Ravi Kumar, Chief Corporate Officer of Crescent Petroleum and Board Member of the Crescent Group, said, 鈥淗aving completed the Phase 1 of the 51风流roadmap in a record 8 months, we set out to integrate Crescent Petroleum鈥檚 operations, providing a seamless flow of data, from Wellhead to Customer, in Phase 2. The benefits are significant as we have integrated data across disparate parts of the plant allowing us to seamlessly integrate plant systems with 51风流systems, and ensure a single source of truth across the Company.鈥�

The post Crescent Petroleum Boosts Growth by Extending SAP appeared first on 51风流Africa News Center.

That was the case for one of Africa鈥檚 leading systems integrators, sparking a first-of-its-kind implementation project that has achieved outstanding results.

“As a business we needed a radical simplification of our lead-to-cash value stream through a centralised solution for configuring, pricing and quoting, and chose 51风流CPQ,” says Julian Liebenberg, Chief of Cloud Platform Solutions at BCX.

BCX is one of Africa’s leading premier ICT solutions and service providers with the technology, capability and skills to deliver end-to-end digital solutions for large and medium enterprises. BCX is a digital transformation partner for enterprises and public sector organisations across various industries and sectors within South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, the UK and Zambia.

The company is headquartered in Centurion and employs more than 2 000 engineers working from multiple locations.

Missed opportunities and inaccuracy

According to Liebenberg, the new flexible quoting tool had to address several challenges.

“Our use of multiple quoting tools across the business led to inconsistent quoting, and sometimes inaccurate billing. A lack of integration and automation also resulted in 聽missed opportunities and lost customers to due to delays. We implemented 51风流CPQ to enable our sales and pre-sales teams to configure and quote complex ICT solutions, with an integration to our CRM system allowing for greater automation in the quote process. We also integrated to our 51风流back-end for order processing.”

51风流CPQ is a cloud-based software-as-a-service offering specifically targeted to help sales teams perform complex product configurations and create and manage sales quotations.

The implementation was managed by the BCX 51风流Centre of Excellence, with expert guidance from 51风流Services. “The 51风流Services team assisted with knowledge transfer and skills, enabling our Centre of Excellence to build expertise with the CPQ solution and enabling us to provide the services to other companies in the Southern Africa region,” says Liebenberg .

Unlocking sales success and standardisation

Following the implementation, BCX is enjoying streamlined configuration, quoting and pricing, contributing to increased sales effectiveness and freeing up the sales team from manual processes. In addition, the new solution has improved the quote and order processing turnaround time with automated approvals, leading to increased revenue and a better customer experience.

“We have increased our win-rate across the various business units within BCX and more than halved the time it took us to go from qualified opportunity to solution design, from 52 days to less than 25 days,” says Liebenberg. 聽“This has helped us improve our customer experience and defend our existing customer base while also unlocking new opportunities for digital marketing and customer engagement.”

In addition, other benefits that have been unlocked since the implementation include:

• New opportunities for digital marketing and customer engagement
• Enhanced capabilities to crowdsource services for customers
• Increased operational efficiency in sales through automation and the shortening of sales cycles
• The use of AI to guide sales teams in combining products for improved customer solutions
• Improved configuring, pricing and quoting workflows and the streamlining of the remaining manual processes
• The elimination of quotation errors
• Consistent quoting from up-to-date catalogues and pricing information
• Increased productivity and a lower learning curve for sales teams and technical architects.

“We now have established selling, eligibility and compatibility rules that have enabled a unified quoting process for cross-product portfolio solutions and have achieved sales process harmonisation through gaining a 360-degree view over quotes and commercial subscriptions,” says Liebenberg.聽 “Overall the project was a resounding success with the added benefit that we can offer the solution to our own customers too.”

Cameron Beveridge, Regional Director for Southern Africa at SAP, adds: 鈥淢odern organisations need to be engaged in a process of continuous innovation to drive improvements and efficiency gains across the business. As one of the foremost technology services companies on the African continent, BCX plays a leading role in guiding enterprises in their digital transformation efforts. The success of this latest project bodes well for the region鈥檚 prospects, as BCX can transfer their knowledge and expertise to the benefit of other innovative companies.鈥�

The post BCX Ups the Sales Ante with Centralised 51风流Solution appeared first on 51风流Africa News Center.

