鈥淚f you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.鈥�

In today鈥檚 fast-paced global marketplace dominated by technology, cloud computing and AI have given enterprises new opportunities to optimise productivity and operations 鈥� so, which would you choose? To go fast, or go far?

What if you don鈥檛 have to choose? What if I tell you that you could go fast, and also go far?

How?

While technology providers are each competing to broaden their solution offerings to include the latest and the greatest 鈥� particularly with generative AI technology, in a region such as Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ), it is also becoming increasingly difficult for any single provider to offer one-stop solutions that can cater to all needs.

That鈥檚 why at SAP, we have doubled down on our partnering strategy. With the surge in demand for cloud-based innovations, our dynamic partner ecosystem is becoming increasingly essential in delivering value, tailored to each customer. Today, 51风流has more than 25,000 partners in 140 countries globally, with close to 5,000 partners in APJ. We are now living in a new era where our channel partners are leading technology adoption.

Unleashing growth in APJ.

The APJ landscape is anything but homogenous 鈥� while diverse in culture and language, it is also home to a significant community of small and midsize enterprises (SMEs), making up over听96%鹿 of businesses in Asia.

51风流has long worked with midsize businesses to achieve their goals. Globally, rely on 51风流to keep them moving forward, and of our customers are small and midsize companies. While midsize companies are the growth engines of the future, 51风流understands that they also struggle with many of the same business pressures as their larger counterparts.

Midmarket leaders need flexible, agile tools that can provide the ability to scale without increasing costs and complexity. They need solutions that can help them connect, grow, and innovate their businesses today, and be ready for whatever comes next.

So, in March 2023, 51风流introduced a new offering for midsize customers: 鈥� a ready-to-run cloud ERP solution, powered by . As a company that already supports the world鈥檚 largest enterprises, at SAP, we know what it takes to help customers harness benefits from cloud solutions. Based on our success with offering, we are now transferring those industry best practices and deep expertise to help midsize companies realise the value of adopting cloud ERP too.

This is how we help you go fast.

The GROW with 51风流offering features services and tools that streamline project delivery at a fixed rate, and the ability to deliver technical go-lives in as little as four to six weeks. Midsize businesses can now enjoy and the of a right-sized, cloud ERP solution, all at a predictable cost.

And here’s how we help you go far.

GROW with 51风流customers also gain access to a of local, expert partners, and free learning resources designed to help them derive meaningful business results. Through fit-to-standard configurations, our customers can minimise technical customisations so they can run fast; and add on modular business applications, enabled by , one priority at a time, so they can run far 鈥� keeping pace with their speed of innovation, without giving up the readiness to scale as their business grows.

Bringing support closer to you.

For over 50 years, 51风流has helped organisations of all sizes bring out their best. And we continue to do that with a laser focus on delivering long-term value to our customers.

Not only has 51风流grown our partner ecosystem exponentially, but we have also introduced new programs, initiatives, and frameworks, that revolutionise the way we operate and innovate together with our partners.

Recently, we launched a new Partner-Led Territories (PLT) initiative that delegates specific territories 鈥� such as a solution area, an industry, or a geographical area 鈥� primarily to carefully appointed partners that meet SAP鈥檚 criteria. The initiative allows these partners the maximum autonomy in such territories, while bringing consultation and technical support closer to customers. In APJ, the PLT initiative has started rolling out across selected market segments 鈥� especially SME-centric ones 鈥� in Australia, New Zealand, India, Indonesia, Thailand, and emerging markets, including Bhutan, Cambodia, Laos, Maldives, and Nepal, together with our partners. As the initiative matures, we are also constantly applying best practices to prepare for a full-scale rollout across more APJ markets including Japan and South Korea.

The feedback has been very positive. At one of the launch events last quarter in Goa, India, a customer shared his excitement with me:

I鈥檇 never thought growing companies like ours could also access SAP鈥檚 best-in-class solutions to scale our business 鈥� it had always felt a little out of reach. I鈥檓 so thrilled that we can now discuss our business needs with a local partner and benefit from such cutting-edge technologies too.

