The German multinational software corporation, SAP, is offering technological solutions to help run Bangladesh’s burgeoning garment industry better.
Sarazeen Kazi, managing director, SS Solutions, SAP’s representative in Bangladesh, said the software use could be an investment decision for a company.
“It brings the best of industry practices together, makes processes efficient, and integrates all departments, enabling the entire system to work seamlessly,” she said.
She said the system reduces time for stocking raw materials and cuts production cost and wastages.
Kazi said at least 46 Bangladeshi companies were currently using SAP technology, and that the demand was rising.
She introduced the software to garment industry leaders in a seminar organised by the Bangladesh German Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Dhaka on Tuesday.
The seminar shed light on how businesses could integrate and automate manufacturing, supply chain, sales, and the financial process with an affordable solution, specifically designed for the garment industry.
German ambassador Albrecht Conze said the software suited the needs of medium-sized companies.
He said that after the Rana-plaza building collapse that killed more than 1100 people in April it was found that “Bangladeshi entrepreneurs do not have the lists of the people who have worked for them”.
“There were many unidentified people,” he said, and added that “but if you have a SAP-run programme, you have full control over people who are in your office”.
“It’s a software tailor-made for the family-based Bangladeshi RMG sector,” he said.
President of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturing and Exporters Association (BGMEA) Atiqul Islam said the technology would be much-needed by the upcoming tech-savvy generation that would face ‘bigger challenges’.
“We look forward to solution providers like SAP, who can help us integrate our businesses in a better way,” he said.
The National Board of Revenue Chairman Ghulam Hussain said modern technology and software solutions were badly needed by the garment industry for several reasons.
One, he said, was the need to assess “the amount of damage caused by an accident and managing the post-accident scenario”. He said software solutions like SAP could be helpful in such cases.
He, however, urged SAP to make it more affordable for Bangladeshi companies. It currently costs Tk 25 million.
The German Chamber President Sakhawat Abu Khair stresses “we have to keep proving our efficiency, productivity and compliance” after the April disaster, although McKinsey’s latest report had placed Bangladesh garments second only to China.
“We have to keep innovating and for that, we need the right technology at the right place,” he said and hoped that SAP would provide that kind of support.
Source: Bd news24
