Returning to work calls for travel and expense adjustments

Business processes had to undergo dramatic changes with lockdowns, but it's not a matter of 'business as usual again' when companies return to work, says Andy Watson, SVP & GM, Asia Pacific Japan & Greater China, SAP Concur.

According to Watson, examples of travel and expense-related changes that were made at the beginning of work-from-home mandates include:

- A slowdown in international business travel and its associated expenses.

- Temporarily ending expensed meals for business lunches, dinners, or in-office meetings.

- Increase in office expenses like monitors and chairs as employees furnish their home offices.

- New expenses to consider like Internet and mobile phone bills for employees who must work from home.

"New policies and processes need to be put in place to accommodate travel restrictions and changes in expenses. While finance managers need to stay flexible as the business environment continues to evolve, spend control and compliance should still be a high priority," Watson said.

Some questions that he suggested finance managers ask as they prepare for return to work to help keep control and compliance top of mind include:

What will travel look like for the company?

"Finance managers must work with travel and HR counterparts to determine the need for employee travel, if at all, and how to keep employees safe. A recent SAP Concur business traveller study found that 91% of Asia Pacific (APAC) business travellers feel concerned about resuming travel. They are especially worried getting sick themselves (55%) or infecting their family (51%)," Watson pointed out.

"Clear guidelines should be developed, even if they are temporary or evolving, so it’s clear who can travel, when they can travel, and how they can travel. Duty of care plans should also be re-evaluated and businesses should ensure they know at all times where employees are traveling for business and how they can communicate with them in the event of an emergency."

Watson also cautioned that organisations that are not proactively protecting employee wellbeing on business trips could risk consequences. "Fifty-one percent of APAC business travellers told the same study they would ask to limit travel if their company does not implement the measures they want. About 14% would look for a position that does not require travel – including 5% who would consider a position at a different company," he said.

Who needs to approve travel and expenses?

"While it may be temporary, businesses may have to implement a more stringent approval policy for travel and other expenses. Due to health concerns related to travel and the need to conserve cash flow, business leaders like CFOs may want to have final approval over all travel and expenses until the situation stabilises," Watson observed.

"To help ensure new approval processes don’t cause delays and inefficiencies, finance managers should implement an automated solution that streamlines the process and allows business leaders to review and approve travel requests, expenses, and invoices right from their phones."

What types of expenses are within policy?

Watson noted that prior to social distancing, employees may have been allowed to take clients out for entertainment. Additionally, in-person team meetings held during the lunch hour may have included expensed lunches. "As employees return to work, finance managers need to determine if these activities and expenses will be allowed again. Clear guidelines must be put in place and expense policies need to be updated to reflect any changes," Watson said.

What happens to home office items that were purchased?

"While new office equipment may have been purchased for employees’ home offices, they remain the business’s property and what to do with them as employees return to work needs to be determined," Watson highlighted.

"Perhaps employees will continue to work from home a few days a week and need to keep the equipment to ensure productivity. However, if a full return to work is expected, finance managers have options that can maximise their asset investment and possibly save the company money, like replacing old office equipment with the new purchases, reselling to a used office furniture company, or donating to a non-profit. Such considerations will become increasingly relevant, with a recent SAP Concur finance study revealing that 71% of employees in APAC want their organisations to subsidise or fully pay for the expenses needed to create a productive home working environment. Employer provision of IT peripherals is widely expected," he elaborated.

How can cost control be ensured?

"For many businesses, cashflow will be tight for the foreseeable future. Spend needs to be proactively governed and managed to help ensure recovery and stability. An important aspect of controlling costs is having full visibility of expenses throughout the company," Watson said.

"Some organisations have experienced the pressing need to deal with paper invoices that are continuing to be mailed to their largely empty offices. Invoice digitisation and automation will let firms take control of the accounts payable process. With control and real time visibility into their liabilities, they can accurately forecast their cash positions and make better business decisions."

Watson recommends implementing an automated spend management solution that integrates expense and invoice management as it brings together a business' spend, simplifying finance managers’ work and giving them a better understanding of where they can save, where to renegotiate, and where to redirect budgets based on plans and priorities.

"Once finance managers have asked themselves the questions above and determined how they want to approach travel and expense procedures, it’s vital they create guidelines and communicate clearly to employees. Compliance can only be ensured if employees have a clear understanding of what has and has not changed with travel and expense policies, and what’s expected as they return to work," he concluded.