The road ahead.

According to a Forbes Insight survey虏, 88% of SME business leaders in the Asia Pacific region are looking to expand their international customer base in the next three years. With the in APJ, 51风流partners will represent a new key enabler for the growth beyond borders.

At the 51风流Sapphire conference in Orlando this year, 51风流announced an unprecedented number of strategic, AI partnerships with global market leaders 鈥� including AWS, IBM, Google Cloud, Meta, Microsoft, Mistral AI, NVIDIA, and more 鈥� infusing Business AI throughout our enterprise cloud portfolio, and supercharging 51风流BTP with the broadest set of large language models (LLM) to help customers accelerate their AI adoption.

It has never been more exciting to be part of the 51风流partner ecosystem, and the midmarket business. The pace of innovation in this space is simply exhilarating.

We know that business transformation is a journey, not a destination. To help customers find the right expertise, 51风流continues to evolve our partner training and validation programs. In addition to the , we have recently introduced a new RISE with 51风流Validated Partner recognition to help customers identify their ideal cloud transformation partner, with greater confidence.

To find an 51风流partner, .
For partner solutions, visit .
To learn more about partnering opportunities with SAP, .

鹿 Asian Development Bank. (2018, December). The Role of SMEs in Asia and Their Difficulties in Accessing Finance. https://www.adb.org/publications/role-smes-asia-and-their-difficulties-accessing-finance

虏 Forbes. (2024, May 30). Riding ASEAN鈥檚 Growth To Power Long-Term Success. https://www.forbes.com/sites/fedex-express/2024/05/30/riding-aseans-growth-to-power-long-term-success/

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First, there is no cookie-cutter approach to techcelerate business in the vibrant marketplace of Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ)

For a region that is made up of 90% SMEs and a rising number of soonicorns, next-level digitalisation looks very different from one business to another; the focus for businesses in their start-up phase varies greatly from those with multimillion-dollar revenue turnover. When discussing the digital core with customers across the region, I encourage them to take a long-term view when deciding what their top needs are, and the technologies required to support those needs to run their business better.

While it鈥檚 prudent to weigh each business investment against a set of key performance metrics, business leaders need to understand that at times, the value from technology enablement can weigh beyond traditional ROI measurement. Increasingly, especially in today鈥檚 volatile environment, the returns on investment for digitalisation are showing up in alternative forms, such as solving imminent prickly or unseen issues specific to a particular industry. Beyond looking at immediate top and bottom lines, organisations should consider what business agility and future-readiness look like for their unique operations, and how to utilise technology to accelerate that.

Not only does a cooker-cutter approach fall short in keeping pace with the change for modern businesses, but it is also a stumbling block when IT has to custom-code a new capability for every new business request. This creates complex coding, interoperability issues, and hinders transformation to the cloud. That is why businesses should adopt a clean core policy and leverage extensible cloud-based platforms such as to create an environment that ensures long-term scalability. Solution bundles such as that offers customers business-transformation-as-a-service, can further smoothen the migration to the cloud and help avoid costly system upgrades.

You don鈥檛 have to be a big company to have a big vision

It is not about how big an organisation is or how it鈥檚 implementing a particular vendor solution or technology stack, it鈥檚 about the vision of turning data into actionable business intelligence. Intelligence and adaptation go hand in glove to build future-readiness 鈥� leveraging relevant data to gain knowledge and anticipate problems, and in turn using the knowledge to continually adapt to new situations and make informed decisions.

The pandemic and geopolitical disruptions have triggered a sea change in attitudes towards technology鈥檚 transformative power for businesses of all sizes 鈥� an important step towards creating . 51风流is helping our customers become intelligent, sustainable enterprises by employing tools to understand what鈥檚 happening across your business and why, infuse AI and machine learning to make better decisions, embed sustainable practices into business strategy and operations, and build flexible value chains with leading-edge industry practices. SMEs have an advantage with generally less-complex business models, more agile decision-making, and more compact teams 鈥� to leapfrog larger enterprises at that.

