SAP and China Telecom Offer New Category of Front Office Solution in Mainland China

BEIJING — China Telecom and SAP today announced the general availability of the SAP Anywhere solution in China. SAP Anywhere is the first front-office solution specifically tailored to the e-commerce needs of small and midsize businesses (SMBs) with 10 to 500 employees.

SAP Anywhere offers SMBs the opportunity to monetize digital sales channels by giving them a full set of customer experience and commerce features at their fingertips. These include inventory control and insight, online marketplace management and business and customer engagement. The new solution demonstrates continued commitment to delivering innovations that specifically help SMBs run simply. The announcement was made at today’s launch event of SAP Anywhere in Beijing.

Commerce via mobile devices in China is set to dominate worldwide sales. SAP Anywhere positions SMBs to leverage this opportunity by providing a new tool designed and built from the ground up to be native mobile and cloud technology. The solution includes features that let SMBs create online stores in minutes. It gives them, their customers and their partners access to shared inventory and logistics insights in real time with unified order management software. SMBs and their entire value chains can integrate SAP Anywhere with internal and external back-office data sources to create real-time analytics that drive active decision making.

In leveraging its global partner network, SAP worked closely with China Telecom to customize SAP Anywhere for the Chinese market within its telecommunications infrastructure. SMBs represent two thirds of all businesses in China, and China Telecom itself supports 50,000 sellers and 40 million SMBs. China Telecom is one of the top three telecommunication operators in mainland China, and one of the most innovative information service providers in the world. It provides customers with integrated information service solutions that cover broadband Internet access, mobile communications, information technology applications and fixed-line telephone services.

“We are glad to expand the cooperation with SAP and to launch SAP Anywhere in China, taking advantage of our resources,” said Mr. Gao Tongqing, deputy general manager, China Telecom. “The impact that mobile e-commerce has brought to China becomes deeper as time goes on. Ergo, it is our obligation to think and act before our customers do, and fulfill their potential need for e-commerce, even help them to transform to e-commerce. We believe SAP Anywhere will play an active and important role in helping our customers achieve business growth.”

Business Management from Anywhere

SAP Anywhere allows SMBs to manage sales, marketing, e-commerce, inventory and direct customer buying experiences from anywhere in a single system using their mobile devices. Provided as a software-as-a-service solution run by China Datacom, a subsidiary of China Comservice, in a public cloud, SAP Anywhere can be accessed via mobile devices and desktops. It delivers a consistent customer experience beginning with online and offline marketing campaigns and extending to shopping functions. For a smooth buying experience, it brings together traditional and online shopping features, making it possible to buy – and sell – all goods with the help of an integrated digital product showroom on a tablet.

“This is a historic moment in our SMB engagement,” said Rodolpho Cardenuto, president, Global Partner Operations, SAP. “We are extremely proud to partner with China Telecom and China Comservice, two of the leading telecommunications brands in China, to bring this new solution to market. SAP Anywhere will allow smaller companies to capitalize on the digital revolution and grow their business by giving customers the ability to purchase their products anytime from anywhere.”

For companies running their business on the SAP Business One application or the SAP Business ByDesign solution, an open application programming interface can be provided to partners for integration to complement their business model. SAP initially announced plans about SAP Anywhere in China at the SAPPHIRE NOW conference this year.