Sports firm taps SAP

MANILA, Philippines—A sports equipment distributor in the Philippines can now be counted among the number of businesses running the world-class enterprise application software, SAP.

Airbridge Sports Plus Inc. announced that it has partnered with SAP Philippines to provide them with the SAP Business One program.

Raquel Sumera, brand manager of Airbridge Sports Plus Inc., said in a statement that they had previously relied “on free software from the internet and ordinary Microsoft Excel spreadsheets,” meaning all their “inventory management and all contingent financials were done manually.”

But since they have changed their systems to SAP Business One, “we have simplified and reengineered the processes for accounts payable, accounts receivable, and accounting,” Sumera said.

Because the SAP program is fully integrated, all the systems are synchronized with the general ledger, Sumera said.

They are also assured of technical support from SAP Philippines to help them every step of the way, she said.

SAP is expected to give Airbridge Sports “shorter processing times for inventory and financials” and allow it to “further fine-tune its internal forms and processes to better address its growing business requirements,” it said in a statement.

Airbridge Sports Plus Inc. carries a number of sports brands such as Kason for badminton, DHS for table tennis, UHL for soccer and is the official distributor of Li-Ning the leading Chinese sports brand and sponsor of the Chinese National Badminton team.

Airbridge Sports Plus Inc. has a lean staff of 20, Sumera said. SAP will “allow the business to grow around the current staff setup,” she said.

SAP country manager Jennie Ligones said that “SAP Business One is an affordable small business management solution that best fits medium enterprises like Airbridge Sports Plus.”

Ligones described SAP as “a single integrated solution that is quick to install, easy to use, simple to maintain and allows for management of the entire business.”

“Companies need to be agile especially in today’s new reality,” Ligones said. “Small and medium enterprises need to differentiate themselves against growing competition, [and] maintain appropriate growth in changing environments.”