in real-time to unexpected and unprecedented supply chain disruption. We are confident that businesses in Hong Kong SAR of China can leverage SAP technology and Accenture expertise to build a working model of a resilient and transparent supply chain in as little as six weeks," said Philippe Cherigie,managing director,SAP sales lead for Asia Pacific,Accenture.

Digitalized sales channels

Commerce has moved online rapidly as social distancing becomes the norm. Investing in digital channels has benefits beyond simply catering to an increase in online shoppers. It also helps companies manage inventory,warehousing,and logistics; effectively use their physical stores in omnichannel business models; and make informed data-based business decisions.

Hong Kong's Distance Business Programme (D-Biz),which offers government funding for IT projects that support companies to do business online,can give local enterprises a competitive edge.

"While companies elsewhere remain focused on cost-cutting,Hong Kong businesses are being empowered to accelerate their digital transformation. Investing to upscale your digital channels today will ensure you are ready to succeed in the new economy when global business bounces back," explained Wing Lee,Executive Director,IVC Solutions Limited. "With SAP,IVC has D-Biz packages on mobile sales platforms,robotic process automation,digital marketing,and more."

Organization-wide agility

The coronavirus pandemic has upended supply and demand and redefined business agility. Companies have had to find ways to equip employees to remain productive at home and to accelerate innovation.

"The more agile you are,the more innovative you can be," said Olivier Klein,Lead Technologist,Asia-Pacific,Amazon Web Services. "Cloud computing services are proving to be vital at this time,with the pandemic driving businesses online and sparking rapid changes to business models. It's about elasticity—so you can scale your computing resources as needed,and as such reduce the cost of experimentation,so you can reduce the cost of failure."

Maria Hui,Director,Marketing and Operations,Microsoft Hong Kong,focused on the need to empower individuals. "With organizations across all sectors having to move to remote work,everyone needs solutions that promote productivity,collaboration and creativity. It is also important to ensure the solutions enable employees to work in a secured manner anytime,anywhere. This is just as important for educators as it is for business leaders. In every sphere,organizations need the right platform,tools and partners to build the digital capability required to address these challenges," she said.

About Accenture

Accenture is a leading global professional services company,providing a broad range of services in strategy and consulting,interactive,technology and operations,with digital capabilities across all of these services. We combine unmatched experience and specialized capabilities across more than 40 industries — powered by the world's largest network of Advanced Technology and Intelligent Operations centers. With 509,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries,Accenture brings continuous innovation to help clients improve their performance and create lasting value across their enterprises. Visit us at www.accenture.com.

About IVC

IVC Solutions Limited is an award-winning SAP Gold Partner. IVC is the winner of both 2019 SAP Partner of the Year and SAP S/4HANA Partner of the Year as well as the Recognized Expertise in SuccessFactors and Business One solutions. Our team of professional consultants are well equipped to provide SAP solutions including but not limited to S/4HANA,C/4HANA,ByDesign,Business One,SuccessFactors,Ariba,Business Warehouse and Analytics Cloud etc. We offer professional implementation,training and support services to renowned customers in Greater China and London.

IVC is the SOLE training partner for SAP in Hong Kong and Macau,providing a comprehensive suite of public and customized training,certification courses to ensure both individuals and businesses can enhance their knowledge and skills to meet their SAP goals. Being a SAP Gold Partner,IVC's mission is to help customers sharpen their competitive edge in the challenging economy and win over their competitors with SAP solutions.

About Microsoft

Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT" @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

About SAP

As the Experience Company powered by the Intelligent Enterprise,SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software,helping companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best: 77% of the world's transaction revenue touches an SAP® system. Our machine learning,Internet of Things (IoT),and advanced analytics technologies help turn customers' businesses into intelligent enterprises. SAP helps give people and organizations deep business insight and fosters collaboration that helps them stay ahead of their competition. We simplify technology for companies so they can consume our software the way they want – without disruption. Our end-to-end suite of applications and services enables more than 440,000 business and public customers to operate profitably,adapt continuously,and make a difference. With a global network of customers,partners,employees,and thought leaders,SAP helps the world run better and improve people's lives. For more information,visit www.sap.com.

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