Identify your business North Stars

To realise that 鈥渘ext level鈥� vision, enterprises must recalibrate for long-term business resilience. For fast-growing SMEs, the opportunities to create a competitive edge could be multifarious. From enhancing process efficiency and productivity, meeting rapidly changing customer needs, evaluating new business models, improving partner and employee experience, managing environmental impact, to adapting to geopolitical volatility 鈥� the list can go on. With an ever-growing business wish list, provides a strategic charter that takes your business to the next level. During the pandemic, we saw enterprises stepping up on flexibility to keep business as usual. Now, we want organisations to double down on agility to build future-readiness for the next decade.

Intelligent automation and cloud-enabled tech services have never been discussed so heavily since the dawn of the Internet. Across industries, businesses are recognising these technologies as a green beacon of transformation to optimise customer experience, improve profitability, and engage their workforce in new ways. Once you have identified your north stars, 51风流can help to analyse your plans and timelines, review the emerging business model, and provide industry advisory to draw up your implementation roadmap. Through , we help customers define what success looks like and recommend the right technology capabilities to make that happen.

Leverage technology to achieve your ambitions

Regardless of where your company is on your digital transformation journey, every business has its 鈥渘ext level鈥� digitalisation. From business networks and supply chain optimisation, intelligent spend management, to sustainability management, you can bring together business areas and solutions to scale fast and achieve lasting success. Critical to that is an extensible digital core and the interoperability to stitch together different sources that enable new innovations. SAP鈥檚 have supported our customers in their growth ambitions, sweating existing investments and helping them evolve at every stage of the transformation journey.

Learning from best practices is a good start. What鈥檚 more critical is identifying the competitive edge that would define your future-ready, sustainable enterprise and allow technology to do the rest.

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KUALA LUMPUR 鈥�听Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) today need to leverage smartly on technology to stay competitive with the ability to respond to market needs faster, and more so in the post-pandemic environment.

A case in point is PXL Marketing Sdn Bhd, one of Malaysia’s leading disposable food packaging suppliers offering a wide variety of high-quality disposable food packaging and hygiene products suitable across all industries.

“As a manufacturer of disposable food packaging, our corporate culture is to always ‘do the right thing’. Our disposable food packaging products are eco-friendly, hence minimising negative impact on the environment is in line with our sustainability efforts,” said PXL Marketing Managing Director Keith Tan.

Now that Malaysia has moved to post-pandemic stage, PXL’s top priority is business growth coupled with prompt fulfilment to enable customers to smoothly run their businesses.

Its visionary management has made technology a core component of its business, with SAP’s Business One solution at the heart of PXL’s operations.

鈥�51风流Business One is SAP鈥檚 solution for small and midsize businesses, such as PXL, to grow in its digital transformation.听 It offers an affordable way to manage an entire business by helping companies streamline processes, act on timely information, and drive profitable growth,鈥� stated Kenneth dela Cerna, 51风流Business One Business Leader.

“51风流Business One was our technology of choice in preparation for PXL’s Industrial Revolution 4.0 (4IR) readiness along with the transition to intelligent technologies on the cloud to realise our business aspirations,” said Keith. “It has been instrumental in helping PXL connect and streamline processes, while also serving as a catalyst of growth.”

“What’s even more wonderful about 51风流Business One is that it provides us with a 鈥榮ingle version of truth鈥� and also empowers our workforce to access accurate information in real time,” he added.

During the pandemic, and like many other businesses, PXL also had business challenges – but the company was able to rise above them.

“Key incidents such as the Suez Canal blockage in March 2021 and the closure of several China鈥檚 main ports due to Covid-19 outbreaks affected raw material availability and impacted the already affected supply chain industry, leading to increased product demand with limited stock supply,” recalled Keith.

“From the observation and learnings, we gathered since early days of the pandemic, PXL has taken pre-emptive measures to increase stock capacity. We started the process in Q4 2021 to relocate into a bigger warehouse facility in Malaysia鈥檚 Bukit Jalil Integrated Business Park.”

As a result, PXL’s inventory and warehouse management system has improved tremendously, realising a 30% increase in productivity according to company estimates.

