Saudi Arabia's Sahara Petrochemicals Company (Sahara) will soon begin the implementation of an SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution.

This will leverage SAP's industry expertise and broad functionalities to connect its various operations, enabling the reduction of business process costs.

The Saudi public joint stock company, headquartered in Riyadh, was created to be one of the leading chemical groups in the country.

Sahara's SAP ERP project named 'Al-Nufud' - to be implemented by Saudi-based Zamil Tata Information Services (ZTIS), in partnership with India's INCAT, a Tata Technologies company - will centralise several mission-critical processes, such as financial reporting and human resources.

'Technology is playing an increasingly important role in the way in which companies function, as it introduces process and policy. SAP technology, in particular, is an excellent tool which we are using to add value to our internal enterprise resource planning (ERP) processes,' said executive president, Sahara Petrochemical Company, Esam Himdy.

'Zamil TATA Information Services Co. has a well-established network in the region and was selected by Sahara for the project implementation because we believe their focus on business solutions gives them an edge over their competitors,' added Himdy.

Sahara spokespeople have confirmed that the Al-Nufud project will standardise and apply best business practices, allowing Sahara and its affiliates to compete more effectively in the market place.

Al-Nufud is composed of several modules, each reflecting the various company activities. Each module will be selected according to its priority to the company. At this stage financial reporting and human resources will receive top priority. Other activities will follow in line with company development plans.

The Sahara installation of mySAP ERP Chemical Baseline Package, using SAP Best Practices for the petrochemical sector, is the first in the region.

SAP is the worldwide market leader in ERP software, according to a comprehensive new study by Gartner, the independent industry analyst group.TradeArabia News Service