At a media briefing to announce the opening of the newly set-up SAP India Labs facility at the Infotech Park in Whitefield, Bangalore, he said the Internet was `co-enabling' the development of such `food chains' and SAP had several extensions on offer. It was also developing new solutions to keep pace with the change, Zencke added.

He said the opening of SAP India Labs, its second development centre in Asia after Tokyo, was part of the company's global development strategy. It also marks the integration of the development organisations of SAP India and Kiefer and Veittinger GmbH (K&V), a leading Europeansales force automation software company that was acquired by SAP earlier this year.

The $3.5 billion SAP AG of Germany is the global leader in the integrated enterprise software applications business and offers products and services to integrate the financial and human resource aspects with the manufacturing, sales and distribution functions of companies.

Its popular R/3 system (from which SAP India has developed a localised version) is installed at 17,000 sites worldwide with 58 installations in the country. R/3 covers logistics, financials, production and materials management, quality management and plant maintenance, sales and distribution, HRM and project management.

The German parent has budgeted an annual investment of $6 million in its Indian operations in Bangalore up to 2000. It is also on a drive to boost its present staff strength from 150 to 200 by 1999.

Not disclosing actual figures, Zencke said the SAP's Indian-Asian operations had yielded a growth of 160 per cent in '97 and the companywas optimistic going by the current trends.