(MENAFN Press) DUBAI, United Arab Emirates “November 14, 2012“
Leading lights from the Middle East and Africa (MENA) business community gathered in Madrid, Spain, today to discuss and celebrate the role of IT innovation in their ongoing success.
The high-powered symposium brought together the gold winners of the SAP MENA Quality Awards during SAPPHIRE NOW, the premiere customer event from SAP AG (NYSE: SAP).
SAP MENA Quality Awards celebrate businesses using SAP Quality Principles that effectively manage software implementations marked by multifaceted technical and business process requirements, excel in execution and deliver significant benefits, and achieve fast, low-cost implementations.
The MENA-based companies will now compete against a field of gold winners from across EMEA during SAPPHIRE NOW, and assessed by an expert judging panel comprising SAP partners, industry experts and former SAP Quality Awards winners.
"This year's SAP MENA Quality Awards winners are shining examples of why the region is among the most dynamic in the world," said Sam Alkharrat, Managing Director, SAP MENA.
"Highly successful implementations don't just happen “ they are the result of proactive engagement from customers and receptivity to the cutting-edge. These are organizations intent on optimizing resources, establishing a strong governance structure, and applying solid methodologies. Like SAP, innovation is at the very heart of their success, and we are proud to help them realise this on a daily basis."
The UAE's Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) triumphed in the Large Implementation Category with a full cycle implementation of the SAP Business Suite, including the industry solution for Utilities, CRM, SRM, BI, GRC, Strategy Management and the Sybase Unwired Platform for mobile access to SAP.
Implemented by Wipro Gulf, the project saw DEWA replace more than 10 legacy systems with integrated SAP solutions to facilitate business success and further improve customer service.
Notable highlights to date include reducing the monthly closure of accounting books from 20 to five days and reducing budget checking from three days to one minute. DEWA customers are also benefiting, with the time required to receive electricity supplies slashed from 55 to 28 days, whereas water supply time is down from 30 to 20 days through cutting the number of steps in the utility connection process from 9 to 1. Furthermore, the time for purchase requisitions to purchase order cycle was cut from 60 to 15 days, resulting in savings of USD 3.4 million and the printing of 160,000 fewer sheets of paper per year.
Silver went to Saudi Arabia's Shaqra University and bronze to Saudi Arabian Airlines.
The Saudi construction and engineering company CAP France BAT took gold in the Medium Implementation Category.
With implementation by Inntree Technology Services in just seven months, the project scope encompassed the latest SAP ERP release, including industry specifics for the Engineering and Construction sector, the BI suite and management dashboards. Already, CAP France BAT has increased productivity by reducing the procurement cycle by more than 40 per cent, whereas management has become more incisive through better decision-making tools. Key to the overhaul has been the optimization of a 70,000 item inventory, which has enabled delivery schedule alignment with zero errors.
Oman's Petroleum Development Oman secured silver in this category and Saudi Ceramics took bronze.
Egypt's El Araby Medical Center Hospital prevailed in the Small Implementation Category, and could reflect on a notable best practice implementation of SAP ERP and the SAP industry solution for Healthcare.
Implemented by SAP Services MENA, key achievements include leveraging SAP best practices for healthcare, improving profitability analysis through SAP FI/CO, as well as enhancing patient care across the hospital.
The UAE's Flemingo and Rasasi were awarded silver and bronze, respectively.
2012's final gold in the SAP MENA Quality Awards went to Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations (ADCO) in the Customer Innovations Category.
The project saw ADCO establish a comprehensive, scalable, best-practice Business Intelligence Infrastructure with the capability to host and report from a Corporate Data Warehouse, along with Financial Analytics and Corporate Performance Management
The implementation has provided ADCO with improved BI capabilities, tools for a holistic view of disparate data, time saving, user empowerment, and enabled faster decision making as a result of more trusted data.
The UAE's Al Futtaim scooped silver and Saudi Arabia's Hoshanco Holding took bronze.
SAPPHIRE NOW runs throughout the year, with the latest incarnation taking place in Madrid, Spain, from 12-16 November.
SAP's "always on" approach will reach over 500,000 physical and online participants globally from November 2011 through the upcoming SAPPHIRE NOW from Madrid in November 2012.
This time span includes SAPPHIRE NOW from Madrid in 2011, China SAPPHIRE in November 2011 and July 2012 and SAPPHIRE NOW from Orlando in 2012. Global participants continue to access content and contribute to conversations via www.sapphirenow.com, YouTube and social media platforms such as LinkedIn, FaceBook, Twitter, Weibo and Youku. Social media impressions globally have reached approximately 1.2 billion and continue to grow daily.
To learn more about SAPPHIRE NOW, view the "always on" content or to register for future events, visit www.sapphirenow.com. For more information, visit the SAP Newsroom. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews and @sapphirenow.