APAC SMEs have embraced remote work: SAP

SAP has unveiled findings for Digital Resilient, and Experience-driven: How Small and Midsize Organisations Can Prepare for the New Economy, a study* that highlights how small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Asia-Pacific (APAC) are uniquely positioned to adapt and thrive in the dynamic and distributed post-COVID-19 business environment.

Conducted in collaboration with Oxford Economics, the study also delved into the priorities, challenges, and digital maturity of SMEs in the Americas, Europe, and APAC. A section detailing answers from 240 respondents on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was also added to the survey mid-fieldwork.

According to the 240 that responded to the series of COVID-19 questions, APAC SMEs are well-positioned to adapt to a remote working environment by taking swift actions to implement and adjust remote work arrangements for employees in response to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Seventy-seven percent reported that they adjusted remote work arrangements for employees in response to COVID-19, as compared to lower numbers from Europe (75% of respondents) and the Americas (71%).

Additionally, 61% of APAC SMEs surveyed created remote work setups for employees during this period, while 69% invested in IT and collaboration solutions to support remote access and/or online learning. Interestingly, 10% of APAC SMEs reported that the pandemic has no impact on their ability to accommodate remote work and maintain employee productivity.

On top of supporting business continuity during this period, many APAC SMEs are also actively exploring new channels to get their products and services to customers (66%, vs. 64% in the Americas and 59% in Europe) and developing new products and service offerings (46%, vs. 40% in the Americas and 49% in Europe).

Singapore respondents said that their top reactions to COVID-19 were:

- Adjusted remote work arrangements for employees (73%) and invested in IT and collaboration solutions for remote access or/and online learning (73%)

- Explored new channels to get product/service offerings to customers (68%) and explored new ways to meet supply chain demands (68%)

The most impacted areas of business operations and strategies for Singapore organisations, defined as 'significant impact' or 'completely restructure operations/strategies', included:

- Ability to meet customer demands (55%) and ability to win new business (55%)

- Ability to operate at full capacity (45%)

Conversely, the business operations and strategies which saw 'minimal effect' or 'moderate effect' in Singapore included:

- Ability to accommodate remote work and maintain employee productivity (55%). COVID-19 did not affect the remote working abilities of 14% of SMEs in Singapore.

- Ability to manage cash flow and liquidity (45%)

Before COVID-19, Singapore SMEs had said their top strategic priority over the next three years was: 

- Growth (43%)

- Customer experience (38%), an ideal experience being defined as high-quality products and/or services (77%) and competitive pricing (74%)

Their challenges pre-COVID include:

- Lack of coordination between different departments (32%)

- Upskilling/reskilling their current workforce (31%)

- Competition from larger organisations (46%)

- Keeping up with changing customer wants and needs (42%)

A further 46% in Singapore said data storage, collection and analysis would be a problem as they grow.

“SMEs across the region—like their counterparts around the world—have certain advantages over larger competitors in terms of agility and closeness to the customer,” said Edward Cone, Editorial Director of Thought Leadership and Technology Practice Lead at Oxford Economics.

“Yet even before the pandemic, SMEs in APAC also faced meaningful challenges in keeping up the pace of digital transformation.”

Lastly, it was revealed that COVID-19 has significantly impacted APAC SMEs’ ability to compete with larger companies within the same industry, with 45% of APAC SMEs reporting that the pandemic has had a significant effect on their operations and strategies in this area. COVID-19 has also affected the ability to operate at full capacity (45%), the ability of the supply chains to keep up with demands (40%), and the ability to keep existing customers (40%). Some respondents reported that they had to completely restructure business strategy and operations in these areas to mitigate the impact of the pandemic.

Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, SMEs in the region reported being optimistic about their long-term prospects. Many APAC SMEs expect that over the next three years, their market share (62%), budget/revenue (76%), number of full-time employees (59%), and profitability (78%) will increase 'somewhat' or 'substantially'.

Looking ahead to the next three years, APAC SMEs are prioritising improving the customer experience (40%), growth (38%) and attracting new customers (28%). APAC SMEs believe that the key to providing high-quality customer experience lies in high-quality products and/or services (70%), fast and convenient delivery (64%) and competitive pricing (62%), with the customer-service business function bearing the most responsibility for delivering those experiences (cited by 70% of APAC respondents).

Upgrading analytics on customer data is viewed as a go-to strategy to improving customer experience: 28% already have done this across the organisation, and 52% have started to.

