SAP targets quasi-monopoly

Europe’s largest software producer, German company SAP, was officially announcing the launch of its Romanian subsidiary several months ago. What has happened ever since and how does this company see the market of electronic enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions? Valentin Tomsa, the manager of SAP Romania, provided answers to these questions for Ziarul Financiar.
SAP Romania was established in May 2002. SAP had been represented in Romania by its partners – Integrator, Plaut, IBM and Siemens Business Services since 1995.
The company has managed to conclude two major contracts after setting up its branch in Romania, gaining Sidex and Electrica as clients.
“We signed a deal with Sidex to introduce SAP’s management solutions, which contract includes 450 licences for the time being. It will later be expanded to 3,000 licences,” Tomsa specified.
The contract is worth more than $1 million in licences alone, in addition to the consulting and technical support services, which are usually more expensive than the licences, the official explains. Counselling for the introduction of the new system will be provided by a consortium comprising several companies, especially multinationals operating in Romania.
The contract with Electrica is valid for three years, with the implementation of the ERP system developed by the German company including 2,500 licences.
SAP’s systems in Romania are used by 47 multinational companies, such as Holcim, Heidelberg, Danone, Alcatel, Xerox, Pirelli, Metro, Selgros and Allianz. “We hope Renault will decide to implement SAP in Romania this year,” Valentin Tomsa added.
SAP Romania set out to attain more than $4 million turnover in 2003. “Our next goal is to double turnover every year. We want to gain as big a slice of the ERP market as possible. We want to account for 50% of this market in Romania in three years’ time,” Tomsa said.
SAP’s main competitor on the Romanian market is Oracle. “Oracle is more powerful in Romania because it has a bigger market share than it does worldwide,” Tomsa concluded.