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Survey Shows CEOs Are Making Collaboration a Top Priority
(Marketwire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) NEWTOWN SQUARE, PA, July 22 / MARKET WIRE/ --
A new survey finds that C-level
executives are increasingly turning to collaboration with their business
networks as a way in which to win new markets and address quickly evolving
customer needs. According to the survey conducted by BusinessWeek Research Services
(BWRS) and commissioned by SAP AG (NYSE: SAP), these executives also plan
to expand their collaboration efforts even further over the next three
years. Additionally, nearly twice as many small businesses and midsize
companies expect to rely heavily on collaboration within the next three
years. The C-level executives surveyed emphasized the importance of
information technology (IT) and its role in facilitating integration to
support their companies' business goals of increased levels of
collaboration with customers, partners and suppliers.
Titled "Getting Serious About Collaboration: How Companies are Transforming
Their Business Networks," the research report about the survey finds that
large and midsize businesses plan to expand their reliance on their
business network of partners by more than a third over the next three
years. Approximately one out of three respondents identified access to new
markets and customers as one of the top benefits to collaboration today.
Roughly half of the respondents said they are currently counting on
partners for R&D, manufacturing, marketing, logistics, distribution,
customer service, human resources or other corporate functions -- and
two-thirds expect to be reliant on third parties for these functions to
some extent by 2011. Large and midsize businesses also plan to outsource 18
percent of their operations by 2011. They already outsource 13.4 percent of
their operations to date.
In the survey findings, a Procter & Gamble executive addresses the reasons
for seeking out third parties for collaboration:
"The reason we had to do it was that the world had changed," says Jeff
Weedman, vice president for external business development at manufacturer
Procter & Gamble Co. "Only about one-third of the products we brought to
market were successes. The fast-followers were getting faster, and the
retailers were increasingly our competitors... Over time, we've been able
to understand networks and the value of them, so we've added places to look
for ideas and technologies."
Small Businesses and Midsize Companies Embrace Collaboration
The survey findings show that collaboration is skyrocketing for small and
midsize enterprises (SMEs, 100-1,000 employees). These companies now
recognize co-innovation with partners as a pathway to growth. Nearly twice
as many SMEs are expecting to rely more heavily on collaboration in the
next three years. The survey findings show that the percentage of business
operations supported by external partners of SMEs will triple by 2011 and
are approaching the level of partnering currently used by large companies.
In addition to gaining access to new markets and obtaining cost benefits,
SMEs emphasize improved quality as one of the most important benefits for
collaboration.
The Rising Importance of IT to Enable Collaboration
As the role of collaboration changes, the need for a robust IT
infrastructure becomes even more important to drive success across
partnerships. Only half of the C-level executives responding to the survey
are confident that their IT infrastructures will be able to support their
collaboration strategies during the next three years. This result
underscores the crucial role IT plays in facilitating collaboration and
enabling business transformation. While CEOs are embracing the concept of
developing customer-centric business models by optimizing the company's
network of employees, suppliers, customers, partners and distributors, IT
needs to play a strategic role to make it all work.
As mentioned in the survey findings, The Dow Chemical Company's heavy
investment in IT in the mid-1990s set it apart from other companies in the
low-margin chemical industry. It ditched fragmented legacy systems and
created common work processes. Its smooth-running technology became the
gold standard among large companies in its industry. Dow's IT
infrastructure is the crucial foundation platform that enabled a successful
overhaul of its strategy and business model.
"The findings of this survey confirm that collaboration is being
increasingly recognized as a pathway to growth, innovation and competitive
differentiation," said Zia Yusuf, executive vice president, Global
Ecosystem and Partner Group, SAP. "In an early acknowledgment of this
trend, SAP itself is a practitioner of business network transformation
through collaboration. Through our ecosystem of partner and customers, we
are helping to accelerate innovation and improve return on investment for
our customers. The SAP ecosystem brings together diverse relationships,
resources, and communities to help create the next generation of technology
solutions in concert with our own development efforts."
In addition to the survey, SAP also has engaged business leaders worldwide
on the subject of collaborative business networks. To view SAP TV videos
where CEOs from companies including Cisco Systems, Inc., the LEGO Group and
Mahindra and Mahindra discuss their thoughts on collaboration, please visit
http://www.sap-tv.com/special_0801_00.htm.
Please visit, " Getting Serious About Collaboration: How Companies are
Transforming Their Business Networks," to view the research report.
BusinessWeek Research Survey Methodology
BusinessWeek Research Services (BWRS) launched a survey and research
program in early 2008 to discover and analyze the views of C-level
executives and line-of-business executives on collaboration with third
parties. BWRS received responses from 353 C-level executives of companies
with at least 100 employees in January 2008 via an online questionnaire.
Respondents were from a wide variety of industries including manufacturing,
financial services, healthcare/pharmaceuticals/life sciences,
transportation/utilities and wholesale/retail. The quantitative survey was
complemented with qualitative research. BWRS conducted in-depth telephone
interviews with senior executives from a cross-selection of industries.
BWRS also conducted interviews with leading independent consultants,
industry analysts and academics to provide context and additional insights.
About SAP
SAP is the world's leading provider of business software (*), offering
applications and services that enable companies of all sizes and in more
than 25 industries to become best-run businesses. With more than 47,800
customers (excludes customers from the acquisition of Business Objects) in
over 120 countries, the company is listed on several exchanges, including
the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE, under the symbol "SAP." (For more
information, visit www.sap.com)
(*) SAP defines business software as comprising enterprise resource
planning and related applications.
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forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "anticipate," "believe,"
"estimate," "expect," "forecast," "intend," "may," "plan," "project,"
"predict," "should" and "will" and similar expressions as they relate to
SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP
undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking
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Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including SAP's most recent Annual Report on
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reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their
dates.
Copyright ? 2008 SAP AG. All rights reserved.
SAP, R/3, mySAP, mySAP.com, xApps, xApp, SAP NetWeaver and other SAP
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Note to editors:
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