NAIROBI Kenya, Oct 28 – Business applications solutions provider SAP Africa is all set to host a Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) road show for Kenyan entrepreneurs as part of a global technology exposure programme.
The road show to be held on Thursday at the city’s Holiday Inn will be officially opened by SAP Africa Managing Director Pfungwa Serima, and is dubbed the ‘SAP SME World Tour’.
Styled as an interactive conference, the road show is aimed at encouraging SMEs to harness SAP solutions in their bid to run lean operations, capture greater market share and gain business openness and transparency in the prevailing economic climate.
The road show, which marks its fifth stop in Africa this year, is part of a global initiative across 50 cities in 10 countries to educate users on SAP solutions for small businesses and midsize companies.
According to SAP Africa SME Director Derek Kudsee, the decision to roll out a world tour focusing on SMEs is part of SAP’s commitment to facilitate technology solutions awareness in the growing markets in Africa.
“In addition to talking to our customers about our solutions and how we can help them improve their operations, this is also an opportunity for them to interact with their peers, industry partners and SAP executives,” explained Mr Kudsee.
He added: “In today\’s economy, best-run businesses must be transparent and accountable, lean and agile, customer-centric and collaborative. Now more than ever, meeting these challenges requires a highly focused business strategy and streamlined execution. This is what the SAP World Tour aims to address.”
Local firms confirmed to make presentations at the workshop include Bamburi Cement, Rural Electrification Authority, Crown-Berger Paints and Acacia Medical.
This year, Mr Kudsee disclosed, the road show has already been hosted in Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town as well as Lagos, Nigeria attracting over a thousand customers.
“There is a perception that our solutions are aimed only at large enterprises yet more than 65000 SAP customers are small or medium sized companies which makes up more than 75 percent of SAP customers worldwide,” said Mr Kudsee.
“We are extremely excited about being able to reach out to the other centres around the continent in an environment that also brings us closer to our customers and helps us get an even better understanding of their business environment and challenges.”
The event is designed to be highly interactive and focused on the needs and challenges of specific industries to ensure that delegates can hone in on the issues that are upper-most on their minds.
