Paul Marriott Archives - 51��India News Center

Simon Davies announced as new 51��Regional President, Asia Pacific

51��India — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 00:00:15 +0000

India, February 17, 2025 – 51��Asia Pacific (APAC) announced Simon Davies as President for the newly-created APAC region, effective immediately. Based in Singapore, Davies will oversee strategy, operations, people, sales, services, partners, and profitability across Asia Pacific for 51��SE (NYSE: SAP). After five years in the role, Paul Marriott returns to Europe to be closer to family.

With 51��market units operating in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), Greater China, India, Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia, Davies will oversee more than 31,000 employees across 78 offices. Across the APAC region, 51��services leading customers including NEC Corporation, Coles Group, Wipro, Fujitsu Limited, Shiseido, Hyundai Motor Company, Kia Corporation, Himalaya, Cochlear, and Japan Airlines.

Prior to this appointment, Davies has spent 25 years building, selling, and implementing IT solutions in Asia Pacific, working with some of the world’s leading software companies, including Microsoft, Salesforce, and Oracle. Most recently, he was Senior Vice President and General Manager of Asia Pacific and Japan at Splunk, a position he held for over three years. Davies also serves on the board of several pre-IPO technology companies and is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (MAICD).

Manos Raptopoulos, Chief Revenue Officer for APAC, EMEA, and MEE, said “Our next chapter is being fuelled by accelerated cloud and AI innovation, underpinned by our purpose, our people, and our partnerships. Simon combines experience in Asia’s fast-growth, innovation-hungry markets with proven expertise in building high-performance, diverse, and inclusive teams. I’m confident that under Simon, 51��APAC will build on the tremendous momentum established during Paul’s leadership and continue to be a catalyst for innovation and supporting customer success.”

Simon Davies said “I’m very excited for this new chapter to begin. Across Asia Pacific and Japan, we see forward-thinking businesses accelerating strategic transformation supported by SAP. Establishing a solid foundation in the cloud and leveraging business data is the gateway to exploring new avenues of growth in areas like artificial intelligence, data analytics, and sustainability.”

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Manish Prasad appointed President and Managing Director for 51��Indian Subcontinent

51��News — Wed, 06 Mar 2024 04:33:30 +0000

India, March 06, 2024 — 51��today announced the appointment of Manish Prasad as President and Managing Director for 51��Indian Subcontinent. He succeeds Kulmeet Bawa, who takes on a global role to drive the growth and adoption of the 51��Business Technology Platform (51��BTP) for customers worldwide.

Manish Prasad, President & Managing Director, 51��Indian Subcontinent

A technology veteran and seasoned business leader at SAP, Manish has been responsible for delivering strategic and impactful outcomes for some of India’s leading organizations across the metals, mining, and automotive industries. With a career spanning over two decades, he has experience building and managing global and regional businesses across multiple geographies including North America, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia.

Commenting on the announcement, Paul Marriott, President, 51��Asia Pacific Japan said, “India is one of the fastest-growing markets for 51��in the region and globally, and a strategically important hub for innovation and growth. I am excited to welcome Manish, and I’m confident that his deep understanding of the market, our technology, and people will usher in the next phase of growth in India. I thank Kulmeet Bawa for his outstanding contribution over the last three years, delivering continued success and growth for 51��India, and I look forward to working with him to help accelerate the value our customers gain from 51��BTP.”

In his new role, Manish will advance SAP’s move to the cloud, helping to enable customers across all industries to digitally transform with SAP.

“India is at a pivotal moment in its digital transformation journey, embracing emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, marking an era of unprecedented possibilities,” Manish added. “I look forward to working with our incredibly talented teams to accelerate growth and guiding our customers on their journeys to being intelligent, sustainable, and future-ready enterprises.”

Based in Bangalore, Manish will report to Paul Marriott.

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51��elevates Kulmeet Bawa to global Chief Revenue Officer, 51��Business Technology Platform

51��News — Fri, 12 Jan 2024 03:23:46 +0000

51��Newsbyte— 12 January 2024 — today announced Kulmeet Bawa, President & Managing Director for the Indian Subcontinent, has been elevated to a global role as the Chief Revenue Officer, 51��Business Technology Platform (51��BTP). In his new role, Bawa will be responsible for driving the growth and adoption of 51��BTP across the globe, including SAP’s artificial intelligence, data and analytics, automation, and integration.