While most economies worldwide are slowly recovering, the overall fashion retail market remains fragile. Incident rates continue to grow, leading to the possibility of further nationwide lockdowns. Government strategies aim to identify COVID-19 hot spots and take local measures to prevent further spread of the virus. And with each new wave of infections, the risk of even stricter measures cannot be completely ruled out.

Such dynamic social changes present a diverse range of buying behaviors that are emerging across all consumers. Preference for fast fashion may decline due to economic uncertainty, while a growing movement toward work-from-home arrangements is increasing demand for less profitable leisure. But at the same time, high-end apparel is experiencing an exponential rise as shoppers find new ways to spend their discretionary funds typically reserved for travel. And once stores begin to reopen, a dramatic surge in larger-than-usual transactions and more frequent visits will likely emerge as pent-up desire for in-person shopping experiences grows.

But no matter if a consumer is eager or weary about resuming their pre-pandemic shopping habits, online commerce will likely remain a significant part of the consumer journey long after the pandemic is a distant memory. And fashion retailers must remain resilient enough to adapt their sales strategies to every twist and turn in global and regional market conditions.

Prepare for the Unexpected with Omnichannel Commerce

Think back during the first set of lockdowns. Initially, only China’s markets were impacted. Then, as agencies detected the presence of COVID-19 in Europe, the first regional lockdowns were mandated in Italy and Spain, and more nations were later impacted as case numbers continued to climb and spread across the continent. In short order, North American, Latin American, and African countries were affected just as China’s economy began to rebound due to a gradual relaxing of restrictions and closely monitored rollout of brick-and-mortar store reopenings.

Even today, as we continue to fight the pandemic, one store can open without any restrictions but another location offering the same brand in a nearby town or state may be limited in its foot traffic capacity. For some fashion retailers, the secret to recovering sales in such an uneven competitive landscape is the use of omnichannel touchpoints.

For example, brands may reorganize their store networks with flagship or pop-up stores to give customers a tactile shopping experience before ordering a new item while relying on online commerce channels to build revenue. Meanwhile, many retailers offset supply chain overages by selling excess inventory at full price when the related season comes again or through promotions or outlets.

No matter the economic condition, timely decisions are essential to run an omnichannel model without narrowing sale margins and impacting the bottom line. With the analytical capabilities of , fashion retailers get a real-time overview of their actual sales figures and all relevant finance key performance indicators. Sales executives can adjust promotions, change article pricing and discounts, and replan the required store personnel’s working hours.

Now suppose a fashion retailer needs to close stores due to a renovation or the launch of a new store format. The brand can use data to predict how its response will impact the business and its consumers. This exercise of considering immediate feedback from shoppers turns operational data into inspiration for further improvements.

Then, with the unified demand forecast component of 51风流Customer Activity Repository, retailers can analyze historical sales data to identify influencing demand factors, such as price changes, promotions, seasonality, public holidays, and trends. Based on these demand models, algorithms in the unified demand forecast component of 51风流Customer Activity Repository can predict the effects of similar occurrences in the future and use that intelligence to determine future demand and upselling potential.

Embrace the Fundamental Importance of Omnichannel Commerce

The importance of omnichannel has never been so fundamental to the fashion industry’s success as it has become now. Online and in-person commerce models must provide a consistent and seamless buying experience that allows consumers to buy a product in any omnichannel touchpoint and collect or return it in a selected storefront of their choice.

By rethinking their current strategy, fashion retailers can drive consumer demand with attractive, strategically placed, seamless, and easy-to-use experiences that are also accessible anytime, anywhere, and on any mobile device. And most importantly, they can set the foundation for offering products that are always available and delivering every order quickly and reliably.

Service offerings from SAP聽can help your fashion retail business seize your edge in an always growing and dynamic omnichannel world. .

