18 April 2002 German software giant SAP has delivered robust revenue growth in its latest financial quarter, fuelled by a strong performance from its consulting arm. However, software license sales disappointed.
The company’s revenues for its first quarter of 2002 increased to €1.66 billion, a healthy 9% increase on the same quarter a year ago. Consulting fees of €539 million were up 18% year-on-year.
But SAP’s software licence sales were disappointing. Licence revenues fell 12% to €402 million, compared to €458 million in the first quarter of 2001. SAP CEO Hasso Plattner talked up the company’s performance, despite the “challenging environment”. Unlike most other technology vendors, SAP had also increased its staff numbers by 3% over the previous year, said Plattner.
SAP cited a drive towards the small and medium-sized business (SMB) sector and an extension of its web services strategy as particular highlights of its latest quarter.
Company executives said SAP was introducing a new application for “advanced” SMBs. This product – based on the technology from its TopManage Financial Solutions acquisition earlier in the quarter – will require less “sophisticated individualization”, compared to other IT products used by SMBs, they said.
In addition, SAP said that it had extended the integration of its business application software suite mySAP.com with web services software from third-party vendors.
