India's Incredibly Important From Both Market And Talent Perspective: SAP’s Punit Renjen

SAP's Deputy Chairperson of the Supervisory Board, Punit Renjen, on Tuesday expressed optimism about India's pivotal role in driving global technological transformation during an interaction with the media in Bengaluru. 

The discussion, which included key global and India-based executives from SAP, a German multinational software company, shed light on the company's strategic outlook, growth drivers and its commitment to fostering innovation in the Indian market.

In a statement during the discussion, Renjen highlighted the significance of India in SAP's global strategy. He said, "India is incredibly important, not only as a marketplace but also as a hub for attracting and retaining top talent for developing cutting-edge innovation and software for the rest of the world."

India is SAP's fastest growing market and hosts 40 per cent of the company's global R&D workforce. The work at SAP Labs India, SAP's R&D arm, is responsible for 25 per cent of all SAP patents. 

While Renjen acknowledged both the unique challenges and opportunities presented by the ongoing technological revolution, he stressed on SAP's commitment to navigating this transformative period, saying, "We are in the midst of a 15 to 20-year secular trend enabled by technology. It's going to fundamentally change the way we live, the way we work. And SAP is right in the middle of that."

On 31 December 2022, Renjen concluded his tenure as the Global CEO of Deloitte, a position he had held since June 2015. Recently, he transitioned into the role of SAP's Deputy Chairperson of the Supervisory Board. 

SAP's Focus On ‘Business AI’ And SMEs

Speaking on artificial intelligence (AI), Renjen emphasised on SAP's approach to embedding it into business processes. "We want to compete on business," he explained. "Our secret is how we embed AI into business contexts, which means processes and business data in our system. That's where we can differentiate and win."

As India focuses on developing its AI capabilities, Renjen acknowledged the importance of language models tailored to Indian languages. "1.4 billion people live in India, and the Indian models and data are going to be absolutely critical," he affirmed.(L-R): Kulmeet Bawa, President And MD, SAP Indian Subcontinent; Thomas Saueressig, Executive Board, SAP Product Engineering, SAP; Sindhu Gangadharan, SVP & MD, SAP Labs India; Punit Renjen, Deputy ChairpersonThomas Saueressig, a member of the Executive Board overseeing SAP Product Engineering at SAP SE, highlighted the importance of India-specific large language models (LLMs) during the discussion. Addressing the need for diverse language capabilities in AI applications, Saueressig said that while SAP currently on average supports over 40 languages in its applications, the development of India-specific LLMs is crucial.

He acknowledged that creating effective language models specific to India is a complex task and said, "[..] we absolutely also need India-specific LLMs from a language perspective to be set up. So absolutely, we need that. And that's certainly one of the most complex things—the models from a language perspective—we are not yet where we should be."

Saueressig's comments underscore the recognition of the unique linguistic challenges in India that can be addressed by AI innovations and the ongoing efforts to enhance language models to better serve the diverse user base in the country.

Moreover, SAP's appeal and traction is greater in the Indian mid-market, which could stand to gain greatly from such linguistic abilities from the company's AI-powered offerings. About 80 per cent of the German company's customers are small and medium enterprises (SMEs). 

Kulmeet Bawa, President and MD, SAP Indian Subcontinent outlined the company's approach, stating, "Look at it this way: we are expanding the pie. We've got nation-building and collaborations with the government at one end, catering to top enterprises (at the other end), tapping into the upper mid-market or the 'upper wind market,' as we call it. Additionally, we are engaging with digital natives. Each of these segments is experiencing rapid growth, and 'Grow with SAP' is specifically tailored for the mid-market."

SAP began its India journey 25 years ago and today has about 15,000 employees in the country, growing at a rate of about 3,000 employees per year in recent times. However, given the tough market conditions, the company onboarded about 1,500 employees in India this year, shared Sindhu Gangadharan, SVP and MD, SAP Labs India.