Dec 10, 2013 (Tue): In furtherance to the recent announcement of its signed distribution agreement with SAP AG, Avnet Technology Solutions, a global IT solutions distribution leader and an operating group of Avnet, Inc., today outlined its SAP solutions business strategy for Malaysia.
According to Chiew Yue Lam, general manager of Avnet Technology Solutions, Malaysia, the new distribution agreement aligns with the company’s local strategy to expand its middleware products portfolio and, more importantly, to capture the immediate business opportunities in the enterprise application landscape that includes the financial services industry (FSI) and mid-range small and medium enterprise (SME) commercial markets in the country.
“Although SAP already has an established set of standard enterprise resource planning solution users in Malaysia, there are still big opportunities for growth,” said Chiew. “Avnet Malaysia’s strategy is to fill this gap by offering SAP analytical and converged infrastructure capabilities as part of our middleware products, especially targeting the underserved market of unconventional and non-SAP-based enterprise software customers via our channel partners.”
He added that Avnet Malaysia is poised to play a significant role in offering SAP products into these whitespaces, a move that is expected to strategically expand SAP’s existing database and technology solutions customer base in the local market. Avnet Malaysia’s portfolio includes SAP analytics, database and enterprise mobility products. The offerings include SAP HANA® (in-memory computing platform), SAP Afaria® (mobile device management solution), SAP BusinessObjects™ (business intelligence solutions), SAP Crystal solutions, SAP Lumira™, and enterprise and mobile software from SAP Sybase®.
With 17 years of presence in Malaysia, Avnet has built strong local IT expertise by working with more than 600 channel partners. In addition, as part of its commitment toward Malaysia’s Information Communication Technology (ICT) development, Avnet built the Avnet Solutions Center in 2008, the first IT testing facility in Malaysia to address the business and market needs for IT solutions testing and proof-of-concept activities.
Fulfilling Local Enterprise Software Deployment Demands
“Local organizations are aggressively looking to adopt more sophisticated enterprise software and applications to optimally harness the Big Data growth fuelled by mobility trends,” Chiew added. “Avnet’s partnership with SAP is strategic for our local channel partners, enabling them to capitalize on the opportunities this presents.”
Avnet will offer a platform that serves as an entry point for non-SAP-based enterprise software customers to start using SAP HANA’s in-memory, analytical capabilities and other related solutions. With it, Avnet’s channel partners can help local organizations improve data processing, retrieve real-time business insights and shorten market response time, thus remaining competitive.
Leveraging GST Implementation in 2015
Following the recent Budget 2014 announcement, local organizations are gearing up to adopt new enterprise software and upgrade their IT infrastructures to comply with the impending GST, which is expected to be rolled out by 01 April 2015.
“The partnership with SAP is timely for us to embark on the new opportunities that come from this GST policy,” Chiew commented. “Avnet plans to rapidly educate and enable a community of partners on the industry, sales and technical skills that can help local organizations solve business challenges arising from GST implementation.”
Avnet Malaysia is currently involved in several SAP-related IT implementation projects in the Malaysian government sector. The company is looking forward to promoting SAP enterprise middleware and in-memory SAP HANA capabilities in that and other sectors.
