Leading Germany-based software company, SAP, has announced that it is ramping up its operations in Iraq.

Sam Alkharrat, managing director, SAP Mena, said: “Iraq is an exciting market for SAP. This is a country where IT innovation can be truly transformational and provide the very basis for a more sustainable, connected and empowered future that not only capitalises on natural resources, but also serves as the basis for a diverse, knowledge-based economy.”

Now in its 41st year, and with 232,000 global customers across 25 industries, SAP recently emerged as Germany’s largest company by market capitalisation, and has experienced 12 consecutive quarters of double-digit software revenue growth.

The company’s current global growth strategy includes doubling its addressable market, reaching 1 billion people and generating global revenue of € 20 billion by 2015.

“SAP has a multi-pronged innovation agenda comprising synchronised investments in five interconnected elements - extending a leadership position in applications, broadening its footprint in analytics, expanding its reach through mobile, becoming a profitable leader in the cloud, and growing the fastest in technology and database,” Alkharrat said.

Mena is pivotal to SAP’s strategy, with the company recently announcing a four-year additional spend plan across the region that entails hiring more than 500 additional employees, tripling the company’s existing consulting capabilities, opening several new offices and expanding the partner ecosystem and the SAP University Alliances programme.

The plan also encompasses the region’s first IT-specific training and development center, which will certify more than 2,000 new consultants within the next four years, as well as further accelerate and extend the localisation and Arabisation of SAP solutions.

Iraq figures strongly in SAP’s Mena expansion drive and, in February 2012, the company become one of the first of its kind to commit to an in-country business development presence, the statement said.  

“SAP understands the unique needs of small and midsize businesses and entrepreneurs,” Alkharrat said. “We want to see SMEs in Iraq that are more agile and able to operate around the clock.”

“We want to see SMEs with enhanced visibility and decision making that can not only lead to better employee productivity, customer engagements and responsiveness, but also help them keep pace with larger companies and gain a competitive edge in their marketplace.”

Outside of the business arena, SAP aims to boost local knowledge and stoke vocational skill sets through initiatives like the SAP University Alliance (UAP), which provides faculties with the tools and resources needed to teach students how technology can help enable integrated business processes and strategic thinking.

“IT is no longer on the side-line. IT is the business,” added Alkharrat. “By combining vision with technology, astute businesses and organisations of every size can outperform the competition, create opportunities, and be truly successful in a global economy.” – TradeArabia News Service