'Made in India' -- for India
Bangalore, December 13 2013: Enterprise applications solutions leader SAP has seen the light — the light that shines on what the late CK Prahalad in his seminal book called "The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid".
The company has launched "SAP Ganges", a business network built on the SAP HANA Cloud Platform that has the potential to connect India's 8 million small retail traders -- the 'Kirana" stores -- to Packaged Goods (CPG) companies, Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) makers, distributors and banks.
“Software and communication technologies are reshaping the world around us and amplifying our ability in the process in unprecedented ways,” said Dr. Vishal Sikka, member of the Executive Board of SAP AG, Products & Innovation. “With SAP Ganges, we have shown that SAP HANA has the ability to transform and evolve entire industries in India. SAP HANA is helping connect businesses of all sizes in real-time: from the millions of kirana stores; to the large CPG companies serving them, and the financial institutions supporting them; by bringing new value to all points along this network and empowering people to conduct businesses in a totally open, transparent and real-time way.”
Developed entirely in India by SAP, Ganges is a business network bringing together distributors of the consumer product companies; banks, which provide credit to the retailers; value-added services providers; telecom services providers which enable remote connectivity; and manufacturers of affordable point-of-sale (POS) devices. It enables the small retail stores to connect to the business network using specially designed PoS devices.
Abhijit De, VicePresident and Initiative Lead, SAP Ganges, explained that the PoS terminals are being priced to be affordable -- around $ 100 - 200 ( Rs 6000 - 12,000). Ina pilot run, over 1000 small shops sent their data by GPRS to a command centre at SAP Labs in India where it was analyzed by SAP HANA on the cloud and the results shared with the CPGs and FMCGs
According to the India Brand Equity Foundation, the Indian fast moving consumer goods sector consisting of personal care, household care, and food products was valued at $36.8 Billion in 2011-12; and is one of the fastest growing retail markets in the world. Following the release in India, SAP plans to roll out Ganges to other retail-intensive economies such as Brazil, South Africa, China and Indonesia.
More reading:From kirana stores to hybris: SAP’s evolving Business Network strategy: Richard Hirsch in SAP Business Trends
See a video on SAP Ganges in our Tech Video spot on the home page