Striking gold

Impressed by the outst
02 August 2003

Bangalore: Pose the question 'What is the right mantra for a company's success?' to SAP chairman and CEO Henning Kagermann, and he will reply: "It's right strategy."

The head of the $7-billion German business software company (www.sap.com), Kagermann, who was in India on a day's visit last month, is "confident and bullish" about the growing business opportunities for SAP all over the world, including Asia Pacific.

His visit to Asia Pacific in June 2003, ostensibly a few weeks before the announcement of his company's second quarter results, bears testimony to his statement. Kagermann is the first SAP CEO to visit India in the 31-year history of the company, and he appears to be "happy" over the performance of SAP India and its SAP Labs (research and development centres).

Henning Kagermann Chairman and CEO Joined SAP: 1982 Appointed to executive board: 1991 Current executive board term expires: 2007 Maiden visit to India: 30 June 2003 Special responsibilities: Overall responsibility for SAP's strategy and business development; consulting; customer development; industry solutions; strategic development projects Other board memberships: Supervisory Board, Deutsche Bank AG, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Supervisory Board, DaimlerChrysler Services (debis) AG, Berlin, Germany; Supervisory Board, Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft AG, Munich, Germany

"SAP is growing. The company's business landscape has not changed
even after Oracle's plans to buy out PeopleSoft," says Kagermann. "India is one key area for us for sales and marketing, and R&D." About SAP's growth plans, he says: "We intend to double the workforce in India to 2,000 in next three years, and plans to move more of
our business process outsourcing operations here."

SAP witnesses growing business opportunities not just in India, but across the entire Asia Pacific region. The company's revenue for Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) in Q2 this year grew 9 per cent. This is despite SARS, which severely affected several industries in the region.

SAP markets in Singapore, China and Taiwan saw a license revenue growth in Q2 over the same period last year, which was followed by SAP Australia and New Zealand, Korea and Indonesia. The license revenue growth was 33 per cent higher than the same quarter last year.