SAP, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in India last year, plans to double its contribution from the country by 2025. Describing it as one of the fastest-growing regions for the tech giant, Kulmeet Bawa, President of SAP Indian Subcontinent, said that operations in the country had high double-digit growth across all SAP market segments last year.
The IT services industry in India continues to lead the way in delivering global business transformations enabled by innovation and technology. India’s digital transformation market is predicted to hit $710.0 billion by 2024, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 74{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22}. The adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies, cloud computing, the Internet of Things (IoT), mobility, big data and analytics, and social media are all projected to be key growth drivers in the industry. Additionally, innovations in artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics are also considered significant factors in accelerating digital transformation and driving business growth.
As one of the major players in India’s IT services sector, SAP strengthens its commitment to helping organisations modernise their operations in order to become sustainable, intelligent enterprises. In 2021, the German enterprise software multinational’s business in the country increased by triple figures in three quarters during the year — demonstrating the tremendous demand for cloud-based products and services. As of 2020, SAP announced that it was shifting its focus to a cloud-based business model, with an end goal of achieving 22 billion euros from the cloud market segment by 2025.
According to SAP Indian Subcontinent Managing Director Kulmeet Bawa, India was one of the regions with the highest number of global clients for the company’s Business Transformation as a Service (BTaaS) offering RISE with SAP. Indian enterprises from across different industries have already embraced the solution to support them in adapting and thriving in today’s ever-evolving market conditions.
“2021 was the best year in our history, and we’ve contributed globally very holistically,” Bawa highlighted.
Advancing India’s Contribution to SAP Market Segments
Moreover, Bawa indicated that SAP India’s business growth was driven by large companies and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which have begun to invest more heavily in cloud-based technologies in the wake of the COVID-19 global pandemic. In February, SAP announced the new Cloud Success Services organisation which focuses on customer lifecycle management by integrating its services and customer experience (CX) units. Over 22,000 staff are part of the organisation to help ensure the success of every customer’s cloud transformation journey by providing SAP’s most advanced capabilities and services.
With this, Bawa said that he also intends to establish India as a global talent hub for the tech company as it currently expands in other fields such as cybersecurity, machine learning (ML), and data science, among other things. At the moment, SAP India has around 14,000 people spread across business operations and technology facilities, with more than 1,500 new employees hired in the last year.
Furthermore, Bawa stated that the company plans to strengthen its connection with the Indian startup ecosystem in the future. An accelerator program for startups has been developed by SAP Labs India in an effort to promote entrepreneurship and technological development in the country. The SAP Startup Studio and the SAP Labs campus in Bengaluru were established to assist in the development of new startups in the fields of big data and IoT.
“One aspect is working with them as a technology enabler, and the second is to co-innovate with them, and that is very big for us. We have an advantage in India because of the massive talent pool across the organisation,” he emphasised.
