Thirty years ago, in July 1989, Shanghai Machine Tool Works introduced ERP for the first time in China and became SAP's first customer in China. As the cradle of new China's machine tools and high-end equipment, Shanghai Machine Tool Works's move is of great significance, and the story between SAP and Chinese companies has turned the first page.
Today, 30 years later, not only the Shanghai Machine Tool Plant has begun to implement SAP's new generation of ERP-S/4HANA, but also Haier, Lenovo, TCL, PetroChina, Sinopec, China Telecom, Gome, Wahaha, Xiaomi... etc. A large number of well-known Chinese companies have also become loyal customers of SAP.
SAP is able to achieve such beautiful results in the Chinese market because of its philosophy of rooting in China, taking root in the real economy, and empowering enterprises with technology, which can be said to have played an extremely critical role.
SAP's "China Acceleration Plan"
"SAP is committed to promoting a new "China Acceleration Plan" to provide a series of support to SAP's local teams in China to help them further innovate and provide services to Chinese partners and customers." In the recent 2019 SAP China At the summit, the SAP executive board member Adaire Fox-Martin said so.
Fu Meidai revealed that SAP's support for the "China Acceleration Plan" mainly includes the following three aspects:
First, the SAP China team will further expand the scope of the Greater China region, including the opening of ten new SAP offices, and new SAP offices throughout China in the next three years. Among them, in 2019 alone, SAP China has opened offices in Jinan and Chengdu, and the Wuhan branch was officially established recently. SAP also plans to open two new offices before the end of 2019.
Second, by cooperating with a large number of exciting innovative companies and start-ups to integrate their products and solutions into SAP solutions, SAP China is creating a new next-generation ecosystem, many of which have already Grow into a unicorn company. Not only can this provide new and diversified solutions for the majority of enterprises to meet the prosperous needs of Chinese corporate customers, but SAP also develops innovative business models hand in hand with new industry-leading customers.
Third, SAP China is actively investing in outstanding talents. Because SAP understands that in the end, companies rely on talents to succeed, and ultimately all differences are reflected in the level of talents. The rapid growth of the Chinese market and China's ambitious talents require the support of the best projects. This is why SAP continues to introduce some of the best world-class projects into China, such as the SAP China Innovation Business School co-founded with Peking University, and the young talent mentor program within SAP.
It is particularly worth mentioning that under the witness of the Chinese and German prime ministers, SAP and the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University recently signed a strategic cooperation agreement, aiming to train more digital management talents for China and further promote the digital transformation of Chinese enterprises , To create a model of successful cases of Sino-German cooperation and Sino-European cooperation.
In response to the theme of the 2019 SAP China Summit "Smart Enterprise, Experience First", Fu Meidai explained that in order to help more companies carry out digital transformation faster and better, SAP specially acquired Qualtrics, a company that specializes in experience management. Because SAP believes that in addition to technology, customer experience is also very important for smart companies that want to create a great experience. SAP can feedback the customer's experience to the company in real time, including product development, design and sales. Every link can participate in it, which can help the company better meet the needs of customers in all aspects.
At this summit, Fu Meidai also personally released SAP's new brand identity in Chinese, as well as a new brand slogan-"Thinking beyond bounds, doing well". This is the first time that SAP has launched a localized brand strategy for regional markets in the world. This means that SAP is combining global experience with Chinese wisdom to help Chinese companies better carry out digital transformation.
Facilitate the digital transformation of Chinese companies
As we all know, in recent years, the global economic environment has been under turbulent undercurrents and the frequent occurrence of black swan incidents has caused many Chinese companies to encounter unprecedented severe challenges. So how can SAP help these Chinese companies?
"In recent years, the uncertainty of the world economy has brought unprecedented challenges to many countries, companies, and stock markets, and it is very likely that this uncertainty will become a new normal in the future, and even last for a long time. Time. In the current environment of large fluctuations in the global economy, companies are also facing greater challenges. They urgently need to improve efficiency, strengthen resilience, and maintain competitiveness.” Mark Ji Bingmeng, Executive Vice President of SAP and President of Greater China Gibbs) said, “By integrating the end-to-end business strategy of enterprise operations, SAP can use innovative technologies and rely on strong global and local partnerships to support our Chinese customers to become smart enterprises.”
Ji Bingmeng also pointed out that by comparing China's economic growth data and forecasts, although some of China's data in the past two years seem to be lower than before, China, as the world's second largest economy, has achieved remarkable results.
