Dean Griffin, GM of marketing for SAP Africa, says revenues from the company`s EMEA region now amount to a quarter of SAP AG`s revenues.
He says the region has seen an annual growth of 25% on a compound annual basis during the 2001 fiscal.
Meanwhile, in a pre-announcement of its fourth quarter results, SAP AG says its software licence revenues for the period will be 20% higher than consensus Wall Street estimates.
The German software-maker believes licence revenues for Q4 will exceed $888.6 million (EUR1 billion). Based on this, it believes its 2001 full-year revenues will rise by more than 16%, while its operating margins - excluding stock-based compensation and Top Tier acquisition-related charges - will match the 20% levels achieved in 2000.
The company is expected to provide further details on its 2001 preliminary results later this month.
SAP AG has stated it believes the near-term market environment will remain "challenging" and that customers will continue to invest cautiously in e-business software solutions.
Griffin, however, is more upbeat about local prospects. "There was a huge switch in the South African market in 2001 as customers began to understand more about e-business and recovered from the dot-com hype. The first quarter was slow for us, but business picked up rapidly. The slow start may have been attributed to a level of fear, suspicion and concern surrounding the dot-com fallout."
He says a significant number of SAP Africa customers are upgrading and adding new modules. "We`re seeing an incredible amount of activity in the CRM and SCM areas, and the HR business has also seen a big push. This trend is likely to continue for some time. Also generating significant interest are portals and we should start seeing some activity here in the near future."
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