SAP sees strong momentum for HANA and SuccessFactors business
Business software vendor SAP expects software and software-related service revenue to increase in the range of 10 to 12 percent at constant currencies during the year, largely in line with preliminary estimates that the company released earlier this month.
The forecast includes a contribution of up to 2 percentage points from SuccessFactors, the company it acquired in February.
SAP has also forecast operating profit of between a!5.05 billion and a!5.25 billion for the year, up from a!4.71 billion in 2011.
For the quarter ended March 31, SAP reported on Wednesday that its revenue was a!3.35 billion (US$4.5 billion as on the last day of the reporting period), according to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), an increase of 11 percent from the same quarter last year. But operating profit grew only 6 percent, indicating a pressure on margins. IFRS profit after tax was up 10 percent to a!444 million. The figures exclude the effects of certain acquisitions and of currency fluctuations.
The revenue and profit figures for the first quarter include those from SuccessFactors starting on February 21, 2012, which were not included in the prior year period.
SAP said it saw strong momentum from its in-memory platform SAP HANA, cloud and mobile solutions, and core applications and analytics products. The SuccessFactors business achieved a 69 percent increase in its 12 month billings from new business in the first quarter, in comparison to its first quarter 2011, the company said.
The company's software revenue was up 4 percent to a!637 million in the first quarter while software and software-related service revenue grew by 13 percent over the same quarter last year to a!2.62 billion.
SAP expects the momentum in its business to continue through the second quarter with software revenue expected to grow by 15 to 20 percent in constant currencies, and software and software-related service revenue to grow by 14 to 16 percent.
(Source: computerworld.com)
