SAP India plans to be more focused on small and medium enterprises (SME) during the next two years. According to Tariq Farooqui, business partner manager, the company has tied up with HCL Infosystems and Siemens Information Systems to provide customised solutions for SME companies. "These two entities are being appointed as value added resellers," he told Business Standard in an interview.
The company's revenue has topped an estimated Rs 200 crore in just two years of operation. However, Farooqui was not willing to disclose any specific numbers citing confidentiality. "We cannot reveal specific numbers in accordance with our global policy," he said.
He also discussed issues related to the potential of the domestic SME market and steps that have to be initiated by these enterprises.
International Data Corporation (IDC) predicts that the SME segment will see the fastest rate of growth over the next three years in India. There are an estimated 100,000 SMEs with 0-50 employees and a turnover between Rs 1-4 crore. The second layer, with revenues upto Rs 400 crore, consists approximately 15,000 medium sized organisations. SAP India has already initiated a strategy to make their packaged software myshop.com and others, affordable to these enterprises.
"We have brought down the number of minimum user licensees from 100 to 15. This has also helped in bringing down the implementation cost. On an average, it takes about Rs 75 lakh for implementation. We believe that in the year 1999-2000 personal computer sales in this segment are expected to cross 300,000," he said.
"We believe that India holds a tremendous potential for the company. We have made considerable investments in India in setting up offices and support centres. Globally, SAP AG has six development centres. Two are in Asia, out of which one is in Bangalore with the other centre located in Japan. This can give a fair amount of idea about the importance attached to India," he said. in Bengal
