SAP launches data centre in Singapore as demand for digital commerce solutions soars in the region

SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) announced today the launch of its Singapore Data Centre for SAP Commerce Cloud for businesses across the Asia Pacific (APAC) region enabling them to adopt digital commerce strategies to deliver superior customer experiences.

Home to some of the world’s fastest developing economies and most digitally-savvy populations, digital commerce has emerged as a significant source of growth opportunities for businesses in the region. Digital commerce sales in APAC are expected to grow 14.2% year-on-year to reach US$1.2tr in 2019 and cross US$1.77tr by 2022. In Southeast Asia, the region’s internet economy is expected to grow to three times its current annual size to hit US$300bn in value by 2024.

Together with SAP’s network of APAC data centres in Australia, China and Hong Kong, the Singapore Data Centre will play a major role in ensuring customers are able to deploy the SAP Commerce Cloud with minimal latency and performance issue to deliver a seamless online shopping experience. Singapore was selected to host SAP’s data centre due to its geopolitical stability and its adherence to data privacy and will be the default data centre for customers in Southeast Asia and India.

“APAC’s digital commerce environment offers businesses unprecedented growth opportunities and with our goal of helping our customers master their transition to the experience economy, the region has become a key market for SAP,” said Atul Tuli, vice president and head of customer experience, SAP Southeast Asia. “With the new Singapore Data Centre, we will be better positioned to support our customers as they tap into our best-in-class commerce cloud solution.”

In a highly-connected mobile-first society, consumers have access to products and services from around the world right at the tip of their fingertips. As a result, the traditional economy is starting to move beyond goods and services to one that is organised around experience. Every year, US$1.6 tr is lost globally when companies lose their customers to competitors due to the inability to meet expectations. In order to succeed in the new experience economy, it is critical for businesses to meet customer expectations.

Digital commerce platforms are expected to play a major role in helping organisations plug experience gaps and exceed customers’ expectations. Recently announced as a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce for the fifth consecutive time, SAP Commerce Cloud helps businesses to obtain a competitive edge from a single commerce platform by its ability to differentiate commerce experiences, speed up time-to-value, and reduce cost to win and build loyalty.

According to Gartner, a digital commerce platform is the “core technology that is enabling customers to purchase goods and services through an interactive and self-service experience. The platform provides necessary information for customers to make their buy decisions and uses rules and data to present fully priced orders for payment.” A complimentary copy of the 2019 Gartner Magic Quadrant Report for Digital Commerce is available from SAP.

Open Banking is going global with 87% of the countries having open APIs

Online Banking is a global trend that banks and institutions are currently following to improve the current connections across digital services. In addition to it, Open Banking is the representation of a next-generation business model in an open data economy.

With Open APIs, banks can be easily linked to financial technology companies using affiliated services from a single dashboard using specific applications on a smartphone.

The leading jurisdictions in Open Banking include the United Kingdom (UK), Australia and the European Union (EU).

About it, LearnBonds explained:

“The United Kingdom leading the way in Open Banking explains why so many UK-based challenger banks and tech startups like Revolut, Monzo, Starling and Curve are thriving in the banking sector.”

Countries such as the United States or New Zealand are considered ‘Beginners.’ These are countries and jurisdictions with small or no progress on regulation or standards.

Meanwhile, Switzerland, India or China are considered ‘Risers’ because the whole market is unregulated but they are registering Open APIs and evolving standards.

To understand which countries are currently at the forefront of Open Banking, the report takes into account four different factors that include the spread of Open APIs, regulatory requirements, standardisation initiatives and the presence of a central TPP regulatory body.

CIMB Bank Singapore and iTrust to roll out blockchain trade financing

CIMB Bank Berhad Singapore Branch (“CIMB”) and iTrust have successfully completed their first structured trade financing transaction on iTrust’s Blockchain and Internet of Things (IoT) platform.

