In India, the SAP business has touched upon various major industries including oil and gas, consumer packaged goods (CPG), automotive, retail, public services, as well as the banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) sector. Recently celebrating 25 years in the IT field, the company’s growth momentum has been driven by local customers aiming to accelerate cloud adoption and digital transformation.
Annual cloud spends have been at an all-time high in the last several years, according to a Deloitte report, with India experiencing a tremendous increase of 45{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} in compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the past five years. The article by Financial Express also stated that business executives realise the significant benefits of adopting a cloud-first strategy as a growing number of companies are now leveraging cloud capabilities to strengthen their operations. Additionally, the study has found that around 80{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} of organisations are better prepared to address future needs and challenges by taking their business processes to the cloud.
Aligned with the overall call to action for Atmanirbhar Bharat which translates to “a self-reliant India”, German enterprise software giant SAP has put in place several initiatives to support cloud adoption in the country. Earlier this year, the company pledged an investment of INR 500 crore (€55 million) centred around delivering transformation in the cloud. Aside from being projected to bolster demand for cloud services, it was also expected to amplify domestic companies’ confidence in venturing into businesses in the mid-market segment.
In an interview with YourStory on the sidelines of TechSparks 2021 online conference, SAP Indian Subcontinent Managing Director and President Kulmeet Bawa described SAP as a “true blue cloud company.” He shared:
“At SAP, we have transformed ourselves into a cloud company from an on-premise solution provider to one of the largest cloud companies in the enterprise application space today in the world. We understand how to adapt to new market conditions and how to build or create new business models.”
Cloud Adoption Drives Momentum for SAP Business in India
In addition to its solid market presence across 25 industries, SAP’s strong base of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) — which accounts for around 9,000 of the company’s 12,000 customers in India — fuels most of the growth performance. Bawa noted that digital adoption has gone up exponentially with a greater focus on customer experience, adding that smaller businesses are coming back to SAP to expand their global reach.
“India is growing like no other market. BFSI has not been our forte, but we have started going deeper now with banks and fintech companies. We are also expanding the footprint to digital natives and other new age internet-led businesses that are mushrooming in the country,” he further explained.
SAP India also sees demand for its Business Transformation as a Service (BTaaS) offering RISE with SAP as a rising number of local companies opt to run enterprise computing in the cloud now that digital transformation has become more important than ever. First introduced in January, the all-in-one digital cloud services package also includes taking the German tech giant’s flagship product SAP S/4HANA to clients. Bawa maintained:
“RISE with SAP is where we are moving the digital core onto the cloud. It is not a technology upgrade but a business transformation. Here, we are offering subscription services along with bundled offerings, some directly by us, some with the partners and it has been amazing to see the trajectory in the last six months.”
Moreover, the company recently raised its revenue forecast for the full year as a result of such demand, both in India and across the world. Some of the Indian enterprises that have already embarked on their journey to the cloud through RISE with SAP are Vikran Engineering & Exim Pvt. Ltd., a fast-growing engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) company in the power sector, and RA Chem Pharma Ltd, a vertically integrated pharmaceutical firm.