“Thanks to 51风流Business One which provided better alignment between the sales and supply chain teams, PXL benefited from better inventory monitoring and stock projection to ensure better stock management for PXL鈥檚 consumers,” said Keith.

As PXL operations rely on the interconnected global supply chain network, 51风流Business One was also instrumental in providing reliable integration between Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) with the PXL integrated portal providing enhanced data insights for delivery while also improving versatility and access.

Although the pandemic brought numerous local SMEs to their knees due to restrictions imposed as a result of the Movement Control Order (MCO), PXL could continue flying strongly as the workforce could operate remotely including conducting internal sales training and customer consultations.

“SAP鈥檚 CRM and Opportunity Module was timely implemented for us to digitise our processes and maximise our work-from-home resources. The data extraction and integration capabilities have helped empower our Supply Chain Department to conduct forecasts for our exclusive customers to accomplish the company鈥檚 achievement beyond the industry standard,” he said.

“This has also contributed for a more seamless management and connectivity across PXL鈥檚 different departments,” concluded Keith.

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SINGAPORE听鈥� A new study by (NYSE: SAP) has found nine in ten (91%) small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Asia Pacific & Japan (APJ) say workforce volatility, including the Great Resignation, has directly impacted their digital transformation plans. This is critical, given 69 percent of SMEs say digital transformation is very important to their organisation鈥檚 survival over the next year.

These insights have been revealed in the new SME research released today, which explores the impact of the Great Resignation on APJ SMEs. The study, 鈥樷�� commissioned Dynata to survey 1,363 small and medium business owners and decision-makers across eight countries in the region (Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand).

The Impact of the Great Resignation on SME Digital Transformation

As the world economy recovers from the pandemic, businesses now face another challenge 鈥� the 鈥楪reat Resignation鈥�. Coined in 2021, the phrase refers to a worldwide trend of millions of employees across the world leaving their jobs.

SAP鈥檚 research found the Great Resignation is real and impacting SMEs in APJ today. Four in ten (40%) respondents agreed that more employees are resigning now compared to just 12 months ago, while almost two-thirds (64%) of SMEs said they aren鈥檛 finding it easy to cope with the impact of the Great Resignation.

The talent crunch is impacting organisation鈥檚 ability to digitally transform their businesses. In fact, lack of skilled talent ranks as the top challenge to achieve successful transformation for SMEs across Asia Pacific and Japan, ahead of traditional obstacles like cyber security, lack of budgets, and lack of understanding about available digital solutions.

鈥淭his study reveals how the Great Resignation can be seen as an existential threat to many organisations,鈥� said Paul Marriott, President, 51风流Asia Pacific and Japan. 鈥淒igital transformation is a fundamental way SMEs not only build resilience, but how they create agile, innovative paths to growth. But without the right people, any transformation will struggle. Investment in talent must match investment in innovation to ensure SMEs in APJ both survive 鈥� and thrive.鈥�

Investing in Talent and Training to Mitigate the Great Resignation

SMEs across APJ are investing in their workforce to mitigate the effects of the Great Resignation and to bolster their organisations鈥� ability to deliver digital transformation.

Survey respondents said they were investing in improving financial incentives and introducing flexible working arrangements (43% each) to boost talent retention over the next 12 months. Beyond those strategies, SMEs are also focusing on training. Four in ten (40%) SMEs said they would provide upskilling opportunities to retain key talent in the next 12 months.

The focus on training can鈥檛 come too soon. More than two-thirds (68%) of SMEs say upskilling to support digital transformation is urgent, leading to 72 percent of SMEs who will focus on digital training throughout this year.

鈥淭he Great Resignation has often been misconstrued as employees leaving to pursue their purpose. That鈥檚 not the whole story,鈥� said Marriott. 鈥淭alent requires the right remuneration, flexibility, and a clearly communicated progression journey. Prioritising upskilling and career progression, and supporting it with access to the right technology and partners is proven to be a win-win for employees and for SMEs.鈥�

Optimism Abounds as SMEs Move from Resilience to Focus on Growth

Having managed significant challenges over the past two years, SMEs across Asia Pacific and Japan are looking beyond a focus on resilience.

