Software company SAP has said it will ride out the downturn by
pursuring a strategy of collaboration with its business
partners.
The firm's CEO, Henning Kagermann, said at the company's
Sapphire conference in Berlin yesterday that collaboration
represents a change in business practice. "Collaborative working is
the most important market transition going on in business.
"We have accelerated our efforts to work with our partners. The
primary reason is better service for our customers."
Kagermann said he expects collaboration with its business
partners and the development of joint ideas to see the company
through difficult economic conditions.
Quarter one of 2008 in America was "worse than expected," the
company said. Although there is still a high volume of
transactions, the size of the deals has been smaller as businesses
try to spend less money.
But Kagermann said that strong growth in Asia and Europe meant
SAP had been relatively untouched by cutbacks. "We have looked at
our expenses. We will make sure that we do not spend money where we
do not need to spend it," he said.
"We are in challenging economic times. But even in a tough
economic climate you have to innovate. To do that, we have got
hundreds of partners. The more people you have the greater the
ideas. Collaboration is a low-cost source of innovation."
The company announced new customer contracts, including deals
with the Metropolitan Police Force and Bayer Material Science.
About 9,000 delegates from 74 countries attended the conference
in Berlin.