The transaction involves the financing of dairy products imported into China and is expected to generate transaction flows of up to US$100m a year. iTrust provides secured real-time visibility of the cargo in transit and in the warehouse using blockchain-based IoT. All data and documents from the transaction are blockchained in a distributed ledger for provenance and immutability. The technology provides all stakeholders with a secured operational dimension of the transaction, which was absent in the past.

With iTrust’s security, transparency and visibility for the documents and cargo, CIMB hopes to mitigate risks associated with commodity trade financing and facilitate credit extension for their customers.

Said Mr. Mak Lye Mun, CEO of CIMB Bank Berhad, Singapore Branch: “Given the rapid technology shifts in the market today, we will continue to focus on digitalisation and customer experience to transform the way we finance our corporate customers, thus adding value to our services. This blockchain trade financing with iTrust will present an opportunity for CIMB Singapore to support our customers more efficiently and cost-effectively. It mitigates fraud risk, and alerts us of any unauthorized movement of the financed cargo. We are looking forward to working closely with iTrust on this innovative way of trade financing in other markets as well.”

Mr. Lim Chee Kean, CEO and co-founder of iTrust added, “Digitalisation is gradually transforming financing. With iTrust, we have used blockchain-based IoT to provide insight of the physical world into a blockchain digital platform. We believe that the day will come whereby all lenders and borrowers would demand to have a secured real-time view of their cargo under financing on a secure and immutable blockchain platform like iTrust.”

Fintech companies could help UK migrant workers send an additional £520m back home

Fintechs could save migrant workers a combined £520m when moving money from the UK to emerging economies, according to new analysis by UK fintech Paysend.

Each year, migrant workers in the UK send £8bn back home. While the average global transaction fee is currently 7% of the money transferred, the fintech average is already well below 2%.

Combined, these savings mean migrant workers in the UK could send up to £520m more back home each year if they move money with lower cost fintech businesses.

The UN has previously called for money transfer fees to drop to 3% to boost education spend in emerging markets. This analysis shows many new fintech start-ups are already below 2%.

Ronald Miller, CEO of Paysend says, “Moving money changes lives. Money transferred might go on education, healthcare, or give families the ability to buy a home or start a business. Rather than simply acting as a ‘hand out’, research shows that money sent back home creates independence and sustainability, for the recipient and their communities.

“Paysend’s card-to-card money transfer service, Global Transfers, enables our customers to move money in an instant. With fixed, transparent and low fees, more of our customers’ money is enjoyed by those they care about.

“We’ve made what was once a laborious, slow and expensive process to pay, hold and spend money across borders now simple, quick and low cost. It’s why one million customers have used our service.”

Paysend examined the fees applied to money transfers of £1000 from leading fintech companies. The research revealed average transaction fees are well under 2% for all fintech businesses assessed.

With Paysend’s flat fee transaction of just £1, people currently subjected to the global average 7% transaction fee could save up to £65 on a £1000 transfer.

This saving could equal two terms of primary school fees at a Primary school in Lagos, Nigeria or a month’s worth of insulin and other medical supplies for a diabetic in India.

It’s also half a week’s worth of food for a household in Ukraine or a two months’ worth of fuel in the Philippines.

Launched just two years ago, Paysend’s card-to-card money transfer service, Global Transfers already services one million users across more than 70 countries around the world.

The growth stems from the emergence of increasingly mobile segments of the work force and the continued growth of international students. These are people who live and work in one country while financially providing for, or relying on, others in another country.

Global money transfers will soon overtake foreign direct investment as the biggest inflow of capital into developing countries. The World Bank predicts that 290m migrants will send $689bn back home this year.

Cultural shift vital for business survival in age of analytics, reveals research

A cultural shift in attitudes to analytics will be essential for businesses to compete in the age of digital transformation, research has revealed.

A quarter of the 500 professionals surveyed by MHR Analytics said resistance from senior management was preventing their company from adopting analytics, suggesting that many could be left behind as their forward-thinking competitors advance.

