India continues to be one of SAP’s fastest-growing markets globally, according to Kulmeet Bawa, President and Managing Director at SAP Indian Subcontinent. The country’s cloud first mindset, abundant opportunities, and demographic dividend are among the reasons why the German tech giant considers it very important, Bawa said in an interview with ETGovernment.

SAP’s commitment to invest INR 500 crore (€55 million) in India is centred around delivering transformation in the cloud. The investment, which is projected to boost demand for cloud services in India, is also expected to increase local companies’ confidence in venturing into mid-market businesses.

As one of the leading business-to-business cloud providers, SAP’s investment and the introduction of other programs including RISE with SAP will work towards addressing customer demands in India.

During a SAPPHIRE NOW 2021 session, SAP APJ President Paul Marriott joined the SAP India MD to talk about the future of Indian businesses in a networked economy. Marriott stated:

“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.”

Marriott further shared that accelerating cloud growth is essential to SAP’s overall strategy, adding that the company needs to “provide safe passage for every existing SAP ERP customer to RISE with SAP.”

“We will partner with the ecosystem and underpin all our innovation with our SAP Business Technology Platform to build new applications and drive innovation in Asia for the entire world,” he maintained.

Supporting Indian Enterprises through SAP Digital Transformation Solutions

Moreover, Bawa recognises that more Indian companies are deciding to run enterprise computing in the cloud now that digital transformation has become mission-critical than ever before. The SAP Indian leader stated:

“RISE with SAP is Business Transformation as a Service that serves as an enabler for companies to accelerate and simplify their transformations beyond just a technical migration and advance themselves digitally in their cloud journey.”

In addition, companies across all sectors in India are benefiting from successful digital transformation initiatives from SAP. One of these includes Vikran Engineering & Exim Pvt Ltd, a fast-growing engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) company in the power sector. Since implementing RISE with SAP, the company’s Director Nakul Markhedkar said they were able to transform their business processes. 

“In our endeavour to become a leader in EPC industries, it was important for us to streamline and set up our business processes in a way that helped us access all our projects anytime, anywhere. SAP’s cloud ERP solution provides us with that flexibility and enables us to seamlessly access all our business functions and data on a single platform in real-time,” Markhedkar further explained.

Meanwhile, vertically integrated pharmaceutical company RA Chem Pharma Ltd was also one of the first few to implement SAP’s Business Transformation as a Service offering. The company’s CIO Venkat Srinivas further shared: 

“By adopting RISE with SAP, we have taken a significant step towards our digital transformation journey. This will enable us to build a strong foundation in India’s pharmaceutical industry and support our vision of providing quality, affordable and innovative solutions in medicine and treatment.” 

Furthermore, the following enterprises are also leveraging RISE with SAP to gain greater flexibility and scalability in today’s fast-changing market conditions:

• Ola Electric Mobility Pvt Ltd
• Wakefit Innovations Pvt Ltd
• Neogen Chemicals Ltd
• KLT Automotive and Tubular Products Ltd
• Pacific Development Corporation Ltd

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The software giant remains committed to supporting India’s mid-market segment as it turns to technology for business transformation. SAP has recently announced an investment of INR 500 crore (€55 million) to better serve local customers utilising cloud in India.

Addressing customers’ intent to digitally transform in a full-cloud nature, Scott Russell, Executive Board Member at SAP Customer Success, said the company has been looking for ways to help businesses transform faster as they emerge from the COVID-19 crisis. He remarked:

“Our customers’ stories have revolved around the imperative of digital transformation to help build resilience, agility, and profitability during the past year. We have answered by engaging in a new way that helps them acquire and derive value from our solutions faster and build on these critical traits.”

Expounding on the investment focused on boosting cloud in India by leveraging new technologies, Russell stated:

“Our recent commitment to invest in India is centred around delivering transformation in the cloud. This will help Indian enterprises gain greater flexibility, respond to local market requirements and harness the power of their data faster.”

As one of the largest business-to-business cloud providers, SAP’s recent investment and the implementation of other programs will work towards addressing local customer demands in India.

SAP Transforms Cloud in India for Mid-Market Businesses

The investment, which is set to spur demand for cloud services in India, is also expected to increase the confidence of local companies to invest in mid-market businesses. The mid-market segment constitutes a great proportion of SAP’s Indian customer base, with around 9,500 out of 12,000 customers falling into the sector.

This also adds to the list of initiatives made by SAP to further advance its multi-cloud strategy in India. In June 2020, the tech giant unveiled the Global Bharat program designed to empower Indian micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) with innovative solutions such as access to affordable and accessible enterprise technology with SAP’s Business One Starter Pack on the cloud.

“We support mid-market customers in embracing digitisation, focusing on upskilling their workforce and enhancing their overall business value,” Russell emphasised.

Witnessing the Asia Pacific Japan (APJ) region evolve to become one of SAP’s fastest-growing cloud markets globally, the former SAP APJ President said “India is definitely no exception.” He explained:

“We are definitely seeing a new scale and depth in cloud adoption—entire industries and even economies are making the move. Although tens of thousands of organisations have already moved significant portions of their workloads to the cloud with SAP during the past decade, the transition of our global economy to the cloud will accelerate this year.”

Additionally, Russell stated that customer engagements have now become more streamlined after SAP has put in place an individual mandate and board area of customer success for its customer-oriented departments.

“We announced more research and development, greater co-innovation, and better integration, as well as improved security, reliability, and availability across all of our solutions,” Russell concluded.

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