SAP needs ‘thriving’ British businesses for success

The UK is a top priority for SAP, which said it could not achieve its global objectives without committing and innovating towards a thriving British enterprise market.

This was according to member of the SAP executive board Bill McDermott, speaking at the SAP World Tour in Birmingham.

He said that UK and Ireland was a real "beacon" for success at SAP, one of the biggest business software firms in the world.

McDermott also claimed that 70 per cent of the world's transactions were run by SAP, and that the company's job was to add value to their customer relationships in every geographic theatre.

He said: "We can contribute to the health of economies in every theatre of the world, and it's all about that enduring value creation."

UK managing director for SAP Tim Noble, who had recently been hired from analyst firm Gartner, said that one of his job requirements was to make sure SAP were listening to their customers and their business requirements.

He said: "The number of requests that I've had for meetings with CEOs and CFOs from the largest companies in the UK... my poor assistant has been inundated."

Noble said another one of his jobs was to make sure that SAP UK and Ireland were doing what they had been asked to do by customers.

"It's a huge operation in the UK - massive," Noble added.