"What I see in China is the never-ending vitality and growth momentum. I believe that China will continue to be an important growth force for the global economy." Ji Bingmeng said, "In the face of a brand new situation, Chinese companies need to be stronger, more stable, and stronger. A secure IT infrastructure makes their operations more efficient. SAP can help Chinese companies better deal with environmental challenges. It is predicted that the next few years will be a period of large-scale cloud computing growth in China."
Speaking of the assistance provided by SAP to SMEs, SAP Global Senior Vice President and General Manager of China Li Qiang revealed: “Before developing products for SMEs in China, SAP did a very detailed survey. The results show that although the information of Chinese SMEs The degree of modernization is generally low, but although the sparrow is small and complete, it still has high requirements for IT infrastructure. At this time, cloud computing provides a very good way for small and medium-sized enterprises to eliminate the need to deploy IT infrastructure from scratch , Establish an IT team and be responsible for the management of operation and maintenance, but can gradually realize digital transformation by paying on demand and according to the annual investment and effects."
"In the process of contacting the Chinese market, SAP deeply felt that local governments at all levels have a very strong willingness, hoping to promote enterprises through digital transformation and upgrading to respond to the current downward pressure on the economy." Li Qiang said, "Facing the current Only by accelerating digital transformation in a down-to-earth environment, companies can maintain stable business development and better resist changes in the external environment. SAP will also continue to take root in the real economy and use artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing and other technologies to empower Chinese companies High-quality development to achieve the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries. As one of the core players of German Industry 4.0, SAP is also actively promoting digital construction represented by the "Industrial Internet", deepening its investment in the Chinese market, and cooperating with governments, customers, and partners at all levels Together to help the high-quality development of China's economy."
Why Chinese companies choose SAP
With regard to the various efforts made by SAP in the Chinese market, as well as SAP's core advantages and competitiveness relative to other partners, SAP's corporate customers undoubtedly have the most say. Wen Yu, deputy general manager of Mingyuan Holding Group and chairman of Liangtian Technology Development Co., Ltd., is a very typical representative.
Wen Yu revealed to Quwei Technology that as a comprehensive energy and chemical enterprise integrating petroleum trading, petrochemical refining, fine chemicals, port logistics, real estate development, and information technology, Mingyuan Group has been listed as a Chinese private enterprise and manufacturing company in 2019. The top 500 industrial enterprises and the top 100 petrochemical companies and service industry companies can be said to be the best among Chinese private enterprises.
"However, with the expansion of its own business and scale, Mingyuan Group is keenly aware that if a traditional manufacturing company wants to achieve a second take-off, only by improving its digital and informatization capabilities can it not be eliminated by the times. If you want to achieve the best corporate management, you should use the best ERP software. As the world’s top 500 companies generally favor SAP, it has naturally become the best choice for Mingyuan Group.” Wen Yu said, “Only standing Only on the shoulders of the giant "management master" of SAP can we quickly improve the management level and informatization level of the entire group and realize the group's strategic transformation and industrial upgrading. This is our original intention for choosing SAP."
"We did not choose to cooperate with SAP on an impulse, but after thorough thinking and research. What we value is the management philosophy behind it. SAP is not just an ERP software, it also has a set of standardized and international management concepts behind it. Among them, the industry is called the "management master behind the world's top 500", and it is not a fame." Wen Yu said, "At present, about 90% of the energy and chemical industry enterprises in China are using SAP, and state-owned enterprises are basically 100% They are all SAP customers. Since so many excellent companies are using SAP, then SAP must have its unique skills. In addition, we also hope that the group can enter the international market in accordance with international standards in the future. The only choice is SAP. Only with internationalized partners can we achieve this goal."
Wen Yu revealed that Mingyuan Group plans to divide the construction of ERP into the following three stages:
In the first stage, by the end of 2020, implement the basic modules of "people, finance, and material" to lay a solid foundation. With core data, core businesses will follow.
In the second stage, by the end of 2021, the "production, supply, and sales" module will be implemented, centering on the construction of the group's smart factory, achieving intelligent operation at the production and operation level, and synergizing with the operation and management level to achieve integrated management and control.
The third stage, by the end of 2022, will further use SAP extension modules, such as digital supply chain, CRM, and visual analysis cloud, to achieve synergy across the entire industry chain. This is also the ultimate goal of Mingyuanji's digital transformation.
"We hope that through these'three steps', Mingyuan Group will be able to fully realize vertical integration, horizontal integration and end-to-end integration from the four levels of operation management, production and operation, customer service and infrastructure, and finally complete the entire industry chain. Collaborative optimization." Wen Yu said.