Page 56 - SAMENA Trends - October 2019

REGIONAL & MEMBERS UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Microsoft Partners with SAP for First-in-Market Cloud Migration Offerings

Building on a joint commitment to simplify and modernize “SAP’s decision to select Microsoft Azure as its preferred partner
customers’ journeys to the cloud through project “Embrace,” SAP deepens the relationship between our two companies in a
SE and Microsoft Corp announced an extensive go-to-market differentiated way and signals a shared commitment to fostering
partnership — from conceptualization to sales — to accelerate the growth of the cloud ecosystem,” said Judson Althoff, executive
customer adoption of SAP S/4HANA® and SAP® Cloud Platform vice president, Worldwide Commercial Business, Microsoft.
on Microsoft Azure. Today’s new, preferred cloud partnership “Today’s news also reflects our commitment to a customer-
brings together SAP and Microsoft, along with a global network first mindset and supporting their cloud transformation, which
of system integrators, to offer holistic bundles that provide continues to drive how we at Microsoft approach everything
customers with unified reference architectures, road maps and from partnerships to product innovation. It takes co-selling to
market-approved journeys to illuminate a clear path toward the a whole new level.” SAP will lead with Microsoft Azure to move
cloud. As part of this simplified customer journey, Microsoft will on-premise SAP ERP and SAP S/4HANA customers to the cloud
re-sell components of SAP Cloud Platform alongside Azure. This through industry-specific best practices, reference architectures
unique offering is aimed at more easily migrating SAP ERP and and cloud-delivered services. This includes future deployment
SAP S/4HANA customers from on-premises to public cloud. “This and migration of existing direct SAP HANA® Enterprise Cloud
partnership is all about reducing complexity and minimizing costs customers leveraging hyperscaler infrastructure. However, SAP
for customers as they move to SAP S/4HANA in the cloud,” said continues with its longstanding policy of supporting choice for
Jennifer Morgan, Co-Chief Executive Officer of SAP. “Bringing those customers who request alternatives based on business
together the power of SAP and Microsoft provides customers with requirements. Specifically, project “Embrace” on Microsoft Azure
the assurance of working with two industry leaders so they can will provide customers with:
confidently and efficiently transition into intelligent enterprises.” A simplified move from on-premise editions of SAP ERP to SAP
S/4HANA for customers with integrated product and industry
solutions. Industry market bundles will create a road map to
the cloud for customers in focused industries, with a singular
reference architecture and path to streamline implementation.
Collaborative support model for simplified resolution. In response
to customer feedback, a combined support model for Azure
and SAP Cloud Platform will help ease migration and improve
communication. Jointly developed market journeys to support
customer needs. Designed in collaboration with SAP, Microsoft
and system integrator partners will provide road maps to the
digital enterprise with recommended solutions and reference
architectures for customers. These offer a harmonized approach
by industry for products, services and practices across Microsoft,
SAP and system integrators.

Mobily Reports a Net Profit of SAR156m in 9M19

Saudi Arabian mobile network operator (MNO) Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) has
published its financial results for the nine months ended 30 September
2019, reporting a 14.2% year-on-year increase in revenues to SAR9.936
billion (USD2.64 billion), up from SAR8.703 billion in 9M 2018. The
positive result was due to the continued growth of its subscriber base
and improvement of customer mix, coupled with increased growth in
data, business and fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) revenues. Further, EBITDA
increased to SAR3.770 billion in 9M 2019, up by 18.2% y-o-y, while interest
and financial charges increased from SAR585 million to SAR635 million
in the period under review, mainly as a result of the implementation of the
IFRS16 reporting standard, and an increase in the cost of funding. Net
profit, meanwhile, improved to SAR156 million in the nine months ended
30 September 2019, compared to a net loss of SAR203 million in 9M18.

56 OCTOBER 2019