Please discuss your new association with ISB and the new benchmarking program

We have launched a comprehensiveperformance benchmarkingprogram for Indian companies inassociation with the IndianSchool of Business (ISB). Withthis, we want our partners andcustomers to analyze the impactand understand the value ofadopting best practice inbusiness processes. Currently,about 160 Indian companiesfrom various industry verticalshave participated in this process.

Is this specific to an industry? Also, who can benefit from the benchmarking solutions?

We are initially launching thenew program for the CFOs andcompanies which have financeprocesses like accounts in termsof payables and receivables,treasury and other finance-related segments. Later on wewish to expand into otherprocesses like HR, procurementand supply chain besides others.India has the largest pool ofSMBs with 75 percent of ourcustomer base falling in thissegment. Also, the entireprogram was conceptualized inIndia. We have more than 3,500SME customers and our abilityto drive transformation lies inhow effectively our customershave been using our platform.

What can partners expect from SAP?

A major chunk of our businesshappens through partners. If thenew benchmarking offer isaccepted, then we would like toenable our partners in this fieldtoo. We have an internal talentpool which is working onbenchmarking day in and out.SAP wants to set standards in thisarea and then pass the batoneventually to partners. This willtake time but we are hopeful thateventually our hopes will realize.

What are your future plans around the new launch?

We have seen that Indiancompanies are on a globalgrowth path. Our research showsthat 87 percent of companieshave built strong business processes but only 8 – 10 percent ofthe companies retain their focus onvalue post implementation. More than150 companies spanning 20 industries in India have already leveraged thisprogram to extract more value out ofSAP. We are hoping that these numberswill grow considerably in next few coming months.

REVATHI RAGHAVAN (revathir@cybermedia.co.in)

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