SAP Briefs on Its China StrategySAP, the world's third largest and Europe's top software developer, lately made known its strategy in China. SAP President Klaus Zimmer and Zhang Xuefeng, East China manager, elaborated their views on some topical issues such as global economy and e-commerce in an interview given.Klaus Zimmer said that China faces three major technological obstacles in developing its e-commerce: first, many enterprises still access the Internet by dialing, the surfing speed is too slow, broadband network construction should be expedited vigorously. Second, it is still a tough job to remit account via the Internet in China; e-commerce in real meaning should be handled by online trading and payment made via an online banking system. Third, logistic system should correspond with online trading system. Saying that China is working hard to solve these problems, he forecast China's e-commerce will flourish rapidly in two or three years. Zimmer said that SAP has developed 200 successful clients in China including such big names as Faw-Volkswagen, Sinochem, Legend, Haier, Changhong and Konka and these are known for having a solid technological foundation and favorable management environment. Zhang Xuefeng, general manger of East China SAP added that the ERP and e-commerce software developed by SAP are applicable for manufacturing and services as well. For some reasons, SAP did not fully participate in China's financial business. However, it has started to hold talks for developing possible cooperation with some financial institutions including Pudong Development Bank and China's Bank of Communications (CBOC). When asked whether SAP has been affected by the worldwide lay-off tide, Zhang said as a European company, SAP conducts its business in many countries outside Europe and the US. Thus the worldwide lay-off tide has not produced much impact on it. Contrarily, SAP has done a good job in China. Instead of layoffs as by others, SAP has even had many of its former staffers back to work from Dotcoms. By PD Online staff member Du Minghua |
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