Do We Need SAP ERP in Hindi?

 

Finally SAP has pitched its Hindi ERP solution in the Indian market with an eye on the Hindi belt. If SAP is to be believed it wanted to enable its customers update and manage employee documents, help users transact various process and generate reports to deliver better citizen services But what are the segments where the Indianised version will have a larger impact? Do we really need the solution? Well, there are innumerable questions that pop up when we look at the solution.

While we seek answers for these questions, it is important to note that the solution will surely set a precedent for various vendors to beef up work on the availability of software in local languages. Also it will allow companies to employ Hindi-speaking people also, thereby opening a pool of job opportunities. Vendors like Microsoft are already offering their operating system and office suite in the local language for quite some time now. It would be interesting to see if competitors like Oracle, Salesforce, etc also jump into the fray.

SAP seems to have seen a good opportunity in the burgeoning public sector where immense automation drive is on. Also it is no hidden truth that Hindi, the official Indian language and the preferred language of transaction for over 40% of the population. Specifically in the public sector, there was the need for solutions that helped the Hindi-speaking workforce work in their own language. And SAP also admits that the increased pace of adoption of the SAP ERP in the Government sector spanning across the Central, State, Public Sector Enterprises, Utilities, Municipal Corporations, Railways, Defense, Airports and Shipping, led SAP to localize its software to address local requirements of customers .

SAP ERP in Hindi will help to address areas such as Logistics including India taxation, accounting, employee data, provident fund; Payroll including pay-slip, loans, claims and Employee Self Services. The localized solution is also said to help unlock the domain knowledge and expertise that exists at different employee and management levels in Government organizations, and enable them to leverage and integrate best practices that SAP offers in any work environment.

 

Developed by SAP Labs India, along with agencies including the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) and language experts, covering over 4.5 million coding lines, the software will ensure consistency across SAP applications by following standard terminology guidelines, contextual translation and quality assurance.