SAP

If we look back, the Caspian Sea Region – whose states actually include not only Council of Europe member states Russia and Azerbaijan, but also Georgia, Turkey, Armenia – is increasingly central to European energy security and prosperity owing to its rich human potential and its significant oil and gas resources. The confluence of opportunity and risk as well as the apparent interest of the world’s most powerful countries in this Region has actually inspired these countries to believe that restructuring agriculture, creating stronger financial institutions, regulations, and budget cuts are essential to macro-economic stability, particularly given their dependency on uncertain oil prices.

What I saw there was that business process automation in Manufacturing, Banking, Retail, Energy & Utilities industries are seeing rapid development. And with the impending entry into the EU, the demand for IT projects has considerably increased in the public sector to fulfill EU requirements. Moreover, the government is also contributing to the development of IT sphere here. Several dedicated institutes have been created, techno-parks are being constructed, special tax regime has been introduced, various promotional events are held – all of these are aimed at supporting the expanding IT industry. 

But major organizations in these regions are still not running on any major ERP system, and it is more of custom software being used to facilitate day-to-day business operations. Thus, these companies are now drawing long-term plan for SAP Implementation and SAP Projects are actually attracting special attention from government bodies in countries like Azerbaijan and Turkey. For example, many Banking Organizations here, plan to attain IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) compliance through SAP Implementation. Thus companies in this sector are now looking forward to SAP as means to their ends.