A further 23% said their company’s traditional reliance on manual spreadsheets was holding them back from taking advantage of widely available technology.

The survey of finance and technology professionals working in large UK organisations was conducted by MHR Analytics and Censuswide to understand the barriers some companies face in progressing their analytics capabilities, and their technological aspirations for the coming decade.

Internationally acclaimed AI expert Bernard Marr and MHR Analytics have released a guide entitled “Advancing with Analytics: Spreadsheets to AI,” to help break down these barriers.

It includes practical tips and examples from a range of organisations that have managed to move away from error-prone spreadsheets and adopt more sophisticated analytics, and even artificial intelligence (AI).

“For me, the examples in the guide demonstrate how the data maturity journey is about taking manageable steps, rather than huge leaps,” said Marr.

“From better planning and decision making, to smoother operations and automated processes, data analytics fuels business improvements. Yet, for the average business, adopting advanced analytics techniques like AI is never going to be an overnight shift,” he said.

“Adopting more advanced analytics can seem like a mammoth, unachievable task. That’s why I prefer to think of analytics as a journey, with analytics techniques gradually becoming more advanced as you progress further along the road.”

“A business advances on this journey one stage at a time, gradually meeting more and more business needs through data analytics.”

“Progressing to planning analytics – stage three of the data maturity journey – tends to be a key milestone for most businesses, since this is the stage that bridges the gap between basic reporting and more exciting, forward-looking technologies. Therefore, I have placed more emphasis on planning analytics in the guide than the other four phases,” he added.

Other barriers to advancing analytics revealed in the MHR Analytics survey included a perceived lack of skills within organisations, siloed working practices and concerns about data quality, data protection and security.

In addition to Marr’s Spreadsheets to AI guide, MHR Analytics has also provided a data maturity quiz to help organisations find out where they are on the data journey and receive free tailored advice about how to progress with analytics to remain competitive.

Ranked by LinkedIn as one of the world’s top five business influencers, Bernard Marr regularly contributes to the World Economic Forum and is a strategic business and technology advisor to businesses and companies around the globe.

New research – Finance sector feels negative impact of cloud migration issues

Research from Enterprise Performance Partner, CSI, has today found that 86% of finance companies say that a lack of ability to migrate legacy apps to the cloud is impacting their business negatively, despite 85% viewing digital transformation as a key priority. The inability to migrate legacy apps is resulting in backups and patches taking too much time for over a third (36%) of the companies surveyed and a further 33% say they are not making efficient decisions with their IT.

The research, conducted by Sapio on behalf of CSI, also found that some resistance remains about moving apps to the cloud due to perceived security concerns. It found 36% of IT managers in the financial sector cited security issues associated with the cloud as a barrier to change, whilst 31% citedunclear guidance from the FCA regarding security governance. Worryingly, 55% of those surveyed said they have only adequate security practices in place but could do more.

Almost two-fifths of the finance companies surveyed find lack of direct connections to issuing and acquiring banks, payment systems and converging services halting them from moving their customer experience forwards, followed by an inability to bypass public or unreliable connections.

Simon Payne, CEO, CSI explains, “The volume of regulations and legislation is a common theme in the financial services sector, meaning many companies wrongly shy away from the cloud. Whilst handing responsibility over to a third party (rather than keeping it on-premise) involves great trust, cloud systems are proven to offer a far more stringent way of managing security and compliance. The cloud gives access to AI-based cybersecurity and machine learning algorithms that are effective at upholding data protection standards.

“With so many businesses also citing difficulties when it comes to migrating legacy apps it’s clear that the financial sector has a long way to go to take advantage of the digital age.There is a fundamental misconception that legacy apps can’t be migrated to the cloud which isn’t true. We now have the capability to update old code; thus, business critical applications that were previously “uncloudifiable” can be taken to the cloud and then on to public clouds if desired,” says Payne.

