SINGAPORE-German software firm SAP AG marked its 25th year in Asia-Pacific Japan (APJ) with a 10-percent growth in non- International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) software and software-related service revenue (10 percent at constant currencies) during the third quarter of this year.
“We are very much optimistic, too, of the next leg of our journey in APJ, and see many opportunities with the Asean economic integration [AEI],” SAP APJ President Adaire Fox-Martin told the BusinessMirror in an interview here.
Fox-Martin said they see businesses in the region continuing to leverage technology in their operations and that enterprises continue to shift to the cloud.
The strong performance in the third quarter was driven by cloud subscription and support revenue. Non-IFRS cloud subscriptions and support revenue grew by 57 percent (56 percent at constant currencies) on a year-on-year basis across APJ, the company said in a statement.
Its human capital management suite registered solid growth, especially in the public sector, resources and telecommunications industries, the company said.
It added that increased demand for the SAP HANA (High Performance ANalytic Appliance) platform was reflected in triple-digit growth for SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA. The analytics business registered double-digit growth this quarter, as businesses look to capitalize on big data to make smarter decisions.
This was confirmed by Rob Enslin, president of global customer operations and member of the executive board and the global managing board of SAP.
However, when asked on the outlook for the region, Enslin declined, saying that the Walldorf, Germany-headquartered firm doesn’t provide such on a regional basis.
“Our strong third-quarter performance is a reflection of the growing customer buy-in to our Run Simple operating principle, which really underpins what we do: sophisticated technology to simplify business,” Enslin said.
SAP APJ COO Scott Russell told the Businessmirror in an interview the economic integration agenda of the Association of the Asean “offers opportunities as well as challenges.”
“The good thing about the AEI is that most of the companies that use the SAP platform can be expected to stay on the same book. The language may differ as there are local applications of the platform but the standards are the same, the regulatory principles are the same,” Russell said.
On its 25th year the company announced it is investing in an innovation center in Singapore by the end of 2014.