Bawa will continue to serve in his current role through February, during which time a new leader for 51��India will be announced.

“We are witnessing an unparalleled wave of innovation with 51��at its core,” commented Claudio Muruzabal, Chief Business Officer, SAP.�� “Kulmeet has extensive experience helping businesses create new opportunities through cloud transformation, optimizing their data, and innovating with Business AI. I look forward to Kulmeet bringing those skills to customers around the world.”

Commenting on the appointment, Bawa noted, “51��and our customers are going through a critical transformation and have a unique opportunity to redefine how successful businesses run. I am incredibly excited to apply everything I’ve learned in our Indian business in a global field, and to continue to contribute to customer transformation journeys around the world.”

A technology leader with two decades of experience across Asia, Bawa joined 51��India in 2020. Under his leadership 51��India became one of the company’s fastest-growing global markets, with a focus on some of the subcontinent’s most transformative organizations, including the 50 Indian unicorns which run on 51��today.

��Paul Marriott, President, 51��Asia Pacific Japan, said, “Under Kulmeet’s leadership, 51��India has gone from strength to strength. His ability to showcase a profound understanding of the business landscape, engage deeply with people, partners, and customers, and build a people-centric organisation will only benefit more customers in this global role.”

Known for his authentic and inclusive leadership style, he also holds an Honorary Doctor of Philosophy for exemplifying committed leadership and has always been a huge champion of diversity and inclusion. Prior to SAP, Kulmeet has also served in various leadership roles in major technology companies such as Adobe, Microsoft Corporation, and Sun Microsystems.

Visit the 51��India News Center. Follow 51��at @SAPNews.

Media Contact:

Deepika Gumaste, +91 9769933345, deepika.gumaste@sap.com

51��Press Room; press@sap.com

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Behind SAP’s smart solutions to track carbon footprints

51��India — Tue, 04 Jul 2023 09:37:14 +0000

With countries pushing the industry to track its carbon footprint to the last mile, SaaS player 51��has launched a solution that can do just that.

When un secretary-general António Guterres warned “We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator,” he wasn’t indulging in hyperbole. Although organisations have started to become mindful of their carbon footprint, a report from Rocky Mountain Institute states that the average company’s supply-chain greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are 5.5x higher than the direct emissions from its assets and operations. Even countries are working to create regulations that require businesses to track their carbon footprint to the last milligram.

In this backdrop, even software firms are creating systems that can help track their supply chain’s GHG emissions transparently and auditable. For instance, software-as-a-service firm 51��has designed Green Ledger that allows businesses to manage their operations in a sustainable manner with bottoms-up transactional emissions data, rather than estimates. “The Green Ledger gives you the accounting equivalent of your emissions balance sheet. It is doing the same for emissions [data] as enterprise resource planning (ERP) has been doing for financials for many years,” says Paul Marriott, President of 51��Asia Pacific Japan.

This would enable companies to manage the carbon that enters and leaves their systems as they balance profits and losses. With over 400,000 enterprise customers using SAP’s software across the globe, the Ledger can be included as an add-on to its ERP solution S4/HANA Cloud, and allocate carbon emissions weightage to financial transactions. But it requires data of the carbon footprint of products to provide accurate, actionable data for decision-making.

This article originally appeared in

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51��and Visa Digitalize B2B Payments for APAC Enterprises

51��India — Wed, 28 Jun 2023 08:53:32 +0000

June, 28, 2023 –��51��SE (NYSE: SAP) and Visa today announced that they are collaborating to streamline and simplify business-to-business (B2B) payments for businesses of all sizes.��Starting with the Asia-Pacific market, the collaboration will embed payments into the 51��ecosystem through��, further digitalizing and speeding up B2B payments across Asia-Pacific’s supply chains.

This is the first time that Visa and 51��will join forces to explore embedded finance in the B2B market through 51��BTP to offer convenient B2B payment services to 51��customers. Many businesses in Asia Pacific, especially smaller ones, lack the resources to digitalize B2B payment acceptance and are unable to accept commercial card payments. Through this collaboration, the B2B payment services running on 51��BTP will inject more automation into payments and help enterprises drive further efficiency in their purchasing as they make payments securely with just a few clicks.

