SAP Strengthens Connections in India

[Sunite]

SAP Strengthens Connections in India
By Rajesh Mahapatra
August 28, 2007 10:55AM

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India's economy is growing close to 9 percent annually and businesses there are increasingly adopting modern tech. "Markets like India are at an inflection point when it comes to the adoption of technology by businesses ... it took us nine years in India to reach 1,000 customers, and only one to double it," said SAP CEO Henning Kagermann.

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   SAP AG, the world's largest business software maker, said Tuesday it has doubled its customers in India to 2,000 in the past year, driven by demand from small and medium enterprises.

The German company also announced a partnership with Indian outsourcing Relevant Products/Services company Wipro Ltd. to jointly conduct sales promotion programs and implement SAP's software applications in mutually agreed regions and markets.

SAP aims to reach 100,000 customers worldwide by 2010, of which 15,000 would be in India.

"The unprecedented growth that we are seeing from India is one of the best examples of how our 2010 strategy translates into action," said Chief Executive Henning Kagermann.

Growth in countries like India and China will be crucial to SAP's long-term goals, Kagermann said.

"Markets like India are at an inflection point when it comes to the adoption of technology by businesses ... it took us nine years in India to reach 1,000 customers, and only one (year) to double it," he said.

India's economy is growing close to 9 percent annually and businesses here are increasingly adopting modern technologies.

SAP makes software for payroll, client orders and other business processes, competing against companies such as Oracle Corp.

In August last year, Kagermann announced an investment of about US$1 billion in India by 2010 to expand research facilities and tap more customers.

The Walldorf-based company has since designated India as its "strategic hub" in the Asia-Pacific region and built a new global service support center in Gurgaon, an industrial town adjoining New Delhi.

The company already operates a research center in Bangalore in southern India.

Under the partnership pact with Wipro, the Indian company will set up a new laboratory at SAP's existing research center. That laboratory will be used for testing SAP software and conduct joint innovations, a Wipro statement said.

Scores of companies in the United States and Europe are increasingly shifting software development and research work to India, where technical workers are available at much lower wages.