Walldorf, Germany & Bangalore India— April 4, 2012:  Forty years ago on Tuesday SAP AG, now a market leader in enterprise application software, was founded. What began as a five-man operation is now one of the world’s largest independent software providers, an employer of more than 55,000 people in over 50 countries serving more than 183,000 customers worldwide. SAP software powers 85 percent of the top 100 most valued brands in the world.

In 1972,  former IBM employees – Dietmar Hopp, Hans-Werner Hector, Hasso Plattner, Klaus Tschira, and Claus Wellenreuther – launched a company called Systems Applications and Products in Data Processing in Mannheim, Germany. Their vision: to develop standard application software for real-time business processing. The founders’ vision holds true and its potential continues to unfold.

“When we began in 1972, our vision was to build real time business applications and we did so in close cooperation with our first customers,” said Hasso Plattner, co-founder of SAP and chairman of the SAP Supervisory Board. “Today, SAP continues to be the trusted innovator it was then. We are driving intellectual renewal with break-through innovations like the SAP HANA platform for the next generation of real time management of businesses anytime anywhere from any device.”
SAP's India sagaStarted in 1996, SAP India is one of the fastest growing companies within SAP worldwide with more than 4,800 customers. SAP India is the third largest subsidiary for SAP in terms of employees. It has a total of 5,555 employees comprising of 4,200 at Labs, 875 at GDC and 490 at Field. SAP Education in India has trained over 50,000 SAP consultants in the last one decade. Currently SAP has a direct presence in eight Indian cities, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. It is a leader in the Enterprise Resource Management solutions sector in India with a 47.2% market share. SAP works with 6 Global Service Partners from India – Wipro, TCS, HCL,Infosys, Mahindra Satyam and Larsen & Toubro. Most recently, SAP was honoured as "India's Top Software Company of the year 2011" at the Dataquest Awards 2011.

SAP Labs India has embraced many of the challenges faced by Indians in its innovation roadmap. Only last week, the occasion of World Autism Day, SAP Labs India unveiled ‘Bol’ (a hindi word meaning talk), an iPad application, built to assist individuals affected by Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) as a part of its hAPPfy project, which aims at providing free applications to improve the daily lives of people. This simple application was conceptualized by the SAP Labs India volunteer group and developed by three senior software developers who took time out from their regular work schedule. The application is very user-friendly and customisable to suit the needs of autistic children in India. The aim was to make an application that parents and educators of the children can configure themselves based on their needs.

IndiaTechOnline has reported on many of the achievements of SAP in India. A selection of our stories: 

SAP solutions ab Hindi Mey! http://indiatechonline.com/sap-tools-in-hindi-457.php  
Three new enterprise products for India http://indiatechonline.com/sap-enterprise-products-for-india-693.php  
Making Biz intelligence affordable http://indiatechonline.com/sap-bi-on-demand-232.php  
ESSAR, first Indian sign up for new biz intelligence tool http://indiatechonline.com/sap-teched-2011-announcements-599.php  
New analytic tools: mobile… and social! http://www.indiatechonline.com/it-for-you.php?id=230  
Try us, we’re popular, not pricey! http://indiatechonline.com/sap-offerings--for-indian-smes-241.php