“The movement of money is becoming increasingly digital, but the bulk of transformation has been focused on the consumer space,” said Stephen Karpin, Regional President, Asia Pacific, Visa. “Our collaboration with 51��is an exciting step in making B2B payments simpler and more intuitive as organizations can make payments immediately on 51��software platforms with their Visa corporate cards, instead of having to leave their existing enterprise ecosystem and navigate the different payment methods that their vendors accept. B2B payments need to be intuitive and fuss-free, so organizations can maximize time and resources on other aspects of their businesses.”

51��BTP provides a secure innovation platform to allow Visa and 51��to help bridge working capital gaps in the supply chain. Under its suite of Commercial and Money Movement Solutions, Visa will deliver capabilities through 51��BTP to route commercial payments to all suppliers, whether or not they accept card payments. Businesses that are Visa cardholders will be able to make payments seamlessly and utilize their cardholder benefits both domestically and cross-border. Businesses will no longer need to resort to manual and time-consuming payments, such as cash and cheques, reducing the time needed to process and complete transactions and increasing cash flow for both payers and suppliers.

“Our collaboration with Visa endeavors to streamline and simplify the B2B payment process and drive further efficiencies for our joint customers,” said Paul Marriott, President, Asia Pacific Japan, SAP. “Embedding Visa payment solutions into the 51��ecosystem aims to scale and accelerate digital commerce, together empowering enterprises – from small businesses to government agencies and nonprofit organizations – to make secure payments quickly, transforming the last mile of procurement.”

The embedded finance solution will be offered initially to 51��customers in Australia, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, with plans to roll out across other markets in the region.

Media Contact:

Deepika Gumaste , +91 9769933345, deepika.gumaste@sap.com

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Targeting India’s MSMEs with solutions running global enterprises

51��India — Tue, 02 May 2023 02:10:21 +0000

Germany-headquartered enterprise resource planning (ERP) software provider SAP, launched its latest platform — Grow with 51��— targeting India’s micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). In December last year, Kulmeet Bawa, India’s president, and managing director, said that the country was already one of the fastest-growing for ERP market leader last year. Now the company is targeting the country’s micro, small and medium-sized businesses (MSMEs). In an interview, Paul Marriott, president, of Asia-Pacific and Japan discussed how this strategy will work. Edited excerpts:

51��has offered ERP solutions in India for a long time. How would the new platform be any different?

We recognize that the SME sector in India is 80% of the entire Indian market, and we sought to offer the same global solutions that run global enterprises — with a value-centric approach to businesses in India. Grow helped us accelerate the timelines of bringing a price-conscious ERP cloud solution to the Indian mid-market.

In India, mid-market businesses are incredibly price-conscious. They need a palatable entry point to tech solutions and also need rapid delivery of the product so that they can go live on cloud platforms quickly. Grow was focused on creating a package of rapid adoption services that massively accelerate cloud migration timelines for tens of thousands of companies in India. It brings the same enterprise ERP that all big companies have benefitted from, for so many years, at scale into the price-sensitive market.

What does this ‘rapid timeline of adoption’ that you spoke about imply?

It is a cloud infrastructure that runs locally here. Two years ago, we invested around ₹500 crores in local cloud infrastructure and localization of the product, which is important as India is shaping or already has its own taxation and regulatory requirements. Now more than ever, it is important to have the solution running in India because of data sovereignty and regulation. We deploy our solutions on one of the three global cloud hyper scalers — Google Cloud Platform, Amazon Web Services, and Microsoft Azure.

Having the solution running locally in India not only helps us accelerate its deployment and deliver quickly to clients but will also help us make it available at scale all across the country.

What is the primary challenge in reaching out to small businesses with cloud migration platforms?

Value still remains the biggest challenge, which is why we sought to create a platform that is primarily price sensitive, rapidly implementable and scalable in terms of the value of the services. Creating an ecosystem is also crucial in order to enable such services at scale — while we do have a lot of global partners, what’s really important is that there has to be activation of local business partners here in India as well.

You say that customer experiences will play a key role within SAP’s push for MSME adoption. Would generative AI factor into this as well?

Absolutely. We’ve been embedding AI into our applications for many years, since it is the fundamental path to process automation. We have been using AI to automate business processes at scale already. Now, with generative AI, large language models, and specific APIs like ChatGPT, we enable them through our open business technology platform — it’s an open platform, so it supports open-source AI APIs, as well as ChatGPT itself. If you are using Grow, this entire open platform becomes immediately available to MSMEs.

Alongside AI, through the open API deployment platform, we’ll enable access to other technologies such as sustainability solutions, and even a supply of financing networks that are made available through Taulia — a company that we’ve acquired. We can add future tools and technologies to this as well, as this becomes available.

