German companies have been around in Malaysia for over 30 years and many of them saw their businesses thrive along with the development of the country into becoming a key ASEAN business destination. The foreign direct investments (FDI) from Germany have certainly helped Malaysia in many ways such as the transfer of technology, human capital development, innovative capacity, the introduction of new organizational and managerial practices, as well as access to international marketing networks.
On top of that, German firms contribute to the competitiveness of the local market which then leads to further advancements and development of Malaysia. In essence, this is what FDIs are meant to be to their host country and the bilateral trade relationship between Germany and Malaysia greatly benefitted from the successes of the German industry in Malaysia.
One such example of success is SAP, which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary in Malaysia. SAP is known as the world’s largest provider of enterprise application software with the broadest portfolio of modular and suite solutions available on-premise, in the cloud and hybrid. Over the years, SAP Malaysia has helped numerous clients across industries to overcome the technical and operational hurdles of going digital.
In line with the MyDigital initiative under the National Digital Economy Blueprint, SAP Malaysia is setting their sights on SMEs to help them grow their businesses using digital solutions. Aside from helping to revitalise the economy, SAP Malaysia is committed to promoting upskilling and youth employment, together with a focus on local businesses’ readiness for Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR4.0) as well as the transition to intelligent technologies on the cloud.
To help realise this vision, SAP Malaysia has introduced new innovations that will transform companies into intelligent enterprises where they can ‘do more with less’, deliver best-in-class customer experience, build resilient supply chains, while inventing new business models and revenue streams. With an intelligent framework called ‘RISE with SAP’, SMEs can easily transform their business digitally with SAP S/4HANA Cloud, connectivity to SAP Business Network, access to the SAP Business Technology Platform, and a selection of industry cloud solutions – all wrapped up in a single package with business process insights and technical migration tools.
This commentary was contributed by the Malaysian-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MGCC), or AHK Malaysia as it is known in Germany.