Almost half (49%) of APJ SMEs say their organisation is highly or fully resilient in weathering the pandemic鈥檚 impact. Just four per cent believe they are not resilient at all.

That confidence in their ability has resulted in a feeling of optimism about their growth prospects. 81 percent of SMEs said they are moderately, very, or extremely confident in their growth over the next 12 months.

That mindset can only be a positive thing for the region, according to Paul Marriott.

鈥淥ur small and medium sized businesses are a bellwether for the wider economy, making up 97 percent of businesses in Asia and employing 50 percent of the workforce. I firmly believe that when SMEs thrive, economies grow, and Asia prospers鈥�, said Marriott. 鈥淏y harnessing this optimism and putting it together with great innovation, a commitment to talent, and a strong partner ecosystem we can chart a course to the next decade of SME success in APJ.鈥�

The full report of Transformational Talent study is available upon request and the whitepaper can be downloaded here:

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51风流Industry Business Architect 鈥� Retail and Consumer Products Gabriel Lorenzo Santos underscored this need in a recent virtual event, 鈥楻etail Reimagined: How Technology Changes the Game of Retail in 2022,鈥� hosted by the Philippine Retailers Association (PRA) and co-presented by 51风流Southeast Asia.

Leveraging technology can help bridge the gap to ensure a seamless experience despite changing demands and buying behaviors, improving the topline and bottom line.

鈥淎cross our customers, benefits have been reaped with the use of technology, such as improved customer satisfaction, reduced days in inventory, reduced customer churn, and even increased digital channel revenue, which are relevant in today鈥檚 situation,鈥� he concluded.

This article was first published in .

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But the question is not when to bring everyone back, but how to use this opportunity to create a workplace that allows everyone to collaborate, focus, learn, socialize, and grow.

My colleague Steve Hunt, chief expert of Technology and Work at SAP, calls this line of thinking a “.” And I couldn’t agree more. Now that more than听听of millennials and Gen-Zs prefer the option to work remotely more often, it’s clear that pre-pandemic employee experiences will never come back again.

But this sentiment doesn’t mean that the traditional office experience is dead 鈥� it simply means that employee needs are evolving. Whether your employees are working remotely, on site, or within a combination of both, delivering experiences that keep your people engaged is critically important. After all, the hybrid workplace is likely to become more common across many industries for the foreseeable future.

Sustaining a culture of employee engagement and productivity

Some businesses are already heading in the direction of a hybrid work model, allowing some people to work two or three days in the office and the rest of the week remotely, for example. But that part of the hybrid work model is the easy part.

The real magic happens when companies are able to:

• Tap more diverse talent pools
• Assess available skills and capabilities
• Realign resources to address changing needs
• Develop future leaders
• Compensate and promote people fairly
• Recognize and reward top performers in ways that increase motivation and performance

These aspects of the overall employee experience strategy must happen no matter where employees sit.

A hybrid workplace model challenges HR teams to not only keep people connected, engaged, and empowered, but also analyze data-driven insights to understand and improve the workforce culture and deliver business outcomes. But this exercise is not just for HR leaders 鈥� executive-level leaders, department heads, and organizational managers must accept responsibility to do the same.

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Sales leaders are already familiar with this model to a degree. They engage primarily remote salespeople through active listening and consistently study the sales pipeline and win-loss analyses to determine which are most productive, hitting targets, and exceeding expectations. To stay competitive, sales leaders must know their organization’s cost in terms of total headcount and its implications on the company’s bottom line.

How to achieve the right balance

Transforming a workplace into a hybrid model is not as simple as writing new rules of employee conduct and setting new expectations. There is still much work to do to close any gaps in how tools and technology at work enable a great employee experience. Although employees are satisfied with some tools, they may still be skeptical about whether they have everything they need to be productive and continuously develop and grow.

