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Key Takeaways
What you need to know
The Middle East is rapidly becoming the fastest-growing market for SAP transformation, driven by ambitious enterprises seeking innovation.
Arete Global's partnership with SNP enhances its capabilities as an SAP co-innovation partner, utilizing the Kyano platform and its products to deliver comprehensive solutions.
Successful transformation requires a balanced focus on data, people, and technology, emphasizing the importance of culture and change adoption over purely technological solutions.
Transformation World 2026 · Arete Global
Arete Global’s COO Shaik Sikander brings a rare vantage point: two decades as an SAP house across Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, and India, with more than 200 transformations behind the firm. He explains why the Middle East has become the fastest-growing market for SAP transformation, and how a new partnership with SNP — built on the Kyano platform and its Move, Foundation and Manage products — expands what Arete can deliver as an SAP co-innovation partner. His framework is deliberately simple: data, people, and technology, in balance.
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“Culture always beats algorithms — technology enables transformation, but people decide whether it sticks.”
Sikander is emphatic that transformation is not a “hit and run” project but a continuous journey — one where the human factors of culture and change adoption ultimately outweigh any single tool. It’s a perspective shaped by a high-growth region where ambition is outpacing legacy constraints, and where partners who combine deep SAP expertise with modern platforms like Kyano are positioned to lead. For enterprises across MENA and beyond, his message is a useful corrective to technology-first thinking.
About the Guest
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Shaik SikanderChief Operating Officer, Arete Global Shaik Sikander is Chief Operating Officer of Arete Global, an SAP house with two decades of presence across the Middle East and India. Under his operational leadership, the firm has delivered more than 200 SAP transformations and operates as an SAP co-innovation partner. A strong advocate for balancing data, people, and technology, Sikander is focused on the Middle East as the world’s fastest-growing SAP market and on the firm’s new partnership leveraging SNP’s Kyano platform. |
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