$120 million boost for SAP

Prachi Verma / New Delhi

In order to increase its share in the enterprise software market in India, SAP plans to spend over $120 million over the next three years through its Indian subsidiary, SAP India.

SAP India plans to spend over $40 million every year in India on marketing and sales initiatives as well as to increase its chain of partnerships with systems integrators. SAP India is also open to acquiring companies in India to add value to its existing offerings.

“Our intention is to triple our business in India from the present share over the next three years for which we are looking at yearly expenses of at least $40 million,” said SAP India’s managing director Alan Sedghi. IDC India ranks SAP India as a leading ERP vendor with over 60 percent share in the ERP market (2001) in India.

SAP India also plans to increase its number of offices from the present offices located in Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi.
“My expectation is that in the next two years we will double the size of our sales and support team to 200 from 100 in India,” Sedghi said.

The company intends to increase its focus on the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and verticals like telecom, financial services, utilities and media in the coming years.

“We are restructuring our organisation in India, as part of which we have eight vertical managers with their teams to bring in more focus,” he said. The company also plans to form a new pricing strategy for SMEs.

“We are aware that SMEs are price conscious and so we are working out a new lower pricing strategy for them,” Sedghi said.
The company intends to rope in more system integrators (SIs). It already has HCL, Wipro and SISL on its SI list.

“We might look at acquiring a company in India that offers specific technology like storage and archiving,” he said.