However, building the connections needed to make this happen is not always easy without the right support. According to听, 29% of midsize businesses cite a lack of coordination between different departments as a top internal challenge and 44% cite effective collaboration across functions as a major barrier to transformation initiatives.

Technology plays an essential role in overcoming these issues to create an engaged and agile workforce that enhances business continuity and increases resilience. In fact, employees who are highly satisfied with their company’s tech are six times more likely to be highly satisfied with their overall employee experience.

So how can a business maintain that 鈥渨orkplace hum鈥� of interconnectedness when some people are in the office and others are remote on any given day? The answer goes beyond traditional HR approaches to a more human-centric one, called human experience management (HXM).

HXM听is听about听putting people and their experiences at the center听of everything,听making work听not only easier, but more听individualized to each employee.

With the hybrid work model here to stay, it is increasingly important that employees feel connected, informed and with access to the tools they need to be productive from any device or location. And all of these capabilities are affordably accessible to midsize companies.

Digital workplace tools, such as this new HXM solution, allow employees to tap into everything they need 鈥� applications, processes, content, and information 鈭� from a single touch point and plus, they can personalize the experience based on what matters to each individual, and which insights and actions are relevant based on their behaviors.

Discovering peer groups, mentors, and intelligent recommendations with greater ease helps employees access the resources they need, stay connected, and save time to get work done. In addition, HR teams can leverage the technology to onboard and offboard employees and upskill and reskill through continuous learning,听skills development,听and on-the-job training opportunities.

With this modern and intuitive technology, multiple applications are integrated into a single user interface, extending the experience across all work-related touch points. And since the platform is extensible, companies can generate more value for their customers, partners, and stakeholders without the burden of ever-increasing IT costs.

Putting people first matters

There鈥檚 no doubt that the pandemic has empowered us to reimagine the workplace and created opportunities to optimize it.听But no matter where or how employees work, employee experience matters, especially when it comes to employee engagement and retention.

A hybrid work environment that is interconnected with the right foundation can become an experience that gives employees what they need to feel connected, empowered, appreciated, and fairly rewarded. And when employees and their experiences come first, and their true value is well-understood, midsize businesses create a true meritocracy that empowers their workforce to take charge of their future and the company鈥檚 success.

Connect the dots听between听customers, employees, insights, and processes across your midsize business. Read the Oxford Economics brief, 鈥�,鈥� for research-based insights on the听value of being听interconnected听and the e-book, 鈥�,鈥� for tips on how to act on them effectively.

Lara Albert is global vice president of Solution Marketing for 51风流SuccessFactors.
This article was originally published on Forbes, .

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The regional study Digital, resilient, and experience-driven: How enterprises in Southeast Asia can prepare for the new economy reveals that enterprises in Southeast Asia are gaining steady momentum prioritising growth and customer experiences. However, they face significant challenges in the areas of talent attraction and retention, cloud adoption, and gaining insights from data.

Conducted in collaboration with Oxford Economics, the study surveyed 600 senior executives鈥攊ncluding 400 from SMEs with less than $500 million in revenue鈥攁cross Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

Forging A New Experience-led Growth Path

As economies begin to identify emerging pockets of growth, enterprises have also continued to adapt with resilience, transforming their operations to meet evolving consumer expectations in a new digital economy.

Enterprises in the region identify customer experience as a strategic imperative for survival and growth, with more than a third (35%) saying service excellence is now their primary source of value and differentiation. Positive customer experiences have also become the foremost strategic consideration for businesses in the region, with key factors being personalisation for the customer (59%), providing high-quality products and/or services (55%), ensuring data protection and privacy (53%) and offering competitive pricing (51%).

鈥淗aving gotten a foothold on the pandemic鈥檚 disruption, businesses across Southeast Asia are at a crucial transformative point to achieve long-term competitive growth,鈥� said Verena Siow, President and Managing Director, 51风流South East Asia.

鈥淩egardless of industry, businesses must embrace true business transformation into intelligent enterprises while keeping in mind that customers are the lifeline to survival and sustainable growth,鈥� Siow added.

