Global business solutions provider SAP is bullish on its growth prospects in SA and the rest of the continent, and sees this country as a gateway to the fast-growing African market.
Dr Ferri Abolhassan, SAP executive VP for the EMEA NEWS (North East South West) region, said during a visit to SA last week that the company will seek to build on the strength of its local operations.
The South African and Sub-Saharan African operations are contributing "significantly" to the group's overall licensing revenues, he said, adding that SA is a role model for the economic growth and potential for SAP's African region operation.
Overall, the NEWS region, he explained, was the best performing region during the company's third quarter, achieving double-digit growth. SA also exhibited double-digit growth (in rand terms), Abolhassan stated, but declined to give specific figures.
"SAP is looking at three ways to achieve growth: widening its market segment, in terms of wall-to-wall applications; to expand its volume business, which focuses on SMEs; and to achieve regional expansion," Abolhassan said.
He explained that SAP would drive its expansion through a combination of organic growth and strong alliance building, with a key focus on training and enabling partners to unlock value through a "centrepiece business process platform" approach.
"The central point of SAP's growth strategy is the platform - where one platform provides all solutions to all client segments. But for this we need partners with specific focus areas, who can offer best price and quality, and whose core competences we can harness.
"This allows SAP to address a wider market segment. Thus we seek three kinds of partners: partners whom we can sell with, partners whom we can sell through and partners whom we can build with."
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