Aptean connects with Abeo International to extend Pivotal's reach in SE Asia and beyond

Singapore-headquartered Abeo International, which offers IT solutions and services, has announced a partnership with Aptean, a global provider of enterprise application software to provide Pivotal point of sales (POS) and customer relationship management (CRM) services to Southeast Asia and emerging markets.

As a channel partner for Aptean, Abeo International will be leveraging on the strengths of its subsidiary Electra, a SAP Gold Partner and Master value added reseller (VAR) in Southeast Asia and Emerging Markets for SAP A1, and winner of the SAP APJ Partner Excellence Award 2014 for Retail Industry, and regional system integrators to provide customisable Pivotal CRM services to SMEs in target markets.  
 
Through this partnership, clients from industries ranging from finance, real estate to marketing, healthcare and retail would be able to leverage on Aptean's decades of CRM experience and Abeo's ability to customise CRM into their business processes in a cost-effective manner. Geographically, the focus will be on Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam for mature markets, while the emerging markets will include Cambodia, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives and Laos.

"Abeo International has demonstrated expertise and experience in IT solutions and we believe that they will be able to add value to our existing software and drive businesses forward," said Kyle Bowker, Executive Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing, Aptean. "Both the organisations share the same vision of offering industry best practices to our customers."


"These days, more companies emphasise on multiplatform and real-time interaction with their customers and they need industry-tailored applications that mirror their functional needs," said Michael Lim, Chief Executive Officer of Abeo International.
Lim shared that Abeo is already working with 30 partners as a master VAR for SAP, and plans on leveraging on these existing relationships to further Aptean's goals. Pivotal's POS capabilities can enrich SAP's value proposition, he noted.

One of Pivotal's strengths is that it is tailored to each industry while its competitors tend to offer a generic solution, Lim said. Companies in the region include a bank in India, an international cosmetics brand and a Singapore fashion brand that sells clothing and accessories.

"Retailers have to understand the customer, and anticipate their needs, and also keep them in the store. Relevancy is very important," added Colin Lian, Consultant, Electra, noting that CRM, analytics and mobile technologies like near field communications (NFC) could all have a part to play.
 
Pivotal CRM is a full-featured CRM solution that includes sales force automation, marketing automation, service automation, partner automation, social and mobile CRM. These solutions enable companies to access multiple sources of data instantly, harness social media tools to track online presence and broadcast marketing messages to all communication channels as well as gain insights into relationships by analysing CRM data.