By Kirsten Wade
SAP AG has continued its growth momentum in 2012, posting a record first quarter in Asia Pacific/Japan (APJ) and double-digit growth in several markets, though the company’s performance in North America was hindered by sales execution issues.
The preliminary first quarter results showed non-IFRS software and software-related service revenue has increased 12 per cent to €2.63 billion, and non-IFRS operating profit was up 7 per cent to €834 million.
“We had strong growth in Asia Pacific/Japan, Latin America and Germany. We also moved swiftly to address the sales execution challenges in North America and are already seeing our measures deliver success,” said SAP Co-CEOs Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe. “Our pipeline is robust with increasing demand for key innovations including HANA, real-time analytics, mobile, cloud as well as our core applications.”
Shortly after the close of the quarter, SAP faced the unexpected resignation of North American president Robert Corteau, who had held the position for just 15 months. Rob Enslin, president of global customer operations and Corteau’s predecessor in this role, has assumed interim responsibility for SAP’s North America region until a successor is appointed.
McDermott and Hagemann Snabe also took the opportunity to reaffirm SAP’s full year outlook, with increasing demand for key innovations such as HANA, real-time analytics, mobile and cloud support supporting a “robust pipeline”.