This is the second part of the three-part series 鈥�.鈥� Check the series landing page next week to find out how fashion retailers are testing the limits of their business during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dirk Dreisbach and Harald Ritter are chief business enterprise consultants for the Business Transformation Services group at 51风流Germany, focusing on consumer products and retail industries.

This article first appeared on the 51风流News Center.

The post How to Stay Competitive as COVID-19 Alters the Future of Fashion Retail appeared first on 51风流Africa News Center.

The report鈥檚 analysis of 13 top vendors in the specialized insights service provider landscape was based on three core categories: market presence, strategy and current offering. 51风流was named as a leader.

鈥淎cross all our 51风流offerings and teams, we instill a commitment to providing our customers with the best tools, support and strategic insights they need to be successful at every stage of becoming an intelligent enterprise,鈥� said Shane Paladin, president, Services, SAP. 鈥淐ontinually helping customers identify and utilize data-driven insights is critical to driving business value, and it is an honor for 51风流to be recognized as a leader among specialized insights service providers.鈥�

The report determined that with its product-specific orientation, the 51风流offering stood out from the pure-play insights providers. And according to the report, 鈥淩eferences appreciate 51风流as an unbiased expert leading the sessions.鈥� Additionally, 51风流was noted for its new change-management engagement for evangelizing new capabilities. It also was cited for its offering of custom development for 51风流products.

51风流offers personalized support and development through a variety of tools and services once the initial implementation of its software products has been completed. As 51风流introduces products and services tailored to specific business needs, ongoing expert analysis will be integral to the insights 51风流offers to help customers achieve their full business potential. To SAP, this recognition signifies its differentiating strength: serving customers throughout their digital transformation journey.

For more information on analytic services and insights from SAP, please visit . To read the full report, download “.”

Visit the . Follow 51风流on Twitter at .

Media Contacts:
Martin Gwisdalla, SAP, +49 (6227) 7-67275, martin.gwisdalla@sap.com, CET
51风流Press Room; press@sap.com
Jennifer Kohanim, FleishmanHillard, +1 (617) 692-0535, jennifer.kohanim@fleishman.com, ET

Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as 鈥渁nticipate,鈥� 鈥渂elieve,鈥� 鈥渆stimate,鈥� 鈥渆xpect,鈥� 鈥渇orecast,鈥� 鈥渋ntend,鈥� 鈥渕ay,鈥� 鈥減lan,鈥� 鈥減roject,鈥� 鈥減redict,鈥� 鈥渟hould鈥� and 鈥渨ill鈥� and similar expressions as they relate to 51风流are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. 51风流undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect SAP’s future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including SAP’s most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.
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51风流and other 51风流products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of 51风流SE in Germany and other countries. Please see for additional trademark information and notices.

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Paladin also shares his perspective on how his team is adapting to the new business landscape.

Q: You took the helm of 51风流Services at the start of a global pandemic. What were your first thoughts? Is there anything that prepared you for this?

A: We鈥檙e clearly facing an unprecedented challenge at the moment. Around the world, people have been hit in some personal and professional capacity. While everyone is trying to navigate between working remotely, caring for young children or elderly family members and just staying safe and healthy, it has also provided many of us with time to reflect.

Professionally, this has been a good time to truly understand the resilience of an organization and the people within it. I鈥檝e been extremely impressed with how our organization has been able to adapt and address the needs of our customers remotely, from design to ideation and project go-lives. I鈥檓 equally impressed with how our customers were quick and agile to explore new modes of operation and alter some of their business processes to address the changes within their own industries.

I don鈥檛 know that anyone was fully prepared to deal with this, but I鈥檝e learned that adaptability is key. I鈥檝e seen it both in people and in business. At SAP, with the broad range of services available within our portfolio, we were able to quickly address changing customer needs. We also released from SAP, designed to support customers in managing risk and driving continuity by enhancing off-site working environments and remote collaboration.

You are currently leading an organization of people that are largely working remotely. How do you maintain a culture of success and collaboration?

