"INDIA'S DOMESTIC ECONOMY OFFERS GREAT OPPORTUNITIES"

In a conversation on the sidelines of SAP Now AI Tour in Mumbai, BW Businessworld's Rohit Chintapali spoke with SIMON DAVIES, who stepped into the role of SAP's Regional President for APAC in February. He shared his views on the company's newly integrated APAC leadership structure, India's role in accelerating AI adoption and more.

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To start with, could you share the mandate given to you with the newly created APAC leadership role and how it differs from your predecessor's?

Paul (Mariott) led the Asia-Pacific and Japan (APJ) market units for five years. We've now integrated Greater China, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China, into this structure. There are two key reasons for this: first, customers increasingly want to partner with SAP across all of APAC, not just China vs. APJ, which helps us deliver better outcomes. Second, this integration enables greater cross-collaboration and scale. With major innovation hubs in India (our second-largest location) and Greater China (third-largest), this helps support and build a unified culture to better serve regional customers. It also enhances our capabilities in areas like architecture, AI, supply chain, customer experience, HCM and core ERP. The business expects APAC to remain SAP's fastest-growing region, as reflected in earnings showing APAC leading in cloud growth and new bookings.

Since you've brought China into the APAC mix, how are you viewing the region geographically? Specifically, where do China and India stand in your strategy?

SAP has been in India since 1996, with some customers even earlier. The Indian market is particularly attractive due to its strong cloud adoption and organisations looking to leapfrog legacy systems while expanding domestically and globally. India is among SAP's fastest-growing and most cloud-adopting markets.