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SAP shrugs off slowdown, sees India boom
The Germany-based SAP, which provides business software and applications for enterprises, does not see global economic slowdown translating into IT expenditure cut by businesses in India.
The Germany-based SAP, which provides business software and applications for enterprises, does not see global economic slowdown translating into IT expenditure cut by businesses in India.
The software giant, instead, appears to defy the slowdown wave with robust revenue growth and plans to add innovative solutions under its kitty to boost its growth further.
“All our businesses are growing like wildfire and we expect this to continue further,” Alok Goyal, chief operating officer SAP India told HT.
Revenues for SAP India grew by over 80% during the first six months of calendar year 2011. “Our growth has been robust for remaining part of the year as well,” said Goyal.
Goyal explained that this growth is being led by huge demand for the software and IT services by sectors in pubic services such as municipalities, public sector units and other e-governance projects. Other growth driving sectors being utilities (such as power), banking, insurance and metals & mining.
And with mobility devices such as tablet PCs and smart phones gaining business acceptance, the company is gearing itself with solutions. The company had two pre-packaged mobility applications at the end of 2010 and has around 30 applications now. It expects to have more than 50 very soon.
SAP India’s bullishness is significant, as during recent months several software companies have flagged concerns about IT budget cuts by their client companies.
Also, India’s manufacturing sector has been going through a rough patch with a sliding output growth, compounding fears that demand for software could decline further.
“Nobody buys software, people actually buy transformation,” said Goyal. “We sell software applications with which people try to transform their business.” He added licence implementation, re-organisation and management changes do not happen overnight and when times are not-so-good people feel the need for business transformations.
