Saudi Paper Mfg. Looks to the Cloud for Growth and Competitive Edge

04/11/2014 09:57 AST

Saudi Paper Manufacturing Company (SPMC) today announced that it is initiating the largest Cloud computing project in MENA paper industry history.

The project will also mark the company out as one of the region's most innovative businesses full stop, establishing vital operational processes in the Cloud as it seeks to fuel business expansion through greater efficiency and innovation.

Phase one of the project will see SPMC, which is one of the one of the leading tissue paper manufacturers in the Arab World, adopt the SAP Enterprise Resource Planning solution. Subsequent phases will introduce SAP Advanced Planner and Optimizer, Manufacturing Integration & Intelligence, Business Intelligence, Business Planning & Consolidation into the mix.

All solutions will be hosted on the SAP HANA® Cloud Platform, which drives optimal performance through the power of real-time, in-memory computing. SPMC is the first SAP client in the MENA region to invest in the SAP HANA® Cloud Platform.

The project, which will be implemented by SAP partner and under supervision of Data Links, comes as SPMC seeks to significantly expand its operations and influence across both the Kingdom and wider GCC region.

"SPMC has an aggressive expansion programme, and we need to have systems in place that can scale and support our ambitious," said Abdullah Al-Enazi, Chief Executive Officer, SPMC.

"To truly deliver on our growth targets, we need a platform that can serve as a scalable enabler of innovation in real-time, and that brings with it the flexibility and simplicity that only the Cloud can offer. The SAP HANA® Cloud Platform is a one of a kind solution, and we are proud to be the first company in MENA to fully embrace what is undoubtedly cutting-edge and increasingly necessary technology."

SPMC's trailblazing move to the Cloud chimes with a growing appetite for the technology across Saudi Arabia.

According to IT market research and advisory firm IDC, spending on Cloud services in the Kingdom is expected to increase by 52.9% during 2014. In the MENA region, meanwhile, Gartner estimates that from 2013 to the end of 2017, $3.8bn will be spent on Cloud services. According to another report by Cisco Global Cloud Index, the Middle East and Africa region is set to post the world's-strongest Cloud traffic growth rate from 17 exabytes in 2012 to 157 exabytes in 2017.

MENA's growing receptivity to the benefits of Cloud computing is also echoed by the recent uptake of SAP's Cloud offerings. Between 2012 and 2013, SAP's Cloud deals in the region increased by over 300 percent

"SPMC is showing great leadership by adopting Cloud computing on this scale," said Ahmed Al Faifi, Managing Director, SAP Saudi Arabia.

"This is technology that will enable them to create entirely new experiences for their customers, empower employees at scale, optimize the use of resources, and unlock unprecedented value for their business."

Worldwide, SAP currently counts more than 35 million loud users. This includes the leading social business platform with over 12 million users, the world's largest business network with more than 1.4 million connected companies transacting over $500 billion in commerce on an annual basis, and the largest business cloud implementations in the world, with more than 2 million users.

"When taken together with the connectivity and insight of SAP's social and business networks, the power and speed of SAP's HANA in-memory database and analytics, and the accessibility of SAP mobile, SAP Cloud empowers a new level of business performance.

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