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.”
