India, along with Brazil and Germany, was reported to have remarkable cloud revenues in SAP’s Q1 2023 financial statement.
SAP has been in India for about 27 years– more than half of the global enterprise’s fifty years of existence driving innovation and future-proofing businesses around the world through cutting-edge solutions and services. The country is home to the tech giant’s largest R&D center outside Germany, SAP Labs India, comprised of teams from Bengaluru and Gurgaon that provide services to 450,000 customers worldwide.
On SAP’s outstanding presence in the country, Kulmeet Bawa, President & MD, SAP Indian Subcontinent, said:
“It’s been a very exciting 25 years for SAP because while the Indian economy has grown about 10x in the last 25 years, today, we end up touching more than 60 percent of India’s GDP, just through SAP and its partner ecosystem. I call it the nation-building story for us.”
Riding SAP’s Cloud Momentum
Specific to the German company’s pivot to the cloud, Indian businesses of various sizes and industries’ adoption of SAP’s cloud portfolio of solutions and services have significantly contributed to the enterprise software multinational’s cloud revenues. India’s huge potential and dramatic market growth have been commended by SAP leaders, including CEO Christian Klein, during the in-person flagship event SAP Sapphire in Orlando, Florida.
Thomas Saueressig, Member of the Executive Board of SAP SE for SAP Product Engineering, shared in an interview in Bengaluru that India has been the fastest-growing market in the Asia Pacific and Japan in recent years, doubling its cloud revenues for seven consecutive quarters year-over-year (YOY). He detailed that 70 percent of India’s GDP at some point leverages an SAP system, which demonstrates the impact of the company’s solution offerings in the country.
“So, we see the significance of SAP in India and for sure with that we know that we have an obligation to further help and support in this digital transformation,” stressed Saueressig.
In the Q1 2023 financials of SAP, the company saw a 24 percent YOY growth in cloud revenue at €3.18 billion and up 22 percent at constant currencies. In addition, the Walldorf-based company’s current cloud backlog grew by 25% to €11.15 billion, with a 78% increase in the cloud backlog of SAP S/4HANA. Cloud gross profit rose by 28% (IFRS) to €2.24 billion.
Indian Enterprises Rising with SAP
SAP’s concierge offering RISE with SAP has garnered numerous customers from around the world including India– from big conglomerates to small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Bawa earlier shared that SAP in India is contributing 13-15% to SAP’s global RISE business division (Cloud ERP) and has doubled its cloud customers in the recent two years.
Most recently, Air India has joined the roster of SAP cloud customers, such as Mahindra & Mahindra, Wipro Limited, Best Value Chem Private Limited, and HCLTech, that have all migrated their key digital operations to the cloud. In April, India’s leading airline and a Star Alliance member announced that it has completed its ERP migration leveraging RISE with SAP, a Business Transformation as a Service (BTaaS) offering.
“We are glad to have completed this migration successfully, using a high level of creativity in overcoming the challenges that came our way,” Air India’s Chief Digital and Technology Officer, Dr. Satya Ramaswamy. “We are very grateful to the fantastic team from SAP that worked with us hand-in-hand to execute this transition flawlessly, and ahead of schedule.”
“Air India is one of the most iconic brands in the country, and we’re thrilled to deepen our long-standing partnership, as they enter a new chapter in their journey to become a world-class airline serving global customers, with a proud Indian heart,” Bawa commented. “With SAP’s cutting-edge cloud technology, Air India will enhance its customer experience, become an intelligent, sustainable enterprise, and accelerate people transformation as key elements of its growth,” he added.
As for the latest cloud-native ERP software for SMEs, GROW with SAP, Saueressig mentioned the huge potential in the robust mid-market of India. He highlighted that about 80 percent of SAP customers in the country are mid-size businesses that are anticipated to further drive growth.
