India Has Now A Big Data Powerhouse

How important is the Indian market for SAP? What kind of opportunities do you foresee in this market?
India is one of our largest growing markets as far as the growth potential is concerned. More specifically, we have been able to capitalise on it. PM Narendra Modi has driven the Digital India initiative and a lot of conversations around it. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) reform and other such reforms can help companies such as SAP deliver more value. Moreover, every single company that you could imagine globally is in India. Also with a population of 1.3 billion, India has a lot of spending power. Given all these factors, India is definitely one of the largest growth potential markets for us.

Would you say India is driving the innovation for SAP globally?
India is one of our largest SAP employee base for the region. Part of this is not only about operations but also for SAP India Lab. In that lab, there are actual product solutions for the global market. A number of our products and solutions are actually developed, designed and rolled out from India. This shows that India ranks high as far as driving innovation at SAP is concerned. The digital story of every Asia Pacific and Japanese (APJ) small and mid-sized business starts with the demands of a digital-first society. Approximately 50 per cent of the region’s population is expected to actively purchase online by 2020, up from one-third today. India’s households are more likely to have a mobile phone than running tap water. And with the introduction of fast-changing technologies such as mobile Internet, the Internet of Things, cloud, 3D printing, and advanced robotics, the GDP growth is expected to climb 30 per cent by 2025.

With the whole Digital India push, how much support is public sector in India seeking from technological companies such as SAP?
Our leadership team in India is heavily engaged with the public sector as well as some of the corporations that are public sector related. Moreover, we are already working very closely with the government on GST implementation, so the demand for involving solutions for public sector is on the rise in India.  

Has India become the powerhouse of big data? How is this benefitting players like you?
If we look at Digital India initiative, India has become the big data powerhouse. Moreover, India is the world’s fastest growing e-commerce market and the fact that GST, which is the world’s largest and most pervasive tax reform, has all data at the heart of it, all this has undoubtedly made  the country a powerhouse of big data. These shifts in turn have opened up many new opportunities for players such as us and we are constantly looking at leveraging the new possibilities in India.