UOB Malaysia, SAP tie up to help SMEs digitise
To help our SME customers improve their operational efficiency as they grow, UOB Malaysia is working with SAP to provide SMEs a scalable and affordable digital solution that will save them time and money.
KUCHING: United Overseas Bank (Malaysia) Bhd ( UOB Malaysia) and leading business software provider, SAP, has announced a tieup to offer UOB SmartBusiness to the Bank’s small-and medium-sized enterprise (SME) customers.
The tie-up marks the first time SAP is offering its enterprise software, SAP Business One, to Malaysian SMEs through a bank.
UOB SmartBusiness is a cloudbased integrated digital business solution designed to help SMEs make cost savings and improve their operating efficiency. It enables SMEs to streamline and to digitise their back office processes such as accounting, payroll, and business management through a secure and integrated digital solution.
SMEs can also link their UOB SmartBusiness account to their UOB current account, thereby enabling an automated bank reconciliation process through the matching of transactions to sales invoices or bill payments.
SMEs can choose from three opt ions, depending on the functionalities they require and the number of employees in the organisation. The most basic package will be complimentary for UOB Malaysia’s Business Banking customers.
“As SMEs progress through different growth stages, managing a larger and more complex business poses new challenges.
Raymond Chui, UOB Malaysia executive director and Country head of Business Banking
“To help our SME customers improvetheiroperationalefficiency as they grow, UOB Malaysia is working with SAP to provide SMEs a scalable and affordable digital solution that will save them time and money,” said UOB Malaysia executive director and Country head of Business Banking Raymond Chui.
SAP, a market leader in enterprise application software, is tying up with UOB Malaysia in light of both organisations’ common goal to help Malaysian SMEs harness technology to help them progress and raise productivity levels.
SAP’s head of general business for Southeast Asia, Brad Gray, said that with SMEs making up more than 98 per cent of business establishments in Malaysia, this community is indeed the cornerstone of the Malaysian economy.
“SMEs can ‘ up their game’ further by digitising their core business processes to help them achieve success with instant access to information and streamline everything from finance to talent management.
“UOB SmartBusiness can help SME business owners make the transition to digital and take away the hassle of managing complicated operational tasks manually, empowering them to focus on their core business models and driving business outcomes,” Gray said.
Other collaborators on UOB SmartBusiness include human resources software provider, HReasily and mobile business software provider, Enterpryze.
In a recent survey conducted by UOB, EY and Dun & Bradstreet, almost seven out of 10 Malaysian SMEs thought automat ing and digitising their business processes was the best way to raise productivity levels and to reduce overall operating costs in the long run.
When asked to rank on a scale of one (not important) to five (very important) the most effective methods to manage costs, 69 per cent of the Malaysian SMEs surveyed said that raising productivity through automation, greater use of technology and business process simplification would be important or very important to driving productivity.
“From the ASEAN SME Transformation Survey, we know that managing costs while raising productivity is a challenge and a concern for SMEs in Malaysia. While SMEs are keen to reap the benefits of digital technology, it can be costly to implement such technology.
“To help SMEs overcome this challenge, UOB Malaysia is committed to building small business solutions that will help prepare businesses for the digital age and enable them to progress through different stages of growth more effectively,” Chui said.