SAP South-east Asia and Qualtrics, together with the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), will commit S$14.1 million to establish a new experience management (XM) centre of excellence in Singapore.

SAP said in a press release on Friday (Feb 11) that it plans to create up to 30 new roles with the establishment of the centre for XM innovation in Asia. These jobs include XM scientists and researchers, business architects, and digital supply chain practitioners.

This comes with the aim of the centre to "develop the XM discipline in Singapore, build professional capabilities for XM locally, foster a community of XM professionals to further the category, and enable organisations to use experience as a key competitive differentiator", the German multinational software corporation added.

More than 180,000 small and medium-sized enterprises will benefit from the centre as they utilise advanced technologies, upskill employees with XM skills and elevate Singapore enterprises on the global market, the press release stated.

The corporation said industry research, along with the development of benchmarks for companies, will be conducted by the centre to better enable local organisations to measure success across their XM projects.

Managing director of SAP Singapore Eileen Chua believes that with competition in the market, XM is a pressing priority for businesses. She highlights that XM is a key differentiator to unlock innovation and drive and deliver customer value and retention.

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"We intend to build a new level of intelligence across an organisation so that appropriate business decisions can easily be taken to address people's emotions and attitudes and close any experience gap in their business processes," Chua added.

Mao Gen Foo, head (South-east Asia) of Nasdaq-listed Qualtrics, is positive that the centre will help businesses navigate challenges and fuel success with its expert resources and support.

The opening of the centre is part of a series of initiatives focused on developing and supporting the XM category in Singapore. Another initiative was the opening of a data centre to accelerate experience transformations and plans to hire 1,200 employees by 2024, which was announced in mid-2021.