Brazil becomes one of the five priority markets for SAP
Valor Econômico
Placing Brazil in the list of the five countries with best performance in its global results is among the SAP priorities for the next three years. "We chose the country to be, maybe, the most strategic destination looking at the future of SAP", told Valor Bill McDermott, global operations officer of the German company that develops management systems for companies. That is not surprising. In the quarterly result of the company disclosed yesterday, the country was the only one in Latin America - and one of the few in the world - to have increase in the earnings with software and services between the third quarter of 2009 and the same period of last year (7%), which took place in a moment of stabilization of the world economy. Brazil is already among the 10 countries of greatest relevance for SAP at the global level. This position, added to the fact the impact of the economic crisis was not so intense in the country than in many other important markets for SAP, strengthen the local plans of the company.
It does not mean, however, that it will be an easy game. SAP has a large number of products and the structure required for taking the actions that require great financial strength, but it has a complex mission ahead. Many companies see the SAP software as accessible only to large corporations, either because of the complexity of the systems or due to their price. This is the view SAP will have to change in order to achieve its goals. "We have products that meet the needs of large-, medium- and small-sized companies", says McDermott. According to him, today 70% of the 2.5 thousand clients of the company in Brazil are already of medium and small sizes.
As SAP sees it, medium-sized companies are those with nearly 500 employees, but in Brazil this category includes companies with up to 100 employees, on the average, depending on the activity. Nonetheless, SAP sees conditions to gain some share in this market. "We already implemented SAP programs in a company with 50 employees", said Frederico Vilar, regional manager of Neoris, a company specialized in the installation of systems of the multinational company.
According to Fernando Meirelles, professor of the Getúlio Vargas Foundation of São Paulo (FGV-SP), a real great work still has to be done in order to change the image the market has of SAP: a heavy and expensive system. "If you take the one thousand biggest companies of the country, SAP's participation is nearly 70%. In the market in general, however, it is 23%", he compares. According to the survey made by Meirelles every year, the Brazilian company Totvs is the leader of the local market, with a 39% market share,