SAP: INNOVATING WITH
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In recent times, SAP has opened a
new facility in Kuwait, doubled its
workforce operating in the country and
worked closely with the government
to achieve the aims of the ambitious
Kuwait Vision 2035 roadmap. Esmat
Ghanem, Sales Manager Kuwait,
SAP, talks us through the company’s
operations in what he describes as a
‘mature market and the importance of
its channel partners.
E EAS
DL
DLE E
Esmat Ghanem, Sales
Manager Kuwait, SAP
CHANNEL PARTNERS
D
Do you operate a channel
partnership in Kuwait?
Yes we do. We have quite a strong
ecosystem which we are also developing.
We continue recruiting to our ecosystem in
Kuwait and we support the country from our
ecosystem within the region by bringing the
best partners within certain areas to support
certain industries or certain business needs.
Can you name some of the channel
partners you work with in Kuwait?
In Kuwait, the top channel partners will
actually happen to be the top system
integrators. They are Diyar United and ITS
(International Turnkey Systems). These
are the top partners locally in Kuwait and
actually they are Kuwaiti companies.
Can you describe SAP’s
involvement in Kuwait?
We have been increasing our operations and
supporting different sectors of the markets.
We are engaged with all the major
segments of the markets from the public
sector, oil and gas, to the financial industry
and we support the private sector, including
the service and retail industries. So, we
are more or less engaged with all the
industries, that’s from an engagement
with the market level.
We’ve been increasing the size of our
operation over the last few years. We’ve
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doubled the number of people that we
have in Kuwait. Earlier this year we actually
opened our new office with new innovation
rooms and innovation labs to support our
customers and to bring our technology
to them. This is because sometimes they
need to travel long distances to attend
some major workshops to develop their
innovation plans so they are now bringing
those to the office.
And when it comes to the major focus
with us it all goes along with the Kuwait
Vision 2035.
So we are engaged with the highest
authorities and we’re supporting this vision
from three key pillars. So basically from
one side, we’re providing the technology
by becoming a very strategic partner with
the technological expertise. From one side,
we are helping the country towards the
realisation of the Vision and monitoring
the KPIs and the progress of this over the
years. We also pay a lot of attention to the
young generation, providing them with the
required skillsets because they are going to
be the leaders of the future vision and the
future innovations. So, we are engaged in
all the sectors.
What has the Kuwaiti market been
like over the past 12 months?
I would say that Kuwait is a mature market
with a lot of potential. What has been going
on over the last 12 months is setting the
foundation of the future so that mostly the
country was mainly focusing on building
the infrastructure and trying to digitise
and automate most of the services for the
citizens. This is because the major driver
in the market of Kuwait, with having lots
of people from the young generation, is
experience management. The experience
management drives the government
side by providing more services, because
people would expect to deal with their
government services.
From the other side customer
experience is one of our major drivers so
we support the private sector into bringing
better customer experience.
Is the Kuwaiti Government
progressive in terms of IT?
They are and we’ve seen lots of
developments. Actually, there is a
continuous monitoring of the Vision and
the realisation of it. We’ve seen the Kuwait
Chamber of Commerce and industry
examining new ways of enabling the
private sector to participate in the national
economy. We have also seen the Central
Bank as the main entity for the financial
sector, bringing a lot of talents and a lot of
innovation within the banking industry. So
the government is progressive and they are
serious about those plans.
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