Michael Ouma
9 November 2009
Nairobi — In a two-pronged approach to take advantage of the imminent increase in bandwidth capacity and reach more small and medium enterprises in East Africa, Systems Applications Products (SAP) of Germany has announced plans to make Nairobi its regional hub.
SAP, known for the provision of enterprise resource planning (ERP) and related applications software to large enterprises, has now embarked on strategic market development initiatives targeted at the small and medium enterprises in the region.
At a recent SME road show in Nairobi, SAP's vice president for emerging markets Brett Parker said that with the right bandwidth available, there is little to prevent an SME in Africa from renting a SAP solution.
"SMEs in Africa have not been sophisticated in as far as technology is concerned, but the situation is set to change with the availability of cheap and reliable bandwidth from fibre optic cables," said Derek Kudsee, SAP Africa SME director Derek Kudsee.
Mr Kudsee said the move is in response to the region's rapid development in ICT, which has in turn raised the demand for business process management software systems.
The regional SAP boss said that Kenya "presents a multitude of opportunities" in tourism, travel, telecoms and infrastructure industries, a situation that calls on the firm to find partners within the country that know and understand local small and medium enterprises well.
SAP, the third largest business software maker globally, with a 43 per cent market share, uses Microsoft, Oracle and Sage software, while the firm's business software comprises of enterprise resource planning (ERP) and related applications.
To get a foothold in East Africa's robust small and medium enterprise market, SAP has devised new strategies to drive the growth.
SAP's strength lies in the fact that we are not just a software development company but a business engineering outfit," said Mr Parker, adding, "Firms do not just buy software for the sake of it but to improve efficiency and the effectiveness of their business processes."
The company is to focus on the SME market in both East and West Africa, with the decision being informed by the fact that "36 per cent of these enterprises become some of the largest firms during periods of economic recession, with 26 per cent emerging among the top 10," according to Mr Parker.
The firm's local operations enhancement, explained Mr Parker, is also geared at quashing the perception that SAP systems and solutions are only meant for the world's top companies.
"More than 65,000 SAP customers are small or medium sized companies which makes up more than 75 percent of SAP customers worldwide," said Mr Parker.
The company currently has 37,500 small and mid-size customers worldwide.
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