Change in the addressable market and SAP’s strategy over the years

• Started as software application provider. First offering R/1 aimed at automating companies, accounting functions• As the Internet evolved over 1995-2002,company enhanced its offerings,

pursued small and medium sized enterprises(SME) market.

• Post 2002, embraced open architecture strategy by converting SAP from a software application provider to an open-standard based platform

• Aimed at expanding the addressable market from $30 bn to $70 bn. Targetted mid-market as a major segment in its growth strategy

• Post 2010, company developed an articulated strategy of transitioning to the cloud and application development (SAP HANA)

• Focus on product portfolio across 5 market categories: applications, business analytics, database and technology, mobile and the cloud

• Aggressive acquisition strategy to focus on faster innovation cycles ( Acquired Sybase for $5.8bn, SuccessFactors for $3.4 bn, Ariba for $4.3 bn)

Key learnings

• How a very successful company which is already at no.1 in its highly competitive market generate a continued profitable growth in the years to come.

• Despite being a market leader, there’s a scope to innovate and grow.

• SAP’s ambitious growth targets. Strategic innovation created and introduced in the market by SAP over the years to achieve those targets

• Evaluating options of implementing cloud platform ( Own, outsource, or own private cloud and outsource public)