Technology

SAP to increase market share by 20% in Lanka

by Lalin Fernandopulle reporting from Mumbai, India

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Sri Lanka is a big market for SAP which will increase its market share by 20 per cent this year, said President and CEO, SAP India Sub Continent, Ranjan Das.

He was addressing the fifth SAP Summit, an annual business and technology forum held in Mumbai.

Das said SAP’s focus is to build the partner eco system using local resources to help businesses to expand and grow. The system supports a shared goal to innovate efficiency. Sri Lanka has the expertise and our intention is to develop the market. “There is plenty of business in Sri Lanka and SAP will be looking at expanding its market share working with private and public sector institutions this year”, Das said.

SAP (Systems Applications Products) will ramp up partners in Sri Lanka for its partner eco system which will have results within 2-3 years. SAP has 38 customers using SAP solutions in Sri Lanka which have been able to reduce cost, improve efficiency and adopt to changing global business needs.

John Keels Holdings, MAS Holdings, Eagle Insurance, Hemas Group, Dialog Telekom and Loadstar are some of the companies that use SAP solutions.

“SAP will foster and nurture innovation in Sri Lankan corporates through its ventures.

SAP will invest in companies and help entrepreneurs build fast growing companies with a global footprint”, the CEO said. The company offers multiple business solutions that will suit even the smallest enterprises. There are business solutions for enterprises with profits less than Rs. 1 million.

“For over 12 years SAP has been investing in companies in USA and Europe which build innovative technologies and applications. Investing in emerging markets has now become a key focus for SAP ventures, since there is potential for business development and a waste talent pool which is at the forefront of the technology revolution”, Das said.

Reiterating the leadership position, Das said SAP India has clocked a growth of 67 per cent in the software licence revenue in the first quarter 2008.

SAP India, the fastest growing region with SAP applications was named the ‘jewel in the Crown’ of SAP worldwide. Big corporates to small and medium size businesses use SAP solutions enabling them to be the best run businesses.

The six best run companies of the Fortune 500 use SAP applications.

SAP opened 50 e-learning centres in India to cater to the growing demand for SAP skills. The company will focus on training, implementing and enhancing skills of employees.

Das said though SAP has 500,000 consultants it is short of around 60,000 to keep pace with the demand for qualified personnel.The demand for SAP solutions will increase and plans have been made to train 6,000 university students under the University Alliance program. Meanwhile, SAP hopes to create 60,000 jobs for the global market next year.

President and CEO SAP Americas and Asia Pacific Japan, Bill McDermott said that he was extremely proud about the growth and strong continued momentum that SAP India has achieved.

The three-day summit ended yesterday.

Letter of Intent issued for IT Park in Malabe

“Technology can play an important part in changing the mindset of a nation.

The Government and my Ministry in particular, is committed to modernising the national economy. We have earmarked the informational technology sector as one area for future growth. Currently we are working towards setting up dedicated IT techno-parks in the country”, said Minister of Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion, Dr. Sarath Amunugama.

Minister Amunugama will issue a Letter of Intent (LOI) to a consortium of two Indian companies namely Infinity Infotech Parks Ltd, which operates IT parks in India, notably in Kolkata and the PS Group Realty Ltd., who are real estate developers.

The value of the investment is US$ 80.44 million. Within 45 days of the signing of the letter of intent, a BOI agreement will be signed with the companies.

Work on the construction of the new zone is due to begin within nine months.

The Agreement will be signed on behalf of the investor by Managing Director of Infinity Infotech Parks Ltd., Pulak Chamaria, Chairman of SLIIT, Prof. Sam Karunaratne.

The selection of the party to develop and manage the IT Park in Malabe was done through an open bidding process.

Ernst and Young/India was retained as advisory to the BOI for managing the bid process and selecting the investor.

The BOI facilitated the process and the project will be categorised a BOI project under Private Public Partnership (PPP) basis.

Lanka’s scientific ingenuity showcased at ISEF

Sri Lanka’s scientific ingenuity was showcased for the first time at the recently concluded Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in Atlanta, Georgia. As the world’s largest pre-college science competition, the ISEF provides the ideal platform for students from around the globe to not only demonstrate their own innovations in science and engineering, but also to draw industry and public attention to their concepts.

From left: Standing - B. S. Samarasiri, J. Meegoda, Sajeewa Hendurugoda, Praveej Jayasinghe, Yasith Lokuge, Priyantha Weerabahu and Sri Lankans friends. Seated - Anura Dissanayake and Perera, the proud father of the grand prize winner Natalie of Sri Lanka who represented Mississippi after the ISEF awards ceremony.