As enterprises continue to invest in agile, resilient, and reactive models that can be pivoted on-demand, SAP’s business has seen significant growth in the past year thanks to COVID-19 bringing digital transformation in India to the forefront.
The pandemic has accelerated digital transformation across Indian industries with technology service providers witnessing a sharp growth in digital deals. According to the Strategic Review 2021 released by the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), investing in digital continues to rise as an imperative for industries. With organisations building their capabilities and aligning their business models to digital practices, digital accounted for up to 30{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} of industry revenues.
Commenting on the report published by the premier trade body and chamber of commerce of the tech industry in India, U.B. Pravin Rao, Chairman at NASSCOM, said:
“Digital transformation is the topmost priority for global corporations and in a highly connected world that will remain largely contactless for an extended period, there are shifts in business models, customer experience, operations, and employee experience. Our CEO survey for 2021 indicates that almost 70{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} of companies expect investment in global technology higher than the previous year.”
Indeed, domestic digital adoption increased in 2020, in line with the overall call to action for Aatmanirbhar Bharat which translates to “a self-reliant India.” The Indian domestic market, fuelled by hardware demand, has remained resilient this year, rising at a rate of 3.4{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22}. With a greater emphasis on innovation, India has also seen a significant rise of 80{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} in cloud adoption in the second half of 2020 compared to the first half.
In parallel with the country’s tremendous digital development, SAP India continues to be one of the fastest-growing markets of SAP SE, a leading Germany-based company that engages in the provision of enterprise application software and software-related services.
Recently, SAP Indian Subcontinent President and Managing Director Kulmeet Bawa has reflected on this topic, stressing that there has been a fast-paced adoption of digital although the environment has been “extremely volatile” because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Despite all of this (pandemic-related changes like remote working), business has shot up exponentially. We have had amazing business results over the year, the last three quarters specifically,” he highlighted.
Adoption of Cloud Technologies Contributing to SAP’s Business Growth
Furthermore, Bawa mentioned that the rapid adoption of cloud technologies also contributed to SAP’s business growth overall. SAP, which has traditionally provided on-premise solutions, has welcomed this transition as customers increasingly demand these cloud products and services.
Following the successful debut of RISE with SAP in January, SAP’s 2021 second-quarter financial report stated that the tech company has seen strong momentum for its “Business Transformation as a Service” cloud offering from companies of all sizes, drawing in 250 customers in the second quarter.
In particular, more and more Indian organisations are deciding to run enterprise computing in the cloud now that digital transformation has become mission-critical than ever before.
“As India reopens and our businesses reopen, we are going to be shifting from surviving to thriving, and I believe now is truly the time to digitise. With RISE with SAP, we are taking the mission-critical processes and making them digital and in the cloud,” SAP Asia-Pacific and Japan (SAP APJ) President Paul Marriott said in June.
Meanwhile, Bawa also pointed out that the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME) segment has been doing well, noting that the company has seen a lot of traction coming in from this sector, even over the last few months.
“MSME is one of the key pillars of our India strategy and it’s very close to the heart of our leadership team because that’s one area where we can actually make a dent and help the Indian economy,” he stated.
Launched in association with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), NASSCOM Foundation, and Pratham InfoTech Foundation, SAP India’s Global Bharat Movement reinforces the Indian government’s goal to empower the MSME industry by equipping them with the latest digital technologies and making significant investments to help them establish their businesses.
“A lot of MSMEs that we are seeing are going digital-only rather than digital-first and that’s again a very very interesting scenario. We used to talk about the lines between online and offline blurring for a long time. But, today, I would say for a very large number, those lines are actually blurred and some of them are moving to the other side, talking about digital-only,” Bawa concluded.
