SAP aims to tap cloud computing in Middle East

Software maker to cash in on growing demand

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2 MIN READ

Dubai: SAP, Europe's largest software maker, said yesterday it is doubling the resources it deploys to the Middle East in anticipation of an uptake in mobile and on-demand computing.

"This is a market that has invested into a lot of infrastructure," he said. "And now is a good time to roll out value added applications for customers to be able to make decisions and check their businesses and shape their futures."

The size of the mobile and on-demand — also called cloud computing — market can't be accurately measured at the moment, according to Sam Alkharrat, the managing director of SAP Middle East and Africa, but he said there has been a lot of interest in SAP's ability to analyse company data. SAP's on-demand service will become available in 2011.

SAP, which employees 250 people in the region, has been criticised over the past year for being late in moving its enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) software to the web.

Jose Duarte, SAP's president of Emea and India, derided the criticism, saying now was the time that most major software vendors were beginning to offer on-demand computing.

"It's a market to be made," Duarte said.

He said the only company to deliver a online product to date was SalesForce.com.

SAP is also focusing heavily on mobility by developing apps for many of the new platforms on the markets. The apps work directly with SAP ERP and CRM software.

"There are changing elements in the market place, such as the iPad, that are making it more attractive to work on a mobile platform," Duarte said.

SAP supports Apple, BlackBerry, Windows and Symbian and expects to support Android in 2011.

Clients

The company claims 300 customers in the region, with the oil and gas sector being the "heart" or SAP's clients in the region, Duarte said.

He said the company saw 33 per cent growth in the Mena region in the last fiscal year.

Duarte said SAP's strategic targets in the region include the public sector, which include health care and education, as well as oil and gas, defence, banking and even retail. The company anticipates a healthy number of new clients.

"I expect quite a large capture of new clients, around 50 per cent," he said.

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