Business software solutions provider SAP is in India since 1996, supporting many big and small enterprises in the country with solutions such as customer relationship management. Headquartered in Bangalore and offices in Mumbai, New Delhi and Kolkata, India is one of the fastest countries in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. Strong in data analytics and cloud computing, India is an important market and looking at the potential, SAP has long term plans including setting up a data centre here. Stephen Watts, President, APAC in an interview with Business Line shares more information on the region and how India is shaping up for SAP. Excerpts: -

How important is India for SAP and why?

India clearly is our one of the fastest growing countries in the world, not just Asia, but in the world. It is exciting time in the application industry. We see in the next three-five years, the amount of investment going on in-memory technology for real-time information through cloud computing. Just like in India right now where 50 per cent of the internet transactions happen through mobile device. Nobody is bound to use desktop. Public sector and Government are very important with solutions providing to departments like Income Tax and Revenue. Other areas such as infrastructure and citizen services like UIDAI are major for us.

What innovations are happening out of India?

Apart from lot of global innovation that happen out of India, there are things that are done keeping in mind the Government business. One of the innovations we have done is the development of software in supporting native language (Hindi), which is relevant to the Government. For example; we have implemented ERP solution in Hindi for Air India and there are couple of opportunities which are currently undergoing implementation that will be done in a couple of months.

Are there any plans to set up a data centre in India?

We have growth and acceleration plans in India as it is one of our major markets. If it makes sense for us to host in a local market, we are absolutely fine. We do not shy away from doing that, but it has to make business sense – the customer demand has to be there. I expect overtime, India will become one of those.

How strong is Data Analytics for SAP? Do you see any competition from Oracle or IBM?

It is a critical part for us. About 15 per cent of our software revenues across APJ come from Data Analytics today. There is a big opportunity and not in future, but now! The technology is being provided to customers. They are not going and buying an Oracle, IBM or Microsoft and that is pretty important for us.

We are 18 months ahead of the market and about to redefine the market. Our view is not to focus on competition, but on customers.

>ronendrasingh.s@thehindu.co.in

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