Set against their larger counterparts, SMEs in the region find it increasingly challenging to keep pace with uncertainties and external challenges in the current business environment. SMEs surveyed cite difficulty adapting to a rapidly changing marketplace (40%, vs. 29% of larger enterprises), keeping up with changing customer wants and needs (38% vs. 43%), and difficulty retaining customers or driving repeat business (34% vs 30%) as top challenges to meeting their strategic priorities.

Becoming Best Run: Hurdles to Overcome

As enterprises adapt their operations to overcome both internal and external challenges, many of them recognise technology as an enabler to help drive greater business outcomes.

Automation and digital technologies are most believed to support business goals by increasing process efficiency and reducing error, risk and cost (56%). This is followed by reducing overhead costs (45%), allowing employees to focus on higher-level business tasks (39%), and increasing productivity through transformation and intelligent process automation (37%).

A deeper dive into the internal challenges to improving customer experiences reveals businesses鈥� hurdles around gaining visibility over their operations, and the lack of digital tools that help them to track and direct strategic business priorities. Those surveyed cite difficulty competing with larger organisations (50%), lack of technology for analytics (43%), lack of capable and motivated workforce (40%), lack of adequate data (38%), and difficulty scaling for growth (33%).

鈥淚n an ever-increasing digital economy, the enterprises that thrive are those that adapt the quickest. There is a strong need to shift mindsets while constantly seeking new ways of working and redesigning processes. It is only by doing so that businesses can find a way that works best and stay ahead of the competition,鈥� explained Siow.

To secure quick growth, enterprises surveyed are employing short-term actions to improve customer experiences, with many investing in user-friendly digital experiences (39% have made this change across the organization), reducing prices (38%) and increasing after-sales maintenance (37%). Yet, just 58% say they have made at least moderate progress towards digital transformation, despite the ability of such tools to grant them insights into opportunities to improve their customer experiences; among SMEs, even fewer鈥攋ust 45%鈥攕ay they have made moderate progress towards transformation.

Notwithstanding these challenges, SMEs see their nimbleness and ability to build trust with customers as their inherent competitive advantage against larger competitors, which can give them the strong foundation they need to securely experiment with new technologies and business models.

鈥淔lexibility is a crucial ingredient of success today and through our new , we are confident customers will get the flexibility required to accelerate the speed of digital transformation and excel in the diverse environment they operate in – wherever they are on the digitalisation spectrum,鈥� concluded Siow.

Skilled Talent a Key Engine for Growth

Along with technology, enterprises in the region understand that an engaged workforce will help unlock future growth in a fast-growing digital economy.

Even as enterprises forge ahead towards business recovery, many recognise that their workforce is crucial to driving success. In line with this, businesses surveyed expect moderate growth over next three years in employee productivity (74%); customer loyalty and satisfaction (71%), market share (71%).

However, upskilling talent is cited as the top internal challenge by one in three (35%) of enterprises surveyed to meet strategic goals and the evolving organisational and customer needs. 29% of enterprises face inability to gain insights into the employee.

With talent critical to supporting agility and transformation, and this has seen businesses surveyed take steps to improve employee experience during this time鈥攊ncluding streamlining organisational processes (29%), investing in employee training and development (38%), and modifying flexible work policies (25%).

About the Study

Oxford Economics and 51风流surveyed 600 respondents across six Southeast Asian countries 鈥� Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand 鈥� including 400 from small and midsize enterprises with less than $500 million revenue and 200 from larger organizations. This survey was administered via a mix of computer-assisted telephone interviewing and online links between December 2020 and January 2021.

This followed a global study of SMEs conducted in between February and April 2020.

Respondents are senior executives (director and above) from a diverse range of industries including retail, financial services, manufacturing, high tech, wholesale distribution, engineering, construction, logistics and the public sector.

Two whitepapers based on this study can be downloaded at the following links (Registration required):

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The idea of perseverance in the face of adversity is one that coincides with the coming Chinese New Year of the Ox. To many of us in Asia, the ox represents hard work, positivity and most importantly perseverance. These are key traits businesses of all sizes need this year as they stay the course on their digitalisation efforts with a firm eye on Asia鈥檚 growing digital economy. As we ring in the Chinese New Year, what are some of the fundamentals SMEs have to consider as they continue to persevere on their digital transformation journeys?