This interview originally appeared in Mint on April 27, 2023.

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51��NOW India sparks a dialogue on shaping India’s techade with technology

51��India — Fri, 21 Apr 2023 14:41:05 +0000

A forum for Connections, Insightful Conversations, and Innovation…
At 51��NOW India, conversations on how the digital transformation of India Inc can take the country to the next decade of inclusive, resilient, and sustainable growth took center stage.

��As India continues its journey to become the world’s 3^rd largest economy, India Inc will be a critical enabler of the country’s digital transformation and technology will be its biggest ally. With this as the backdrop, 51��concluded 51��NOW India, a global platform bringing together over 100 speakers and 2000 business leaders in attendance on 20th April at the iconic Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai.

Welcoming the attendees, Kulmeet Bawa, President & Managing Director, 51��Indian Subcontinent, spoke of the ‘India opportunity’ ahead, illustrating trends that put India in a ‘sweet spot’ including young demographics, budding digital natives, and entrepreneurial ecosystem and the rise of India and the emergence of India as the ‘next manufacturing, supply chain hub.’ He further highlighted the role of 51��and its ecosystem as “partners” in India’s ‘transformation.’

Paul Marriott, President, 51��Asia Pacific Japan

Paul Marriott, President, 51��Asia Pacific Japan, who was present at the event also outlined SAP’s three core priorities in the region: sustainability, talent, and innovation, reiterating India’s growing importance in shaping the global growth story.

India: The Next Decade of Inclusive, Resilient, and Sustainable Growth!

Addressing India Inc, at 51��Now, Rajeev Chandrashekar, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology and Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, spoke of how multinationals today look at India as an enticing investment destination, reinforcing his confidence in “India as the place to be!” He further said, “Today, India has emerged as a pre-eminent nation in using technology to transform citizens’ lives, democracy, and governance. Our early investments in digital public infrastructure and our ease of doing business policies have empowered our startup and innovation ecosystem, catalyzing India’s Techade goals.”

Read:

Rajeev Chandrashekhar addressing India Inc at 51��NOW

Announcing GROW with SAP:

��51��Now also witnessed the launch of GROW with SAP, a new offering to help midsize customers in India adopt cloud ERP in just a few weeks. Commenting at the launch, Abhishek Singhvi, Managing Director, of Rajasthan Barytes Limited, a leading Indian producer of industrial minerals, , “As a growth-oriented organization, we seek to streamline business processes, including handling complex data environments, financial reporting, production, and inventory planning. SAP’s S/4 HANA Public Cloud, with built-in best industry practices, provides us with a single integrated platform that enables organization-wide visibility for both our internal and external stakeholders, transforming us into an intelligent, sustainable tech-led enterprise.”

Read:

Kulmeet Bawa, President & Managing Director, 51��Indian Subcontinent, and Abhishek Singhvi, MD, Rajasthan Barytes Limited addressing the media conference

India Inc; Showcasing SAP’s cutting-edge technologies and best practices:

��The event also saw a showcase of the best-in-class technologies, solution theatres, and engaging demos covering everything from Cloud ERP, Digital Supply Chain, 51��BTP, ISBN, HXM, CX, Sustainability, employee experience, and Cloud Success Services. Featuring expert sessions, success stories, and best practices from marquee leading customers and partners including Wipro, Asian Paints, MG Motor, The Good Glamm Group, Ashok Leyland, Sun Pharma, ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India, Chargebee, Bounce, Tech Mahindra, IBM, UltraTech Cement, etc.

Women in�� Leadership panel at 51��NOW India

Closing at a musical high with Shankar, Ehsan, and Loy over cocktails, and dinner:

��After a heartfelt thanks to everyone in the audience and the customers and partners who told their stories, the event concluded with a fabulous, star-studded musical extravaganza by the legendary trio- Shankar, Ehsan, and Loy.

Ending on a ‘musical note’ with Shankar-Ehsan-Loy

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51��India, TV9 Network Join Hands to Empower & Celebrate India’s SMEs

51��India — Sun, 19 Sep 2021 03:30:18 +0000

Dare2Dream Awards and Mentors of Global Bharat launched

After the stupendous success of Leaders of Global Bharat series that aimed at empowering Indian SMEs hit hard by pandemic induced lockdowns last year, TV9 Network and 51��India have again joined hands to forge two pioneering initiatives to help homegrown businesses rise and shine in enabling an Atmanirbhar Bharat.

