SAP revenue falls as cloud move picks up steam

Monday, 28 April 2014, 12:27 pm
Article: Digitl

Enterprise software giant SAP reported first quarter results that, like IBM, fell short of market expectations. However, the company says much of the revenue shortfall is down to currency, not poor sales.

Meanwhile SAP says its shift to the cloud is progressing with its software-as-a-service business growing profitably. Total revenue from cloud services is up 38 percent, although it is still relatively small only accounting for six percent of total revenue.

SAP was ahead of the enterprise computing old guard with its cloud investments. The company has tipped almost US$8 billion into buying up cloud businesses including paying more than US$4 billion for Aruba, a cloud-based business data specialist.

Nevertheless, like rivals Oracle, SAP faces challenges from cloud software companies eating in to its once lucrative core business.

SAP brought its cloud services to New Zealand last year. At the time the company, which in the past has mainly sold software to huge corporations, said it is now targeted smaller businesses with its cloud services.

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