SAP says India can be among its top 7 markets

SAP, the world's largest provider of ERP solutions, today said that India has the potential to emerge among the top seven countries in the world in the next five to ten years in terms of contribution to its global revenues.

With presence in all the major markets in the world, today the Indian operation of SAP appears only in the Top 15 list.

SAP's president, global field operations & member of the executive board, Leo Apotheker, said, a vision document and roadmap titled India-300 has been developed to achieve this target.

He however added that the US, Germany and UK are quite likely to remain intact in the first three positions five years from now.

He was speaking to select media representatives from the Asia Pacific region at the annual FKOM (Field Kick Off Meeting) 2005.

FKOM is SAP's biggest annual event in the Asia Pacific region, where the top executives of the company meet to review the previous year and finalise the roadmap for the year ahead.

The FKOM 2005, according to SAP executive saw a record 1300 participants this year, including representation from a large number of partners like Infosys, Siemens Information Systems Ltd and other large IT players in the region.

The significant part of the SAP's announcement is that while China is already in the top 10 list, it would move to the top 7 list in the next five year time frame, meaning the company's business in India would grow at a much faster rate than that of China. Apotheker, however, refused to discuss the details of the India300 roadmap 'for competitive reasons'.

Asked if the 300 stood for $300 million revenue target, Apotheker said that the guess comes pretty close to that. SAP like most other companies in the IT sector worldwide, does not discuss country specific revenue numbers.

SAP Asia Pacific­Ýs president and CEO, Hans-Peter Klaey said that the roadmap was an acceleration plan for its business in India, broadly covering the strategies, placement of human resources and investments planned in the country.

Klaey added that the plans will be reviewed every six months as a reality check. Discussing SAP's business focus in India, Klaey said a large number of small and medium-sized businesses are hooking to SAP's ERP solutions.

The correspondent is on a visit to Singapore at the invitation of SAP Asia Pacific.