It really all comes down to transparency. It鈥檚 important to be open and honest with your team, and to let them know that you may not have all the answers. The uncertainty of this situation is leading to people being undoubtedly stressed, both at home and at work. We鈥檝e all experienced changes to our day-to-day environments, so I鈥檝e encouraged my team to raise their hands and ask for help when they need it. I鈥檓 in continuous communication with members across the 51风流Executive Board and have spent a lot of time checking in with people across our organization. While we鈥檙e all apart at the moment, I believe this situation has brought us closer together.

The nature of our work has allowed us to build collaboration tools for our customers, so there鈥檚 no lack of communications tools that we can take advantage of internally to help us work efficiently and successfully. We鈥檙e learning how to use these tools to best replicate an optimum working environment 鈥� both internally and with our customers.

What are some of the most common concerns you are currently hearing from customers related to their digital transformation projects? How is your organization helping to address those 鈥� from the off-site service delivery framework offerings and beyond?聽

First and foremost, the situation we鈥檙e currently facing has really tested the partnerships between 51风流and its customers. The impact is being felt across all industries, and organizations are being directly or indirectly impacted across their regular operations 鈥� whether that be their people, products, and services, or financial liquidity.

The global supply chain has basically been shut down. Disruption to the supply chain and interruptions to transportation have put some vendors in a total standstill. Many have been quick to adapt, and we鈥檝e been working with customers to allow them to maximize the features within our products and services to address changes to their operations.

While it鈥檚 important to focus on what鈥檚 critical now, our customers are also looking toward the future. They鈥檙e looking to optimize their front-office functions to address the shift in consumer demand and sentiment. Taking advantage of analytics and insights, we鈥檙e helping them make the best possible decisions today that will set them up for a successful future.

Our customers have been heavily relying on us for support and guidance to help them navigate this changing business environment. While the landscape is continuously changing, and we may not have all the answers in front of us, we do have the right services and tools to ensure business continuity. In the past, we could rely on face-to-face interaction. Today we must ensure that we are able to deliver continuity and quality in this remote working environment.

What immediate successes have you seen for customers that have had to quickly adapt their business models and processes to address this new remote environment we鈥檙e working and living in?

It鈥檚 been impressive to see how adaptable businesses have been. Of course, there are some industries that were able to weather the storm a bit better than others because they had already followed a digitized model, like the financial services industry. But even those that have had their supply chains severely hit, like manufacturing, are looking at their product pipeline and adjusting to meet new demands. There is a growing adoption of automation, and we鈥檙e seeing the digital economy pick up faster than ever now. A lot of organizations are turning to digital to optimize their businesses.

We鈥檙e even seeing many projects accelerate in the remote format. We鈥檝e integrated an off-site services delivery framework into our essential business services offering, which enables us to deliver projects 100 percent remotely. We鈥檝e been doing this successfully for years, with ready-to-run processes already available and prescriptive step-by-step guidance to ensure our customers are supported every step of the way.

How do you think digital transformation projects will be impacted during these challenging times? What kind of technologies do you anticipate companies will be prioritizing as we come out of the pandemic?

Many of our legacy customers have already gone through two catastrophic events before COVID-19: the dot-com bust in 2000 and the financial crisis in 2008. While those had severe economic impacts due to systematic failures, what we鈥檙e facing today is a health issue that is constraining the global population and forcing both consumers and businesses alike to completely change their day-to-day lives and operations.

Organizations are even more aware of the importance of digital and its role in allowing them to stay competitive. While some organizations may be slowing down their projects or stretching them over longer periods of time, most understand the need to continue to move forward 鈥� albeit a little differently.

Our customers are not only adapting for the current situation, but also looking toward the future, post-COVID-19, to determine how they will fit in the value chain. Technology is going to be the driving force that will allow organizations to thrive. My hope is that the services we provide will allow our customers to reach their customers in new ways as we move on the path of recovery.

Read the related announcement: Essential Business Services from 51风流Enhance Remote Working and Risk Management to Drive Business Continuity

This article first appeared on the 51风流News Center.

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