ENTERPRISE application software provider SAP announced on Wednesday that UnionBank of the Philippines has tapped its cloud solution to streamline its operations and meet business requirements.
According to UnionBank Chairman and CEO Justo A. Ortiz, the move to “transform the bank for the digital economy” is the most revolutionary and gigantic step their company has taken in enabling customers.
“We wanted to create a core banking system that will help us to decentralize our functions for booking, establish a shared services framework to support our HR [human resource] functions, and automate our operations focused on enterprise GL, planning and budgeting, procurement and analytics. This development is vital for us to meet the ever-changing needs not just of our customers but also our employees,” he said.
Prior to its partnership with SAP, the Aboitiz-led universal bank faced challenges in financial management, manual Excel-based processes, budget tracking, account and product profitability reports, Reimbursement and Disbursement System (RDS), and Project Management, among others.
Now with S/4 HANA hosted out of HANA Enterprise Cloud (HEC), UnionBank can reduce its business complexity with minimum human error and intervention, thus, allowing it to boost productivity and efficiency.
Being a private cloud offered by SAP, HEC assists customers to deploy HANA applications such as S/4 HANA, a real-time enterprise resource management suite that supports various lines of business run simple in the digital economy.
With this, UnionBank can now focus on solution breath and simplified user experience that will help it lean toward the digital shift.
“We want to further establish our position as the most innovative and pioneering bank in the country to advance its operation in the S/4 HANA hosted on HEC as we take on a cloud-first strategy with the help of SAP,” said Henry Aguda, chief technology and operations officer and chief transformation officer of UnionBank. He added that they see this as an opportunity to “streamline processes and meet business needs in a secure, safe, scalable and robust cloud environment.”
For SAP Philippines Managing Director Edler Panlilio, going digital can lead to change in today’s business environment, particularly with the way banking is carried out by UnionBank.
“We hope that by running live with S/4 HANA hosted through HEC and with our expertise in digital technologies, UnionBank can operate and deliver more value to their customers in a seamless and engaging way,” he said.
HEC and SAP’s Application Management Services allow for different industries to transform their business by leveraging on its ability to free up customer’s resource and information technology staff, lessen the required capital, and to reduce and avoid energy and data center costs.
These, in turn, enable organizations to drive value creation activities, focus on business innovation and bolster revenue. SAP considers the unique industry-specific needs of UnionBank in a tightly regulated industry and understands the pivotal role of technology in shifting the dynamics of success.
The multinational believes that this solution is the cornerstone of future innovations, as UnionBank begins to explore blockchain technology, In-Memory Computing and Big Data.
Through this, UnionBank can see that the system is ready to support new technologies and solutions in the market.
Founded in 1982, it was among the first of its peers to start the first bank web site, online banking and first electronic savings account in the country.
German firm SAP empowers organizations of all sizes and industries to run better. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device, it allows people and organizations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition.
All the applications and services offered by this multinational enable over 404,000 business and public-sector customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously and grow sustainably.