With technology set to play an increasingly critical role in helping APAC SMEs achieve business success in the new digital environment, the study also took a closer look at digital maturity levels of these businesses across the region.

APAC SMEs say they have made moderate progress toward digital transformation (39%), and 21% have made substantial progress or completely transformed; within three years, 19% expect to have completely transformed. Their biggest IT functions challenges as the organisation grows are 24x7 service availability (55%) and cybersecurity (51%).

In terms of technological adoption, HR/talent management software is furthest along (66%), followed by governance and cybersecurity software (63%), then finance and risk management software (59%). Respondents reported that these technologies are either in use in some applications/projects or are already in use at scale.

Mobile devices and mobile business process enablement, and business management solutions (enterprise resource planning or ERP software) share the top spot in terms of pilot implementation, and APAC SMEs are actively considering emerging technologies, artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) and the Internet of Things (IoT) as their main investment priorities. 
 
When it comes to automation investment, the majority of SMEs are already using automation in some applications/projects (36%). The top business functions that see major or substantial investment in terms of automation and digital processes in APAC are:

- Customer service (56%)

- Enterprise management/operations (48%)

APAC SMEs further consider the top benefits of automation and digital technologies to be:

- Increasing process efficiency by reducing error, risk and cost (44%)

- Increasing productivity through transformation and intelligence process automation (43%)

The road to success does, however, bring challenges, SAP said. Today, APAC SMEs consider the upskilling/reskilling of the current workforce (30%), lack of coordination between different departments (29%), and inability to gain insights from data (28%) as key internal challenges.

In terms of external challenges, APAC SMEs cite changing customer wants and needs (40%), competition from larger organisations (39%), and adapting to a rapidly-changing marketplace (27%) as obstacles to their business success.

Source: SAP. Andresen.

“Today’s new normal requires businesses to pivot and adapt with speed. SMEs in the region seem to understand that the sense of urgency to digitally transform their businesses will give them an advantage through the pandemic and beyond,” said Claus Andresen, SVP & Head of General Business (SME) and Emerging Markets Growth, Asia Pacific & Japan.

“With the adoption of an intelligent enterprise strategy, SMEs can establish a digital core that will power the entire organisation, embedding data-driven insights and decision-making processes across the business. This is crucial in enabling business agility, further strengthening the ability of SMEs to adapt to dynamic market conditions.”

“I am confident SMEs in the region will be able to emerge stronger, having forged closer bonds with customers and employees while developing innovative services and products that will put them on a strong growth trajectory as the world economy recovers,” he concluded.

Three tips from SAP to help SMEs thrive in the new normal are:
Organise for agility

Coordination across the business—facilitated by rapid communication and information-sharing—can help SMEs respond to challenges quickly and effectively.

Put people at the centre

Business processes, organisational structures, and digital investments should all support customer and employee engagement, whether through real-time insight into wants and needs, or innovations that improve convenience and quality.

Become data-driven

Analytics for decision-making can transform every aspect of operations, from insights that affect supply-chain sourcing to alerts that support predictive maintenance after sales.

SAP aims to help every business run as an intelligent enterprise with its enterprise application software leveraging machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics technologies. Seventy-seven percent of the world’s transaction revenue touches an SAP system.

*Oxford Economics and SAP surveyed 2,000 senior executives from small and midsize organisations across 19 countries and industries. Each respondent organisation in our survey reported annual revenues or budgets ranging from under US$10 million to US$1 billion, as well as employee headcounts below 1,000. In India, some respondents employ more than 2,000 employees. 

Of the 2,000 respondents, 832 respondents were from APAC, in the following markets: Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, and South Korea. 

The survey was administered via a mix of computer-assisted telephone interviewing and online links between February 27 and April 30, 2020.

Spark joy by decluttering business travel

Source: SAP Concur. View from a plane window.

SAP Concur has linked decluttering to business travel and come up with new efficiencies for travellers.

"Just like it’s possible − with the right method − to transform your chaotic home into a neat abode that sparks joy, it’s possible to turn business travel from pain to pleasure with some technological ingenuity," said Andy Watson, SVP and GM, Asia Pacific Japan and Greater China, SAP Concur.

Traditionally, before making their trips, business travellers need to:

- Manually conduct multiple searches for their desired flights and hotels. Bookings are done separately with the need to repeatedly key in personal and booking information.

