Following on from its commitment to spend US$2 billion in China to 2015, SAP has announced further investment and growth in China, at China SAPPHIRE in Beijing last week.
SAP has delivered its best quarterly performance ever in China, with more than 30 per cent growth in software license revenue, and has announced plans to implement the SAP Startup Focus program there, helping Chinese startup companies scale their business through the adoption and development of new applications on the SAP HANA platform.
SAP also announced that it is actively building out its customer and partner ecosystem, with an agreement establishing Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. as the first Chinese SAP global technology partner.
Through this partnership, SAP and Huawei will deepen technical integration and support, build an interoperability competency center and carry out joint sales and marketing activities worldwide. In total, SAP has extended its number of local partners in China to 120 and its trained consultants to nearly 10,000.
Additionally, SAP today announced the expansion of its cooperation with China Telecom Corporation, the world’s largest fixed-line operator. The cooperation aims to promote platforms for mobile development and mobile device management, and extend SAP and China Telecom’s partnership on cloud-based enterprise-class products and services.
“Our strategy in China is simple: It’s long-term commitment and customer focus,” said Robert Enslin, president, Global Customer Operations, and member of the SAP Global Managing Board. “We intend to make China a top 3 market for SAP globally. Many of China’s biggest companies are our customers and we will continue to support their global growth and competitiveness with the latest innovations from SAP. To make this a reality, we have expanded our sales force by 50 percent this year.”
Many of the solutions implemented by the 4000 SAP customers in China are developed in the country, particularly in the areas of business applications, analytics, database, mobile and cloud. More than 2000 engineers based in the SAP Labs location in Shanghai develop applications in the areas of large, small and midsize enterprises, business intelligence and analytics, and for new technologies, such as in memory, mobile and cloud.
“We see growth and opportunity in China, and we have made it a permanent home,” said Hera Siu, president, SAP China. “We are excited to be here and build on our 20-year history in China.”
