SAP targets small and medium enterprises, to set up office in Ludhiana

In order to reach out Small and Medium Business's (SMB) in a more effective way SAP, world's leading enterprise management software, has plans to set up office in Ludhiana.

The new office, which is likely to be operational by December, would cater to the demands of the industry in the region. At present, the Delhi office looks after the northern region.

Besides that SAP would also organise workshops, seminars and road shows in the region, highlighting the role of IT in various industry verticals and how the companies can become more efficient and improve upon their productivity.

Commenting upon IT spending, specially by SMBs in the region, SAP (India) Regional Director Pankaj Dewan said, "The IT usage in Punjab and Haryana is definitely on an upswing and it strongly reflects the trend of increase in IT spend by the small and medium business units across the country. According to a latest study done by New York-based Access Markets International (AMI) Partners Inc, SMBs in India are set to spend about $ 576 million on packaged software alone this year, and with the high concentration of the SMBs in both the states the IT spend is definitely going to rise significantly in the near future."

"Another factor which points to the increasing trend in the IT usage in both the state is the steep increase in the number of SME's across various industry verticals who have been adopting SAP solutions," he added.

There is a major presence of SME segment in both the states with Punjab alone having around 0.2 million small scale industries and 600 large and medium scale industries functioning in it (as per the state government figure), whereas in Haryana the number of large and medium units in the state has increased from 162 in 1966 to 1212 today, with a capital investment of Rs 225 billion. Also, the state has received new project proposals from multinational companies. Also, the number of small Industries has increased from 4,500 in 1966 to 80,000 today(as per the state government data).

Commenting upon benefit, he added, "As the economy is becoming integrated worldwide companies especially the SMBs are realising that in order to retain their competitive advantage they need to effectively utilize their resources by using IT solutions such as ERP(Entreprise Resource Planning) as a strategic tool in integrating and synchronising isolated functions into a streamline business process."

Commenting upon the region, he added, "Punjab and Haryana are two very important states for SAP in India due to their rapid industrialisation and the high concentration of the SMBs in them, that's why we are setting up our office in Ludhiana. SAP has worked with over 10,000 small businesses to help them reach their goals globally. In fact, more than 65 per cent of SAP customers are small and midsize companies."

With over 1,130 customers in India, SAP is the leading provider of business software solution for Indian enterprises of all possible sizes.

In the first three quarters of 2006 alone, SAP has signed on over 280 new customers in India.