- Manually consolidate multiple bookings in one place, often in a paper-based fashion with no capability for changes or real-time prompts and updates.

- Go through a tedious submission process for internal approval of the trip.

- Safekeep paper receipts collected along the trip.

- Go through the receipts and key in details for claims upon return.

"With modern, mobile-based travel and expense technologies, business travellers will be able to declutter all these processes, better organise their trips, and take more effective care of their own safety," Watson explained.

He said decluttering and going digital could mean:

- Using smart apps to book flights, hotels and rental cars, streamlining travel booking, claims and invoicing management from start to finish.

- Organising all travel plans in one place, including personal arrangements done with travel service providers like Airbnb and Uber.

- Receiving real-time flight alerts throughout their trip, even possibly getting notified when a better seat becomes available.

- Linking frequent flyer accounts and reward programmes on one platform, which lets travellers save time on bookings and leverage a B2C experience, while staying within the policy needs of their company.

- Keep their company in the loop with modern apps so it can render on-site assistance should the need arise. "Modern apps can help firms proactively monitor weather, violence, system disruptions or other risks that may impact their travellers, communicate with them and connect them to expert support," Watson said.

- Take pictures of their paper receipts, submit them instantly for claims and forget about the need to safekeep them. "Some apps can automatically create, itemise and categorise charges in expense reports," noted Watson.

- Use apps to auto-submit hotel, restaurant and transportation e-receipts, or enable these vendors to submit their receipts directly to the corporate expense system. 

"This paperless approach aids environmental preservation," Watson pointed out. Other sustainable options exist for modern apps include the possibility of optimising routes based on emissions, or renting environmentally friendly cars from designated rental firms.

"Looking beyond travellers themselves, all these capabilities can tidy up operations for finance managers and make their work a breeze," he added.

On the back end, Watson pointed out that the data for employees’ bookings across multiple channels would all flow back to the finance team. With a digital strategy, that team gets more visibility and greater insights, so they can apply policy on direct bookings and better manage compliance and approvals. 

"With this same data, the finance department could anticipate needs, predict challenges, identify opportunities on the fly, and tackle everything from taxes and compliance risk to mobile phone expenses and fraud," he said. 

"All in all, a company could create a best-in-class experience for its employee travellers while dramatically improving its financial controls and productivity organisation-wide," Watson concluded.

SAP Concur looks in the crystal ball for business travel in 2019

Source: SAP Concur. Evered.

Nick Evered, SVP and GM, Japan and Asia Pacific at SAP Concur, suggests that business travel is going to be transformed in 2019.

“As the lines between business and leisure travel continue blurring, more professionals are combining their business trips with weekend stays. Most of them want to experience the city that they are visiting and see things beyond just the hotel meeting rooms, making ride-sharing and accommodating services such as Grab and Airbnb as the ideal options. Entering 2019, travel managers will need to rethink how they can start offering these sharing economy services as part of their suite of travel management programme and policy framework,” he said.

“As employees have more ways to incur travel expenses than ever, 2019 is the time for organisations to rethink their strategy to thrive in such changing times. Many businesses are still using legacy spend management tools that fail to keep pace with today’s business travellers whose on-the-go work style require simple, mobile and reliable solutions. Spend management tools must evolve to meet the needs of companies and its business travellers. Modern technology including automated spend management tools can help to streamline processes and provide better user experience for employees.”

Evered also introduced the concept of 'bleisure', or combining business with leisure. " Driven by the blurring lines between work and personal life along with the need to make the stress of business travel more manageable, bleisure travel will become increasingly common,” Evered said.

“Data from SAP Concur indicates the that the entire workforce is including leisure days as part of their business trips where possible. Accommodating bleisure in travel policies can help companies to demonstrate that they value their employees’ wellbeing and work-life balance.

Evered also noted that a global workforce means that employees are constantly crossing the borders. “While the length of the trip and the reasons for travel may vary, the complexity of today’s business environment means that there are numerous tax provisions that organisations have to navigate,” he elaborated.

“A company that wants to minimise the risks associated with tax compliance will need to take a more proactive approach. In 2019, employers need to better track where employees are frequently travelling to and the tax laws of that country. A pre-assessment process should also be implemented to better determine any personal or corporate tax exposure.”

SAP: Christmas a tricky time for retailers

The festive season is one the most challenging periods for online retailers from a logistical and customer experience point of view, says Jennifer Arnold, VP of Marketing, Asia Pacific Japan & Greater China, SAP Customer Experience (CX).
 
