Technology major SAP has unveiled a strategy based on its HANA platform, which can crunch data in real time, to compete against rival enterprise software provider Oracle's hard-disk based database software.
In a big push into the enterprises databases segment, SAP is going to market with its HANA database, Sybase mobile technologies and integrating it with its bread and butter ERP offerings.
With this, SAP has now launched a new data management offering that helps companies in retail, utilities, financial services and others make informed decisions based on real time data.
India-focused
Currently, SAP is the fourth largest database provider after Oracle, IBM and Microsoft. Further, the company is of the opinion that its HANA database platform is designed keeping in mind challenges faced by Indian enterprises.
“Our HANA database platform has an affinity to high-growth markets like India,” said Mr Steve Lucas, VP and GM, database and technology, SAP.
According to SAP officials, Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co (MSED), Abhijeet Power Ltd, Bhavnagar Energy Company, Sanghvi Foods, Usha and Asian Paints are some of its customers who are in the process of adapting HANA.
Interestingly, the company said that some of these customers have shifted from using Oracle.
“We are able to run our internal reports faster and can use data to make informed decisions in our go-to market strategies,” said Mr Subodh Dubey, Group CIO at Usha. The total cost of ownership of SAP solutions are lower than that of Oracle, SAP executives said.
The company plans to grow its R&D centre in India but did not give out details on its hiring plans.
According to Gartner, the enterprise software market in India is projected to grow 13 per cent in 2012, with revenues of $3.22 billion. By 2016, India's share of the software market in Asia/Pacific is expected to reach 12.1 per cent, representing $5.4 billion in revenue, or 1.5 per cent of total worldwide software market revenue of $361 billion.