Business applications solutions provider SAP Africa is set to host a Small and Medium Enterprises-SME-road show for Kenyan entrepreneurs as part of a global technology exposure programme.

The road show to be held on Thursday this week at the city's Holiday Inn will be officially opened by SAP Africa Managing Director Pfungwa Serima, and is dubbed the SAP SME World Tour.

Styled as an interactive conference, the road show  is aimed at encouraging SME's to harness SAP solutions in their bid to run lean operations, capture greater market share and gain business openness and transparency in the prevailing economic climate.

The road show, which marks its fifth stop in Africa this year, is part of a global initiative across 50 cities in 10 countries to educate users on SAP solutions for small businesses and midsize companies.

Local firm's confirmed to make presentations at the workshop include Bamburi Cement, Rural Electrification Authority, Crown-Berger Paints and Acacia Medical.

According to SAP Africa SME Director Derek Kudsee, the decision to roll out a world tour focusing on SME's is part of SAP's commitment to facilitate technology solutions awareness in the growing markets in Africa.

"In addition to talking to our customers about our solutions and how we can help them improve their operations, this is also an opportunity for them to interact with their peers, industry partners and SAP executives," explains Kudsee.

And adds: "In today's economy, best-run businesses must be transparent and accountable, lean and agile, customer-centric and collaborative. Now more than ever, meeting these challenges requires a highly focused business strategy and streamlined execution. This is what the SAP World Tour aims to address."

This year Kudsee disclosed that the road show has already been hosted in Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town as well as Lagos, Nigeria attracting over a thousand customers.    

"There is a perception that our solutions are aimed only at large enterprises yet more than 65000 SAP customers are small or medium sized companies which makes up more than 75% of SAP customers worldwide, "says Kudsee.

While adding: "We are extremely excited about being able to reach out to the other centres around the continent in an environment that also brings us closer to our customers and helps us get an even better understanding of their business environment and challenges."

The event is designed to be highly interactive and focused on the needs and challenges of specific industries to ensure that delegates can hone in on the issues that are upper-most on their minds.