BECAUSE small- and medium-sized businesses, or SMBs, continue to espouse growth potentials, they are the apple of SAP Philippines’s eye. The company said it will remain focused on the SMB market, while coming up with a couple of initiatives for the sector.

Jennifer Ligones, SAP Philippines sales director, said in an interview with IT reporter that the company will continue to push for a share of the SMB market. “We know its tremendous growth potential and because of this, we will continue investing heavily on the SMB space for the sales of SAP products,” she said.

The company has assigned a dedicated manager for the SMB sector in order for SAP to be able to fully attend to clients’ needs and concerns.

On a global scale, 65 percent of SAP customers come from the SMB market, contributing around 30 percent of revenues.

Lingones added that they are also considering putting up an SAP financing program for SMBs since most SAP products are made for the enterprise. So even if they have lowered the price, the products remain out of reach of smaller businessmen.

“That’s why we’re studying this financing program in order for smaller companies in the Philippines to acquire SAP solutions at lower costs, and also for them to enjoy the benefits of SAP for their business just like their bigger counterparts,” Ligones adds.

SAP Philippines in a statement said that a local IT systems integrator, Trends and Technologies Inc., has gone live using SAP’s new All-In-One or “A1” solution, which runs on IBM servers.

Shai Villalon, channel sales manager for the SAP All-In-One solution, said that Trend and Technologies acquired the SAP solution only last year and went live only recently in order to provide real-time information to Trend and Technologies’ offices in Manila, Cebu and Davao, and, most recently, in the cities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam.

The SAP All-In-One, Villalon said, is a new selling and implementation approach that is done by putting together various SAP products for delivery to a specific industry.

“By doing this strategy, the selling and implementation of the solution becomes shorter, and this necessarily translates to lower costs for the client. The solution is also flexible, but it really depends on company policies on how to make the product flexible enough to fit the company’s needs,” Villalon added.

At present, there are 10 companies in the country running SAP All-In-One. Ligones said they are looking at 10 percent to 20 percent revenue to come from All-In-One in the Philippines.

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