SAP SEE

SAP takes a leading role in guiding the public and private sectors through digital transformation in the burgeoning South East Europe region

WRITTEN BY:

RHYS THOMAS

PRODUCED BY: BEN MALTBY

Digital transformation in the private sector has taken on new urgency. Amid COVID-19, businesses were quick to adopt new technology and automation systems to forge a path through economic downturn and place themselves on strong footing to compete in the postpandemic landscape - one that will look very different compared to just 18 months ago.

But in South East Europe, commercial organisations are now charting a near vertical trajectory in adapting to digital processes.

In the words of Josephin Galla, Managing

Director for SAP South East Europe, the region has “grown up”. The notion that it is the “little brother or sister” in Europe is not only outdated, but misinformed. “We are very strong, particularly in the public sector and consumer products industries,” she says. “My heart is with South East Europe because I can see the dedication and open mindset of the people here. Serbia is set to be labelled the next Silicon Valley anytime now.”

SAP SEE has been guiding businesses through rapid change for many years.

Galla says “the world is actually opening

up because of the shut down,” and businesses across the territory have “We have a constant learning perspective. “South East Europe is a very diversified region,” he responded. This means a more global approach mindset about explains. “In the West Balkans, it is clear to procurement, rather than previously when domestic or how do we react faster to what the companies are trying to adopt to a new reality by making efforts to local efforts were the priority. “We also see market wants” digitize their businesses, work remotely as much the human element as possible, and going of the entire business JOSEPHIN GALLA online with their sales value chain has been given more weight, so it MANAGING DIRECTOR, SOUTH EAST EUROPE and marketing. In this market environment, becomes more relevant to have an actual we act as an “economic enabler”, helping employee experience. We talk a lot about the commercial sector to go digital and to customer experience, and yes, that will go online through our products and our remain important. But the impact of this platforms for back office, online sales, web pandemic is so big that employers have to commerce and online marketing.” take responsibility, and therefore employee The fulcrum of this private sector shift experience has become equally important.” across the territory is the public sector, and it

Predrag Cirkovic, Managing Director, SAP is here that SAP SEE is focusing its expertise. West Balkans, drills down into the localised “Governments have the same goal as us:

to help commercial companies adapt and grow while facing, let’s call it, a new reality with new challenges,” Cirkovic says. “The public sector is a key business focus for our investment in the West Balkans, and we have become a trusted advisor.”

Twelve months since the coronavirus outbreak was declared a pandemic, however, it is clear that governments are lagging behind. COVID-19 exposed weaknesses in their fundamental operations. Fiscal consolidation, tax administration modernisation, and citizen engagement are all essential functions that are underdeveloped compared to their counterparts in Western Europe, Cirkovic points out: “The government sector is still using old systems which, though still functional, are sometimes 15 to 20 years old. But this is the opportunity.”

Diversity in the region throws up additional issues. Some countries such as Bulgaria, which “is all over digital transformation and smart cities,” are gaining pace. “We have very close cooperation with the municipalities,” Galla says. “Just to mention one example, after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sofia Municipality and six other municipalities in the country introduced SAP SEE’s COVID-19 Pre-Screen & Routing Qualtrics Questionnaire. This is an intelligent online information platform for the citizens which gathers up-to-date information on

SAP partner companies globally

SAP customers in more than 180 countries

TITLE: MANAGING DIRECTOR

COMPANY: SAP

AREA: SOUTH EAST EUROPE

Josephin Galla assumed the role of Managing Director of SAP South East Europe in July 2020, covering Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Croatia, and the seven countries of the West Balkans. Based in Bucharest, Romania she is responsible for driving SAP’s strategy, operations, revenue, and customer success in 12 countries focusing on People, Business and Brand across the region. Born in Berlin, her professional career has taken her from SAP Germany to SAP China, SAP Asia in various roles from sales executive to industry expert, with her previous role being the Managing Director of SAP Vietnam with a proven track record of business growth. She is a wellrespected speaker at international conferences bringing more than a decade of experience in technology, public services and sales leadership to the table. Her passion is to promote talents and education – bringing together industry, academia and governments around the globe. Josephin has been with SAP since February 2008, heading for 13 years.

She holds a Diploma in International Economics from the International Business School Berlin and a Bachelor Degree in Business Administration from the University of Sunderland.

the coronavirus and current developments, identifies high-risk groups with filter questions, and automatically redirects them to the appropriate channels. The system also sends summary reports to the municipalities, providing feedback on the trends of the disease, while helping authorities understand what information needs to be messaged more strongly to the public. I am also proud to mention that in all 264 municipalities of Bulgaria, our flagship ERP solution SAP S/4HANA will be the core digital platform to drive digital transformation.”

