Millions of Middle East Mobile Users to Benefit from Big Data and Analytics Solutions with Zain Group and SAP

In 2020, 80 Percent of Global Smartphone Connections to Come from Developing Regions

BARCELONA, Spain — March 3, 2015 — In a large telecommunications deal announced at GSMA Mobile World Congress 2015, Zain Group has selected SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) to deliver Big Data and analytics solutions designed to enhance the experience for millions of customers across the Middle East.

Global smartphone connections are set to triple by 2020, when 6 billion of the world’s 9 billion mobile connections will be made via smartphone, according to GSMA Intelligence. In 2020, 80 percent of global smartphone connections will come from developing regions, where smartphone connections will grow from one third of all connections in 2014 to 70 percent in 2020.

In the Middle East and Africa, mobile subscriptions will grow by 55 percent between 2014 and 2020, while mobile broadband 3G and 4G networks will increase from 20 percent of the total share in 2014 to 85 percent in 2020, according to the most recent Ericsson Mobility Report.

Meeting the broadband needs of customers, Zain Group, a leading telecommunications provider in the Middle East and Africa with over 44 million customers across eight countries, will deploy Big Data and analytics solutions from SAP across Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan.

'Mobile devices continue to transform people’s lives across the Middle East and around the world,” said Bill McDermott, CEO, SAP. “The more mobile people become, the greater their demand for personalized, context-aware, real-time solutions to stay connected. In collaborating with SAP, Zain Group will use advanced analytics to help them Run Simple and provide the next generation of mobile services for millions of customers in fast-growth markets.”

As part of the collaboration, Zain Group will deploy the SAP HANA® platform - based on innovative, real-time analytics software and in-memory computing technology - as well as data mining, social networking, customer and business intelligence and predictive software solutions.

Scott Gegenheimer, CEO, Zain Group, said, “In our drive to become an integrated digital lifestyle operator, Zain needs to reduce complexity in its current IT setup, enhance its overall customer experience through an actionable real-time analytical platform and gain better market insight to open new revenue streams. This tie-up with SAP intends to support our ambitions.”

Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan are all labeled as “fast growth” markets according to GSMA Intelligence, with a combined 20.3 million mobile connections. Mobile broadband penetration is strong in all three, including 74 percent in Kuwait, 49 percent in Bahrain and 42 percent in Jordan.

Among Arab countries, Bahrain ranks third, Jordan sixth and Kuwait seventh in the World Economic Forum’s Networked Readiness Index 2014, which measures the performance of information and communications technology in economies.

Worldwide, telecom solutions from SAP enable 17 million people to work from any location on any mobile device, while mobile services from SAP deliver 1.8 billion text messages every day.