Running applications in the cloud allows an organisation to create value faster, take advantage of newer and more powerful technology and deliver consistent and compliant workloads all the while keeping the focus on its business objectives. But CSI estimates that up to 80% of critical core workloads still run on-premise, locking them out from the advantages of the cloud.

“The digital age promises vast opportunities, providing major productivity gains in the way that businesses operate, and cloud adoption is a vital part of the digital transformation journey. Despite perceptions, the main risk here isn’t to do with security and compliance, but with innovation opportunities being stunted and businesses falling behind the curve when workloads remain solely on closed systems,” concludes Payne.

Legalesign ranked UK’s top provider of e-signature and no. 2 in Europe

Cambridge based Legalesign is delighted to announce its position as the UK’s  top provider of electronic signature, according to figures published by G2, a leading market comparison website. It is also listed as Europe’s second lead provider.

Latest customer satisfaction ratings from the electronic signature sector show that Legalesign scored a terrific 92%, beating off stiff competition, including from the well known global company DocuSign which scored only 48%.

G2 is recognised by the software industry for its genuine peer-to-peer reviews and detailed feedback that can influence potential new clients. Legalesign recently surpassed a new milestone figure for processing more than 3 million documents.

Ben Eliott, CEO of Legalesign, whose e-signature software is used by legal firms, insurance companies, property firms, recruiters, accountants, local government and government bodies, welcomed the top score. Legalesign is the quick, safe and paperless way for smart businesses to sign contracts and agreements, saving considerable time and money.

Ben said, “This top ranking is fantastic news from a really strong, independent review site. G2 is the best way for consumers to compare new software products and services as no other site provides such detailed analysis, showing what kind of industry the customer is in and the size of their business.”

Ben has reassured its customers that its secure service will continue as usual after 31 October.

He said, ‘While there is still uncertainty regarding Brexit, I would like to reassure our clients that contracts and agreements can continue to be signed as usual.

“The EU eIDAS Regulation, which providers of electronic signatures have to comply with, will be drawn into British law on 31 October. As a result there will be no difference between now and afterwards, regardless of whether or not there is a Brexit deal.”

Ben has 20 years’ experience in software development and holds an MBA from the University of Edinburgh where he wrote his dissertation on electronic signature, its legal basis in the UK and how it can deliver value for enterprise.

He added, “We believe Legalesign’s customer focus and features sets it apart from competitors, enabling clients to track documents, bulk send and adhere to privacy and GDPR compliance. We also customise our services to meet our clients’ personal requirements and constantly look at new ways to develop even more features to stay ahead in our field. At the end of the day, that is what we are tested on, as well as our personal customer service approach which we know is always greatly valued.”

Open Banking is going global with 87% of the countries having open APIs

More than 87% of countries have already established some form of Open APIs in the banking industry. According to LearnBonds, there are over 10,000 financial institutions around the world with open banking implementations.

Open Banking Expands

Online Banking is a global trend that banks and institutions are currently following to improve the current connections across digital services. In addition to it, Open Banking is the representation of a next-generation business model in an open data economy.

With Open APIs, banks can be easily linked to financial technology companies using affiliated services from a single dashboard using specific applications on a smartphone.

The leading jurisdictions in Open Banking include the United Kingdom (UK), Australia and the European Union (EU).

About it, LearnBonds explained:

“The United Kingdom leading the way in Open Banking explains why so many UK-based challenger banks and tech startups like Revolut, Monzo, Starling and Curve are thriving in the banking sector.”

Countries such as the United States or New Zealand are considered ‘Beginners.’ These are countries and jurisdictions with small or no progress on regulation or standards.

Meanwhile, Switzerland, India or China are considered ‘Risers’ because the whole market is unregulated but they are registering Open APIs and evolving standards.

To understand which countries are currently at the forefront of Open Banking, the report takes into account four different factors that include the spread of Open APIs, regulatory requirements, standardization initiatives and the presence of a central TPP regulatory body.