SAP delivering excellence in Kuwaiti IT market

Kuwait's IT market, with a compounded annual growth rate forecasted at 17% for 2006-2011, is one of the fastest growing in the region. Its small, but tech-savvy population adapts quickly to new trends. In absolute terms, Kuwait is the third largest IT market in the Middle East, and is expected to increase from $406 million in 2006 to approximately $875 million in 2011.

SAP, the world's largest business software company, points to two industry sectors where it has recently contributed to Kuwait's IT growth: manufacturing and retail.

In these sectors, SAP provides significant ERP solution support to Al Homaizi Group - a Kuwaiti Company in Process Plant Constructions and Contracting (KCPC) - the Abyat Megastore, and the Kout Food Group (KFG). SAP solutions enable them to run their businesses more efficiently by improving performance while supporting growth and lowering operating costs.

"The overall IT market in Kuwait is still expanding, and SAP is poised to help the country's business and IT professionals as they look to advance their operations," said Essam Enany, President, SAP Arabia.

"We estimate that Kuwaiti demand for ERP software is a multi-million dollar market alone, and SAP has the experience to best supply it," he added.

"SAP has provided a comprehensive solution for us. With SAP, we anticipate improved performance of all business processes, which will allow us to collaborate more closely with suppliers, subcontractors, operators, and customers. We now have a real competitive edge," said Reyadh Al Sharaf, COO of KCPC.

"Labid Aljundi, the IT Director of Abyat Megastore said: "SAP is an integral part of ABYAT Megastore where it consists a major base of our built-from-scratch business. It has delivered an integrated platform to boost the business of ABYAT through its Retail functionality. I truly believe that SAP IS Retail offering has a great opportunity in the retail industry."

In the retail space, Kout Food Group (KFG) of Al Homaizi Group, which represents brands such as Pizza Hut and Burger King in Kuwait, is also benefiting from SAP solutions.

"Our quick services, casual dinning, fine dinning outlets, and food manufacturing companies in Kuwait and Europe needed an integrated platform, with consumer products and retail capabilities. SAP was the perfect match for our business process requirements, providing integrated consumer products, retail business processes, logistics and manufacturing on one platform, incorporating best practices derived from SAP's solutions and a wealth of numerous industries from all over the world," said Munir Zeine, CEO, Kout Food Group.

According to comprehensive new study by Gartner, the independent industry analyst group, SAP is the worldwide market leader in ERP software. Signaling the tremendous success of this flagship application, SAP has won 8,500 new accounts in the first quarter of 2007, bringing the total number of SAP ERP customers to 39,400. The first quarter of 2007 saw an increase of 122% compared to the same period last year. SAP NetWeaver sales peaked at $210 million in the first quarter, which represented a gain of over 40% compared to the first quarter of 2006.

Established in 1994 in Jeddah and Dubai, SAP Arabia is the sole distributor of SAP products in 19 countries across the Middle East and North Africa. SAP Arabia currently has dedicated offices in Jeddah, Dubai, and Cairo bringing support services closer to customers and partners across the region.