With the objective to engage our business heroes from SMEs in more meaningful pursuits to inspire a whole new generation to take on the mantle of entrepreneurship and also acknowledge their contribution to India’s growth, 51��India and TV9 Network announced the launch of Mentors of Global Bharat series and Dare2Dream Awards 2021.

While looks at connecting aspiring entrepreneurs with industry leaders, looks at recognizing businesspersons who had the vision, determination and grit to not only tide over the crisis but also reset their business models.

These two ambitious programmes were announced at the Enabling Atmanirbhar Bharat forum, which saw participation from technology thought leaders, eminent policymakers and business stalwarts.

Commenting on the programme, Mr. Paul Marriott, President, 51��Asia Pacific Japan, said: “We have seen unprecedented adverse impact of the pandemic on business and economy – with supply chains being disrupted and demand drying up. There is no playbook or prescription that can guide businesses to emerge from such impact and resurrect themselves rapidly.

“In the many interactions that we have had with our SME customers we realized that many entrepreneurs felt the need to interact with mentors who have successfully traversed the same path before. Peer to peer learning and recognition of digital led innovation are both very important in these times and any platform that facilitates these, is a step in the right direction.”

On SAP’s constant endeavour to empower homegrown businesses, Mr. Kulmeet Bawa, President and MD, 51��Indian subcontinent, said: “Our Global Bharat program was introduced to support MSMEs last year. Taking this program forward, we are today launching these two pioneering initiatives.”

“While the Mentors of Global Bharat programme is designed to help SME entrepreneurs to learn and get inspired by industry leaders and peers who have successfully navigated the new normal, the Dare2Dream Awards series was established to recognize visionaries in the SME sector who have demonstrated innovation and digital mindset and create business impact in adverse times,” Bawa added.

Terming it one of the most required programmes aimed at helping entrepreneurs, Subramanian Ananthapadmanabhan, Vice President, Midmarket, 51��India, said: “Whether one is just starting out or looking to improve their SME’s quality and turnover, it can be hard to know what direction to go next and it’s completely normal. No business owner knows everything at the start. That’s part of the reason why being mentored as a business owner is such a brilliant idea.”

The series was launched in Enabling Atmanirbhar Bharat forum which saw participation from eminent policymakers Mr. NK Singh, Chairman of the 15^th Finance Commission; Dr Arvind Virmani, noted economist and former chief economic advisor; and SIDBI Chairman Mr. Sivasubramanian Ramann.

Speaking on the role of MSMEs in enabling an Atmanirbhar Bharat, Mr. NK Singh said: “It’s a force multiplier. India’s quest for becoming a $5tn economy and more rests majorly on the SME sector. The quest for generating gainful employment is also primarily dependent on how we provide fillip to the small and medium businesses. I regard our homegrown businesses central to India’s quest for increasing productivity and efficiency and also emerge as a leading global player.”

Former chief economic advisor Dr. Arvind Virmani said: “We must ensure that there is a level playing for our SMEs. The taxation reforms for new manufacturing enterprises is a welcome step. SMEs are critical to India’s inclusive growth and to ensure that as a country we sustain a growth momentum for the next 30 years. Corporations like 51��will drive productivity to make SMEs successful.”

“We are happy to extend our partnership with 51��India in enabling and empowering India’s homegrown businesses. Last year Leaders of Global Bharat series received an overwhelming response which gives us immense confidence that these two unique initiatives this year will set new benchmarks”, said Raktim Das, Chief Growth Officer (Television & Digital), TV9 Network on their association with 51��in this journey.

Mentors of Global Bharat got a shot in the arm with Sanjay Aggarwal, Chairman and CEO, Paramount Cables and Rajesh Aggarwal, Managing Director Insecticides (India) Ltd who joined as mentors for the initiative. They also lauded the objective behind the mentorship programme. More industry leaders will be joining as Mentors of Global Bharat in the coming weeks.

Watch the or logon to Growth Matters Forum – ‘s to know more participating in the programs

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Paul Marriott Archives - 51����India News Center

Simon Davies announced as new 51����Regional President, Asia Pacific

Manish Prasad appointed President and Managing Director for 51����Indian Subcontinent

51����elevates Kulmeet Bawa to global Chief Revenue Officer, 51����Business Technology Platform