BANGALORE: Nagaraj Bhargava, vice president - marketing, SAP India is excited about the rate at which SME customers are adopting SAP solutions in India. He feels that the recently held SAP Summit was a right platform for partners and customers to strengthen their relationship with SAP even further.
Q: What is the objective behind holding the SAP Summit?
A: The event held in Mumbai from June 4 to 6 had the theme 'Open technologies and business networks that can help Indian companies create business beyond boundaries'. The summit showcased keynotes, 175 sessions covering a diverse range of subjects across verticals, solutions and segments and a large exhibition/demo arena.
The SAP customers shared their experiences and some of the verticals that were focused upon during the summit include automotive, consumer products, banking and insurance, telecom and media, utilities, pharma, retail, professional services, government, chemical, engineering, construction and operations, industrial machinery and components. The summit also focused on how SME's can take advantage of technology for business benefits.
Q: When you talk of Indian companies, are you targeting SMBs specifically?
A: We offer a complete portfolio of solutions for organizations of every size (small, midsize and large enterprises) and for over 25 industries. With SAP, our customers are buying over 30 years of industry expertise.
In 2007, 30 percent of SAP's global software orders were from SME customers. At present, we have over 28,000 SME customers, which translates into 70 percent of our overall customer base. Over the next few years, this is likely to go up to anywhere between 40 to 45 percent, as more SMEs around the world get access to enterprise software solutions from SAP. In India too, we forecast the same figures for our business.
It is important to note that growth in SME business for SAP is not coming at the cost of other businesses. In many areas, SMEs having SAP are creating newer addressable markets through our product and marketing strategies. As a result, instead of merely shifting revenue ratios between customer categories, we are expanding the pie and gaining a bigger share of it too.
Q: SAP has announced an increased focus on SMBs, what are the products and solutions that you are betting on for this segment?
A: SAP solution portfolio for SMBs include:
Q: Do you see any specific industry vertical that promise greater growth for you in terms of adoption and implementation of SAP in India?
A: Several market pressures present both challenges and opportunities for SMEs. Coping with these challenges and turning them into an advantage requires speed, innovation, responsive-ness and adaptability. While maintaining these attributes becomes even more difficult as a company grows and expands into new regions or lines of business and opens new plants-the right IT infrastructure can make all the difference.
SMEs are increasingly depending on an effective business solution to streamline operations, improve efficiency and bring in innovation. Automation enables them to redirect resources away from administrative tasks to focus on activities that can differentiate their products or services in the marketplace.
The demand for enterprise solutions in the SME segment is rising rapidly. In FY '07, we saw a 230 percent growth in our revenues from the SME segment. We have over 2,300 customers in the SME segment today.
Our solution portfolio recognizes the differing requirements among the vast number of companies in the small and mid-size segment, and offers distinct solutions relevant to each segment.
Q: How can channel benefit from the increased adoption of SAP-based technologies by Indian SMBs? What are the challenges thereof?
A: At SAP, we recognize the vital role our partners play in our ecosystem, focused on a common goal-customer success. Our partner programs provide a strong foundation of support and collaboration that fosters value and mutual business success for our customers, our partners and SAP.
A SAP channel partner enjoys access to new business-enabling resources and all the benefits of our SAP PartnerEdge program. As a SAP partner, one can tap into resources that will help them grow and maximize business results. Benefits of becoming a SAP partner include access and exposure to SAP's customer base; access to our partner portals for product, marketing, sales and sales and marketing assistance, etc.
Apart from this, we have the SAP Referral program designed for partners to earn big on business opportunities they share with us. SAP is committed to supporting its partners through its recognized partner programs like SAP PartnerEdge-the framework built and designed to ensure success for SAP channel partners. These partner programs focus on greater market exposure and expanded business opportunities; technical expertise on SAP platforms and solutions; co-development; and collaborative planning and execution.
Q: ERP was synonymous with SAP at one time. Now there are other vendors in this space. How is SAP trying to differentiate itself from these players?
A: In India, SAP is the market leader, far ahead of the rest of the competition and it continues to increase that distance with each passing quarter due to the trust its customers place in SAP solutions. While the market grows at between 18 to 20 percent per annum, we have constantly been growing at multiples of that figure, and increasing our market share at the same time.
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