SAP says India is its fastest-growing market

The world's biggest business management software maker SAP said Wednesday that India is now its fastest growing market as competition forces companies to use technology to cut costs.

 

For the first time, India is among the German giant's top 10 markets, leapfrogging a "whole bunch of countries," Ranjan Das, head of SAP India, told a news confernce.

 

The company's Indian unit had a record-breaking year in 2007 by more than doubling its number of customers to 3,000 from 1,350 at the end of 2006.

 

The company's license revenue in the country also more than doubled in the year while sales to small and medium companies jumped 2.3 times.

 

Overall revenue grew 68 percent -- the fastest pace for SAP worldwide, Das said, declining to provide precise figures.

 

"It's incredible," Das said. "Growth has become the name of the game for Indian companies, which are looking for operational efficiencies and are rapidly adopting technology solutions."

 

SAP has been focusing on emerging markets as it chases its goal of more than doubling customers worldwide to 100,000 by 2010. SAP announced in 2006 it would invest one billion dollars in India by 2010.

 

Das added he did not expect a reduction in spending by US technology firms as a result of a US economic slowdown to have a fallout on the Indian market because the South Asian country is a "self-sustaining economy."