German giant Software AG moving R&D workloads to Malaysia

  • Aims to grow local staff strength from about 70 to 100 by end-2017
  • Innovation shouldn’t be outsourced, must come from within the organisation
German giant Software AG moving R&D workloads to Malaysia
 

ENTERPRISE software firm Software AG is moving some of its research and development (R&D) workload to Malaysia, from its home base of Germany, as well as India, Israel and the United States.
 
“This also means that Malaysia is the first country in South-East Asia to do R&D for the group,” said Software AG technology and solutions director (Asia) Jigar Bhansali.
 
“We are starting to bring in small pieces of R&D work – we now have four people on board and we plan to grow that to the next level over these two years,” he said at a recent roundtable discussion in Kuala Lumpur.
 
Software AG’s Malaysian operation is no stranger to big responsibilities. In fact, since 2002, it has been providing services – from pre-sales to support – for the Asia Pacific region.
 
Currently, the group has about 70 employees in Malaysia, mostly support services personnel. “By the end of next year, we hope to have 100 employees,” said Jigar.
 
Software AG believes this is the right time to grow its team here, as an increasing number of Malaysian companies are embarking on their digital transformation journey, which bodes well for its Digital Business Platform (DBP).
 
“We help analyse and change current business models to be more agile, so companies can quickly adapt to the business model that they are looking at by taking advantage of [DBP],” said Software AG group chief technology officer Dr Wolfram Jost.
 
Currently, the company has DBP customers from various industries, including banking, aviation and telecommunications.
 
“We also started engaging with oil and gas players last year,” said Jigar.
 
Companies, transform!
 

German giant Software AG moving R&D workloads to Malaysia

 
According to Software AG, 60% of the top 100 enterprises in Asia Pacific will have digital transformation at the core of their corporate strategy this year.
 
However, digital transformation is easier said than done.
 
“The biggest challenge is helping companies understand that customer engagement is a major driver for digitisation. The goal is to try to get a single view of the customer’s profile,” said Jost (pic above).
 
Companies should also focus on the business and not the technology.
 
“There is too much focus on technology and not enough on the business. Companies need to use technology in the right way,” he added.
 
Jost also urged companies to look for innovation from within the organisation, instead of outsourcing it by, for example, appointing consultants from external tech companies.
 
“Innovation has to be created within the company – for example, Bosch is hiring 14,000 new staff, of which 12,000 are going to be IT-related professionals,” he added.
 
Related Stories:
 
Software AG aims to raise APAC revenue contribution
 
SAP opens regional research Hq in Singapore
 
Innovation can be bred: Google creativity head
 
 
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