At a time when SAP has announced restructuring of 8,000 jobs globally, SAP Labs India (biggest R&D centre of SAP outside Germany) has been a bright spot by doubling its profit over the last three years.
On the contrary, SAP India (the firm’s business subsidiary in India) has seen profit coming down by 15% in the same period.
SAP Labs India’s profit for the year 2023 was €99,539,000, as compared to €46,409,000 in 2020. SAP follows January-December as its financial calendar. The India R&D revenue grew from €568 million in 2020 to €890 million in 2023, a growth of 57% in the last three years.
Questions seeking comments from SAP via email didn’t elicit any response till the time of going to press.
On the other hand, SAP India saw its profit falling from around €112 million in 2020 to €94.5 million in 2023, a drop of 15.6%.
SAP’s focus on R&D can also be gauged by its R&D headcount and expenses. The R&D expense rose 4% to €6,324 million in 2023 from €6,080 million in 2022. “This increase was mainly due to higher personnel costs, driven by a 3% year-on-year growth in our R&D headcount for additional capacity demands in relation to the increased revenue,” added its annual report.
The company’s R&D headcount increased by 1% to 34% of its total headcount. The R&D employee headcount at SAP at the end of December 31, 2023 was at 36,444 and of this, APJ region alone accounted for a total of 12,474 employees. SAP Labs India had 10,672 employees at the end of FY23.
For 2024, SAP has recently announced a targeted restructuring program, which is expected to affect about 8,000 employees from SAP’s global workforce. SAP expects to exit 2024 at a headcount similar to current levels.
In 2023, 14% of SAP’s total revenue was generated in the APJ (Asia Pacific Japan) region. Total revenue in Japan increased to €1,243 million. “Revenue from Japan accounted for 28% of all revenue generated in the APJ region. In the remaining countries of the APJ region, revenue increased 1%. Revenue in the remaining countries of the APJ region was generated primarily in Australia, China and India,” SAP said in its FY23 annual report.
In 2023, the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) region generated €14,004 million in revenue, which was 45% of its total revenue. And 41% of its total revenue was generated in the Americas.