"Following the massive Singles’ Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday period*, retailers have barely a month to ensure that they have enough stock for consumers to make purchases in time for Christmas. This is crucial because stock availability and quick delivery times are key factors in consumers’ completion of their online purchases.

"Our 2018 SAP Consumer Propensity Report revealed that more than one-third of Asia Pacific (APAC) shoppers abandon their online carts due to out-of-stock items, while 28% do so because of longer-than-expected delivery times."

"Online retailers may also consider offering alternative delivery methods to home delivery during the holiday period that may better suit shoppers’ needs, such as secure lockers and click-and-collect options," she suggested.

Secure lockers from Ninja Van in Singapore.

Arnold also noted that consumers are shopping for others and not just for themselves at Christmas. "The use of advanced analytics during this period plays a key role in anticipating what shoppers may want to buy for themselves versus what they want to gift to family and friends, allowing retailers to provide a more personalised experience with relevant recommendations, promotions and shipping options," she said.

"With 40% of Asia Pacific shoppers expressing a desire for a physical store to test products before purchasing according to our research report, online retailers can look to provide this tactile experience by setting up their own short-term pop-up stores or renting temporary space in an existing outlet.

"Alternatively, retailers can look to virtual or augmented reality technologies to help consumers picture how products will look and work in real life, as the report reveals that 39% of consumers would like this capability," she added.

*Singles' Day was on November 11. Black Friday followed on 23 November, with Cyber Monday on the 26th of the same month.

Southeast Asia ahead on digital transformation, digital leadership

Source: SAP. Agree or disagree? Senior management and employees weigh in both globally and in Southeast Asia for the Leaders 2020 study.

Nearly one-quarter of Southeast Asian businesses are digital leaders, a new study by SAP and Oxford Economics shows. This is higher than the global average of 16%, according to the Leaders 2020 study.

This new class of high-performing companies is reporting stronger profit growth, higher employee engagement, and cultures that are more inclusive. The organisations have executives who communicate a company-wide digital strategy, keep management and worker skills up to date, and streamline organisational structure.

An analysis of Southeast Asian firms in the Leaders 2020 study also affirms the business benefits of diversity, showing a correlation between those who are leading in digital transformation and those who have a heightened understanding of the importance of diversity. Digital leaders around the world and Southeast Asian respondents are both more likely to recognise diversity’s positive impact on culture (66% and 62%, respectively), but only digital leaders are more likely to see the benefits in financial performance (37% globally against 25% in Southeast Asia).

Companies have become more diverse in Southeast Asia than in other regions over the past three years. Three-quarters of Southeast Asian respondents saw diversity improvements in the general workforce of their organisation, and 42% saw an increase in board and senior leadership, compared with 67% and 34% globally. However, less than 40% in Southeast Asia state that their company has effective diversity programmes in place, signalling more could be done, especially at the senior executive and corporate board levels.

The Leaders 2020 study also found that only 61% of Southeast Asian executives (55% globally) are making data-driven decisions, a key factor that makes a Digital Leader. Not surprisingly 62% of Southeast Asian executives (59% globally) feel that employees are equipped with the skills necessary to keep up with digital technology.

“A diverse workforce encourages bold, innovative ideas to flourish and in turn, presents insights which are only made possible through that diversity. It is of little coincidence that these two capabilities – leveraging data for decisions and maintaining a diverse workforce – both occur for high-performing organisations,” said Scott Russell, President and MD, SAP Southeast Asia.

Other findings for Southeast Asia included:

· Stronger financial performance: 76% of executives characterised as digital leaders report strong revenue and profit growth, compared to 60% of all other Southeast Asian executives.

· Satisfied and engaged employees: effective digital leadership drives more than financial performance—it also creates healthier cultures. Nearly nine in 10 (87%) digital leaders have employees who are more satisfied, compared with just 51% for respondents in Southeast Asia. Three quarters of digital leaders also have employees who are more likely to stay in their jobs if given the chance to leave, as compared to 45% in the region.

· More mature talent strategies: digital leaders are more likely to invest in talent and have much more advanced strategies for talent recruitment, development and retention. For example, 56% of digital leaders mainly fill roles from within the company, as compared to just 33% for the rest of the region.

