Germany's SAP Allots $1 Billion For India Growth
The Wall Street Journal, August 3, 2006

NINA MEHTA and SANTANU CHOUDHURY 
NEW DELHI -- German business-software giant SAP AG will invest $1 billion in India during the next five years to expand its operations there, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Henning Kagermann said. 

"It is too early to say in which area the investment will be," Mr. Kagermann said. "Most of it will be on people." 

The company, which has 2,750 employees in India, plans to increase the total to 3,500 by December, he said. Of the new recruits, 250 will be hired for the company's new support and services center in the northern city of Gurgaon. 

SAP, which makes software that lets corporations manage payroll, client orders and other business processes, plans to double its work force in India in the next five years. 

SAP has been in India since 1996 and has invested $500 million in the country since then, Mr. Kagermann said. The company has a research and development center in the technology hub of Bangalore. 

SAP joins scores of global technology companies that have announced major investments in India in recent months to boost their presence, taking advantage of its abundant supply of low-cost, highly skilled manpower. In June, IBM Corp. announced that it would triple its investment in India to $6 billion over the next three years. Last December, Microsoft Corp. said it would double its work force in India with an investment of $1.7 billion in four years. Around the same time, Intel Corp. announced a $1 billion India investment plan. Hans-Peter Klaey, SAP's president and chief executive for Asian-Pacific operations, said India is the company's fastest growing market in the region. "We are elevating India to be a strategic hub in the Asia Pacific region, which means we are going to focus on the Indian market and bring more products here," he said. 

SAP added 200 new customers in India this year through June, taking its total customer base to 1,050, he said.