SAP MENA, the Middle Eastern and Northern African division of German multinational software corporation SAP SE, has made great progress in recent years by co-innovating with the Middle East’s banking and financial sectors, especially in GCC countries.
“SAP MENA is tracking closely and positively against our long-term growth plan for the region,” Gergi Abboud, managing director of SAP Gulf, told Gulf News Journal. “Based on our four-year plan launched in 2012, we are exceeding the internal targets established across revenue, staff, geographic reach and number of accounts.”
In the Middle East, SAP solutions manage $1.6 trillion in assets, including the 10 safest banks in the Middle East and Africa.
In May, SAP MENA and Kuwait Credit Bank won the Asian Banker Technology Implementation Award for Best Lending Platform Implementation in the Middle East. The award committee assessed more than 50 financial institutions and 150 projects across the Middle East and Africa, and winners were determined only after a thorough evaluation of submissions alongside field research and interviews conducted by The Asian Banker.
“With Kuwait Credit Bank averaging 400 loan applications per week, SAP Big Data and server solutions, implemented by MDS-Sybase Middle East, provided real-time analysis of information stored on the Kuwait civil ID card’s smart chip, connected to different government entities,” Abboud said. “As a result, Kuwait Credit Bank employees have become 95 percent more productive, and the company has increased job satisfaction, and has much less human error in input and processing, while also providing more efficient customer service.”
MENA is one of SAP’s fastest-growing markets, with double-digit growth year after year. By helping the region’s banking and finance firms simplify their IT systems -- which can consume 90 percent of banks’ IT costs -- SAP lets them drive competitiveness in the digital economy, enhance their customer experiences and find solutions to increasing pressures from regulators.
“Thanks to agile IT systems, Middle East banks are also well-positioned to be global leaders in fighting bank fraud and improving governance, risk and compliance,” Abboud told Gulf News Journal. “We see strong short-term and long-term potential for driving digital innovation in the region, and we are committed to co-innovating with enterprises of all sizes and verticals, especially in key verticals such as oil and gas, health care, education, Smart Cities, government, telecom, sport and manufacturing.”
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