Other nations are a little slower to adapt, Galla says. Romania and Ukraine, which have also had to deal with other legacy infrastructure problems, have been slower to drive their digital initiatives and allocate funding, for instance. But this is part and

JOSEPHIN GALLA MANAGING DIRECTOR, SOUTH EAST EUROPE

parcel of working within the public sector. Galla points to the many issues families have faced in simply connecting their children with their teachers. SAP cooperated with the Romanian Ministry of Education and Research last year, supporting remote learning of students through specific modern applications.

“Not every organisation can do a big bang, wall-to-wall project; it's all about change management, and we deliver all of the components to a successful project and are always there to stay,” Galla says. “With SAP’s experience, with more than 47 years in the market dealing with key players, we bring best practices to the table, as much as we bring technology, which can then help governments, private organisations, even healthcare organisations envision, ‘This is where I am now, and this is where I want to be’. We put a lot of effort into not only selling the products, but helping to develop roadmaps.

“Actually, this is exactly what our new cloud offering, the recently announced RISE with SAP, is focusing on,” Galla continues. “To deliver business transformation as a service, offering customers at all stages of digital transformation a completely new way to redesign processes to increase their resilience, operational efficiency, and their agility, and to enable them to innovate faster and more frequently.”

TITLE: MANAGING DIRECTOR

COMPANY: SAP WEST BALKANS

INDUSTRY: ICT

Predrag Cirkovic is an experienced ICT and management professional, with more than 20 years’ industry experience. He joined SAP in 2013, initially as Senior Services Account Manager, a role he held for five years, before his promotion to Managing Director of SAP West Balkans.

In his current role, Cirkovic oversees operations throughout the region, covering the following countries: Serbia, Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Moldova and Macedonia. Prior to SAP, he served for seven years as Executive ICT Director of a regional system integration company called Comrade Solutions and Services, and has held roles at other major companies, including Coca Cola.

“In the West Balkans, exactly as Josephin says, we are using SAP best practices to create roadmaps towards a potential future, and the most efficient route,” Cirkovic adds. “We are one of the rare companies providing everything for the back office, and the new way of doing business online through our customer experience portfolio, web commerce, customer experience measurement software and so on. So we are bringing technology, we are bringing best practices, all the while remaining very close to all these projects. Whether SAP or a partner is implementing the solution doesn’t matter; we are always present to offer quality assurance

and be that trusted advisor for our customers.”

Infrastructure reform, which underpins the entire process of government digitalisation, is well underway and has already yielded positive, proactive steps towards more pressing concerns. “We are at the beginning of the project for tax modernisation based on a new back-office fiscalization platform which aims to simplify the process for citizens and business,” Cirkovic says. “We also have citizen engagement initiatives, which essentially bring greater transparency and ease the process for citizens to approach and access city services.”

PREDRAG CIRKOVIC MANAGING DIRECTOR, SAP WEST BALKANS

Subscribers in the SAP cloud user base

Innovation and development centers

PREDRAG CIRKOVIC MANAGING DIRECTOR, SAP WEST BALKANS

As governments gain pace under on mental health, and I think this is a really the stewardship of SAP SEE, Galla great thing. The paradigm shift that we're concedes that the “next few years will seeing right now will yield results in new be tough,” though now things are rolling, fields that we haven't even thought of yet.” governments can take swifter action As governments and businesses adapt to become leaner. “Similar to private in the region, Galla says that internally SAP corporations, they want to understands it also needs increase revenue, decrease costs, and increase cashflow, because this SAP CUSTOMERS INCLUDE: to evolve. “We have a constant learning mindset about how we must react cashflow enables them to 92 % of the Forbes Global faster to what the market reinvest into government. 2000 companies wants. How we provide There will be education 98% of the 100 most the right solutions to the and innovation, and we valued brands business challenges that foresee the trend to 97% of the greenest our customers have. The optimise business and companies (Newsweek) transition to a more agile, government processes SAP customers distribute millennial-style company continuing.” 78% of the world’s food is something we are all

Already this has had a and 82% of the world’s constantly developing. positive impact on how medical devices "I'm very happy that governments consider 77% of the world’s I have leaders that are and interact with transaction revenue driving that. Predrag and citizens beyond the cold touches an SAP system all the other leaders of the mechanics of economic respective countries are governance, business relationships and working in areas that are highly innovative handling the strains in healthcare caused and forward-thinking. I love that because by the ever-present threat of COVID-19. that means we are in the right mindset

“There has actually been quite a shift in and always one step ahead to boost our the empathetic part of governing,” Galla customers’ success. The pace of change says. “We’re seeing governments reaching in the market is picking up speed.” out to their citizens and saying, “It’s okay not to be okay’. They’re placing emphasis