The Hindu Business Line : SAP plans to add 60 SMB clients in 2004

ENTERPRISE Resource Planning (ERP) vendor SAP India Ltd plans to add 60 new clients in the small and medium business (SMB) segment in the current year. The Indian arm of the German software giant has already taken on board 45 companies in the current year as against 30 in 2003.

"We have already emerged as the leading ERP vendor for the small and medium sector with a 27 per cent market share. In the current year, we plan to further strengthen our leadership position and double new customer acquisitions. We have added players like Zandu Pharma, Mawana Sugar, Microlab Pharma, Goetze India and Sumeet Exports in our list of clients in the current year," SAP India Director (Sales) for SMB segment, Mr Srinivas Rao A, told Business Line on Wednesday.

SAP has been focusing on the SMB segment, which it defines as companies with a turnover of up to Rs 400 crore, for the last few years. The SMB segment already accounts for 15 per cent of SAP India's total revenues, he said.

"India has about 20,000 SMBs and the market potential has been estimated at Rs 800 crore. With smaller companies seeking to become global players, there is increased demand for ERP products from the sector," Mr Rao said. The three key growth areas identified by SAP India include textiles, pharmaceuticals and engineering. SAP India has tied up with 10 Indian companies to develop ERP products tailor-made for specific verticals. These include the Mahindras for auto, Tata Steel for metal products and Wipro for consumer goods, he said, adding that the aim is to have at least 25 such partnerships in the next couple of years catering to specific industry "micro-verticals".

"Till last year, we just had three technical tie-ups to develop products for micro-verticals. That figure has now gone up to 10 and we are looking at several other sectors like textile, pharma and engineering. These solutions for micro-verticals cater to industry-specific requirements and are developed on our mySAP package. They offer 30 per cent reduction in cost of ownership apart from bringing down the implementation time by 40 per cent," Mr Rao said.

According to a Frost and Sullivan study, the market for ERP products for the SMB sector stood at $9 million in 2003 and is likely to rise nearly 20 per cent annually to touch $30.8 million by 2010.

More Stories on : Enterprise Resource Planning

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page