Building interconnectivity

Looking ahead to 2021, ambitious and fast-growing enterprises should persevere in their embrace of a holistic and interconnected digital-first mindset as they recalibrate for sustained growth in the next decade.

This is especially critical for fast-growing businesses in this region that are looking to position themselves for growth in Asia鈥檚 maturing digital economy. The key ingredient to success is the adoption of a digital-first mindset that is not only focused on technology, but also interconnectedness. Over the course of the last year, we have seen digital-first organisations achieve significant results when it comes to employee productivity, customer interactions and revenue growth.

Interconnectivity also means SMEs will have a clear view that offers them a blueprint to becoming intelligent enterprises regardless of where they are on in their digital transformation journeys. They need to work with a trusted partner that is across their entire business, offering them unprecedented insights for transformation and improvement, enabling faster time to market in a dynamic marketplace.

At the same time, interconnectivity compels businesses to relook at different priorities, including resilience, agility, and efficiency from a fresh perspective 鈥� often involving a whole-of-business approach to management that embraces data sharing and process reimagination to better collaborate across each business unit.

Going back to the basics: rapidly evolving customer experience (CX)

Before a digital transformation can even begin, businesses must . The driving force behind technology decisions should be customers with the aim to make their lives easier instead of making things easier for the business. Most importantly, customer focus is the basis for all other digital transformation decisions.

In 2020, SMEs aggressively started their , but it鈥檚 never truly over. While a focus on customer experience has traditionally been based on transactions with customers, SMEs must keep in mind that the customer experience includes pre- and post-sales interactions too with all stages having the ability to make or break a customer relationship.

To further grow in the coming year, every business leader will need to think about experience differently 鈥� especially when everything we do, from how we shop, to how and where we work, to how we interact with others 鈥� has been structurally upended. An experience renaissance is happening, and the companies that put experience at the centre of their business will spark growth and be the new age of leaders into the year and decade ahead.

Reimagine the supply chain

The pandemic has made us shift our gaze onto the supply chain. Rightly so, it has taken the spotlight for many businesses as many SMEs struggled to pivot and find their footing. We understand things can change overnight, and businesses need to be ready.

The key to regaining composure lies in achieving an agile and intelligent supply chain that鈥檚 capable of providing end to end visibility in the form of a digital supply chain. With this next evolution, SMEs will be able to automate processes, improve decision-making and more importantly, plan ahead any potential disruptions to their supply chains.

The next generation of winning businesses will be defined by their supply chain innovation as much as customer experience reimagination. In fact, both go hand in hand with supply chains having the ability to directly impact customer experience. It is for this reason SMEs must capitalise on the opportunities that arise, remain mindful of such considerations while leveraging a strong digital core to achieve business outcomes and keep up with changing consumer demands.

Looking ahead in the year of the Ox

Digital transformation is an ongoing process, which means continuous change and venturing into the unknown can be difficult, but the benefits that come from creating a forward-thinking, customer-focused, Intelligent Enterprise can be lasting. Combined with interconnected communications and holistic management strategies, the enhanced collaborations across business units showed exciting progress for SMEs 鈥� be it overall cost reductions or reimagination customer and employee experiences.

What鈥檚 more, with 5G鈥檚 growing adoption across Asia, the proliferation of data-driven intelligence will be the game changer for many businesses. As we prepare for a future driven by data, SMEs that have already developed plans to monetise the innovations brought forth by emerging technologies such as 5G will stand in good stead.

Together with our partners, I believe 51风流can bring a to help midsize businesses achieve value through holistic management strategies.

We鈥檙e ready for the possibilities in Asia. What are you excited about in 2021?

Claus Andresen is senior vice president and head of Midmarket for 51风流APJ.

The post Persevere With The Spirit of Ox: Building Interconnectivity For Midmarket appeared first on 51风流Southeast Asia News Center.