SAP thinks organically

IN CONVERSATION

With over 33,200 customers in 120 countries, SAP AG is a leading ERP company. It is looking at expanding its presence in India, Alan Sedghi, president and managing director, SAP South Asia, tells Business Standard

SAP has completed a decade of operations in India. What are your plans for the next decade?

For the last five years, we have been focusing on the small- and medium-enterprises (SME) segment. In terms of success in the SME market, India ranks second across the world with contributions from the country hovering around 30 per cent.

At present, we have over 1,000 customers in India, an increase from 200 customers we had in 2002, with a majority of them being from the SME segment. Most of the SME partnerships are done through the channel partners, and we are looking at roping in at least 100 channel partnerships by the end of this year.

Are you planning to increase your presence here?

Yes, we are in an expansion mode. We are aiming to enhance our presence by increasing the focus on verticals and increasing the number SAP offices. India is a strategic market for the US and we intend to further its software development activities.

We are planning to create centres of excellence (CoE) and set up 22 SAP training centres here, even as the process has already begun. The proposed CoEs will cater to emerging businesses like retail, airport management and e-governance initiatives of the central and state governments.

The increase in number of training centres will help us double the number of people we train in the country every year. At present, SAP India trains around 2,000 personnel per year.

You were also looking at an e-governance project in India. Your comments.

SAP India is in discussions with several state governments to set up e-governance initiatives. These initiatives would be set up at the state level. We have identified Gujarat as a location, while discussions are in the final stages with a number of other state governments in the country.

SAP, unlike other enterprise resource planning (ERP) companies like Oracle, has not been aggressive on the acquisition front. Why is it so?

Many companies in the ERP space have grown on acquisitions, but SAP is concentrating on organic growth. We have recorded a 72 per cent growth in the Asia-Pacific region itself during the last year, and we intend to continue growing the company in the organic way.

SAP intends to focus on innovation, foresight and vision, while increase in partnerships like the one with IBM and HP would be the way ahead.

The ERP sector in India has been registering a dull growth during the past couple of months. Is this felt across the market space, or is this only true with certain companies?

We haven't experienced any fall in growth in the business market, especially in the ERP segment. On the contrary, for SAP, business has been growing with we signing over 94 new deals in the first quarter of this year and 71 in the second quarter.

This is in comparison with the 160 customers we signed during the entire span of last year.