HANA, Cloud Uptake Drive Record Q2 Revenues for SAP
SAP today announced its “best ever second quarter” based on software revenues that crossed the €1 billion mark, or an estimated $1.2 billion USD, as financial services and retail organizations snapped up the company's offerings and drove 60 percent of software revenue for the company.
Including its services, support and cloud divisions, the German enterprise software company generated a total of €3.89 billion ($4.7 billion) during Q2 2012, an 18 percent increase over the same quarter in 2011. Profit rose to €921 million or $1.1 billion, a 7 percent increase.
Co-CEOs Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe attribute SAP's financial health to gains in markets like cloud computing and Big Data analytics. “SAP stands apart in its ability to bring its customers innovations in cloud, mobile and in-memory computing on top of a proven, consistent and stable core,” they said in a company release.
HANA Momentum Builds
SAP said HANA, its in-memory analytics platform, racked up €85 million or $102.7 million in sales. HANA is currently on track to hit the €320 million or $386 million mark for the year, reported SAP.
It's a sign that SAP's Big Data efforts are paying off. Currently, the company is locked in a battle with Oracle's Exalytics for in-memory analytics market share. To help stave off the competition, SAP has been hard at work expanding the HANA ecosystem.
In April, the company announced new predictive modeling and advanced visualization software for HANA called BusinessObjects Predictive Analysis. Third parties are also getting into the act. Opera Solutions, a predictive analytics specialist, committed to bringing its Signal Hub tech to HANA during the SAPPHIRE Now conference in May.
This month, the company revealed new HANA incentive programs for its resellers and service partners to help maintain momentum for the platform. HANA has attracted 400 customers thus far, of which nearly half are operating “fully functional” projects that touch 70,000 end-users.
SuccessFactors Drives Cloud Optimism
Also paying off is SAP's $3.4 billion acquisition of SuccessFactors, a human capital management (HCM) cloud services provider.
Twelve-month SuccessFactors subscription billings — new and upsell — are up 112 percent year-over-year. SAP forecasts that full-year non-IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) software and software-related service revenue will grow by 10 percent to 12 percent above 2011's €11.35 billion or $13.7 billion. That outlook includes a two percentage point contribution by SuccessFactors, SAP said.
All told, the software maker reported that cloud revenue for the quarter reached €69 million or $83.3 million.
Pedro Hernandez is a contributing editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals. Follow him on Twitter @ecoINSITE.
Pedro Hernandez contributes to Enterprise Apps Today, and 11Press, the technology network. He was previously the managing editor of Internet.com, an IT-related website network. He has expertise in Smart Tech, CRM, and Mobile Tech, Helping Banks and Fintechs, Telcos and Automotive OEMs, and Healthcare and Identity Service Providers to Protect Mobile Apps.
