SAP aims for strong US growth in 2007

by Andrew James

this year, SAP is planning to grow by more than 12% in the United States market after experiencing disappointing year in 2006.

Bill McDermott ,the head of the group's US operations, told the Financial Times Deutschland.that "SAP has forecast growth of 12-14 percent for the group as a whole. Our aim is to grow faster" and that the US arm of the ERP software giant would "We will retain our role as SAP's growth engine".

The former Xerox manager had managed to expand SAP's US business by up to 40 percent each year for the past four years. The US market represents that largest for SAP with annual sales of $3.4 billion dollars (2.6 billion euros).

Sales growth in 2006 stalled somewhat, with growth only registering at a disappointing (for SAP) 11.7 percent, which was short of the expectations of both analysts and the group itself. McDermott went on to explain that “2006 was a very strong year. After attaining records in 17 previous quarters, it's difficult to carry on achieving high percentage growth rates. It's normal that the growth rate slows when the base has expanded".