India will be largest market for SAP in the future: Christian Klein, Chief Executive Officer, SAP

‘AI is mainstream today; projects tsunami started’

India, from a market perspective, was one of the fastest-growing markets and would be one of the largest markets for SAP in the future, said Christian Klein, Chief Executive Officer and member of the Executive Board of SAP SE on Wednesday.

He said India has been constantly building an excellent foundation for tech companies, focusing on education and employing technology to digitise large industries like manufacturing, supply chain, utilities, renewables and retail.

‘’All these industries need SAP software to transform and run more productive and sustainable businesses. So, India is a key market for us,’‘ Mr. Klein said in a media round table held here as part of SAP Executive Board Members visit to India.

Highlighting the importance SAP placed on India, Mr. Klein said, ‘‘All the top decision-makers of SAP have travelled to one place. This time, we are not only here with the Executive Board, but our whole Supervisory Board is with us for the first time in many years.’‘

Tracing SAP’s growth the country Mr. Klein further said, ‘‘When I started my career 24 years ago at SAP, my first visit was here to SAP Lab. Back then, we had around 1,000 people. Now we have over 15,000 people. It’s the fastest-growing lab and the second-largest lab in the world.’‘

Terming India as a ‘‘great talent space’‘ he further said, large parts of SAP’s business AI development were done out the labs in India. We are very happy with the kind of talent we can recruit here in India. When we talk about AI later, India will still be the place to be,’‘ he added.

Other visiting SAP executives included Thomas Saueressig, Member of the Executive Board of SAP SE for Customer Services & Delivery and Muhammad Alam Member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, Product Engineering, both responsible for running business in India.

AI is mainstream

On the quick shift of AI from hype to reality Mr. Saueressig said, ‘‘Last year, when we talked about the rise of AI, it was still in the hype stage. Now, it’s a reality. Our customers are leveraging AI in the context of their business with more than 30,000 customers around the globe using AI every single day. We clearly see it’s mainstream now, and that’s exciting.’‘

Responding to a query, Mr. Klein elaborated: In Q3, 30% of SAP deals included AI, with AI embedded in 100% of the deals’ business cases. Generative AI has been a massive booster for the company’s AI business.

‘’We have ambitious roadmaps, and AI will be an integral part of everything we offer. Our traditional licensed business will continue to decline as we successfully transform to the cloud. The speed of innovation in the cloud is much faster, which is why many customers, especially in India, are using our cloud software.’‘ he added.

Mr. Saueressig further said SAP used AI for migration aspects, accelerating projects, and decreasing implementation costs.

‘’We see a tsunami of projects with a 29% current backlog growth. We need more SAP skills in the market. AI helps increase productivity, and we are working with our partners to scale and accelerate projects. We use AI for migration aspects, accelerating projects, and decreasing implementation costs. This further accelerates our overall business,’‘ he added.

He also said macroeconomic challenges increased geopolitical complexities and this in turn increased the need for transformations, and SAP has been supporting these technological and business transformaitons.

According to Mr. Alam, from a comparative strategy perspective, SAP focuses on how to make its customers resilient to disruptions and take advantage of opportunities. ‘‘In India, 96% of our customer base consists of mid-market customers with slightly different needs. They want growth at an efficient cost level, which requires significant investments in technology and dependency on AI,’‘ he added.

Published - November 06, 2024 10:04 pm IST