The study also found that Millennials are quickly occupying corporate leadership positions, as 22% of the executives in the Leaders 2020 study from Southeast Asia are classified as millennials, compared with 17% worldwide. Despite the higher percentage of young executives in the region, only 45% of Southeast Asian executives say leadership works with employees to develop their careers—an important step in cultivating Millennial talent. Young executives are more focused on diversity and its benefits, and they tend to come from companies that value diversity and take steps to build it.

“According to a PwC report. Millennials at Work: Reshaping the Workplace, Millennials will form 50% of the global workforce by 2020*. Listening to what young executives have to say may be a shortcut to digital leadership—as long as the experience of their older peers is not ignored in the process. Striking this balance requires generations to listen to each other. Generational diversity is as important as the other forms of workplace diversity. The Baby Boomers, Gen-Xers and Millennials all bring varying perspectives to the table, which is crucial in sustaining a dynamic organisation. Our belief in working closely with the Millennial generation has resulted in having five unique generations, all working together at SAP to help our customers Run Simple,” Russell added.

“The pace of change in today’s digital economy shows no sign of slowing down, and organisations that do not continually update their approach to digital leadership risk falling behind. Technology continues to remain the key enabler to drive growth, promote innovation, enable transformation and level the playing field for companies of all sizes.”

Despite having a promising digital business landscape, leaders at these companies cannot rest on their laurels—survey results from the Leaders 2020 study indicate that these companies in the region are not devoting enough resources to developing future leadership, employee skills or employee engagement. The research identifies several areas where companies can improve their leadership skills—and their business performance:

· Communicate a company-wide digital vision – sharing a digital direction company-wide is demonstrative of a good leader.

· Continuously update executive and employee skill sets – a necessity to adopt new digital skills in the digital economy.

· Flatten the organisation – reduce bureaucratic bottlenecks.

· Emphasise diversity – cultivating a diverse workforce drives success in a global economy.

· Listen to young executives – as they form the key workforce of the future, their advice is essential for digital transformation.

Interested?

Learn more about the study and the prerequisites for digital leadership

SAP chief tells students in Dubai to position themselves for the Networked Economy

Source: SAP. UAE employers must embrace the potential of the Millennial generation to transform their businesses, SAP CEO Bill McDermott told students at the American University in Dubai.

UAE employers must embrace the potential of the Millennial generation to transform their businesses, SAP Chief Executive Officer Bill McDermott said on a visit to the Emirates.

Millennials, aged 18-35, will make up 75% percent of the total global workforce by 2025, according to SAP. As the first generation born into the mobile device era, Millennials have enormous potential to transform companies and markets, and make a huge positive impact on business and society at large, McDermott told students at the American University in Dubai (AUD).

With the UAE building its knowledge-based economy in line with its Vision 2021, training the next-generation workforce has assumed a greater significance. In the UAE, 54% of executives said that Millennials entering the workforce is a top trend impacting the workforce strategy, according to the Workforce 2020 report by Oxford Economics and SAP. However only 28% of executives give special attention to their wants and needs, although Millennials bring highly-valued skills in cloud, mobile analytics, and social media to the table.

“It’s easy to forget that the Millennial generation was the first ever born into the mobile device,” said McDermott. "The up and coming workforce expects the same experience in their professional lives during the week that they enjoy as consumers during the weekend.”

McDermott urged AUD students to benefit from opportunities available to them, and develop skill sets to lead in the new era of the Networked Economy.

“When I think about this generation in the UAE, they’re fearless and ready to support innovation in every form,” said Bill McDermott. “I believe the time is now to push them into big challenges and empower them. This is why SAP has amazing partnerships with universities across the UAE and beyond. When they’re ready to lead, we want them to thrive with our platform and our applications.”

Dr Alaa Ashmawy, Dean of the School of Engineering, American University in Dubai, said: “In an increasingly competitive global job market, hands-on experience and critical thinking in the areas of science and engineering are sought-after skills. We have the great privilege of partnering with SAP to bring tools and innovation to our students and expose them to real life scenarios through global knowledge exchange and taking the educational experience to the next level.”

Hosting more than 20 regional programmes, SAP’s Training and Development Institute aims to increase qualified hires, promote gender diversity, and spearhead the localisation and Arabic translation of SAP business apps.

SAP’s 92 University Alliance partners across the region have trained more than 10,000 students and 570 professors on SAP solutions. Students in the Middle East can also gain hands-on experience with the Young Professional Program, the Dual Study Program, and the Academies for Pre-Sales and Sales.