Sindhu Gangadharan has been a lifer with SAP, starting in Bangalore 24 years ago. She spent 18 years in SAP Labs headquarters in Germany before coming back to head Indian operations. Nearly 87% of world’s business transactions touch a SAP system and 99 of the world’s top 100 companies run on SAP.
In July 2022, SAP Labs India emerged as SAP’s largest R&D centre globally with over 15,000 people. It is the only location that houses the entire portfolio, including Cloud ERP, Human Experience Management, Concur, Product Footprint Management and Business Technology Platform.
“What I am really focused on is deepening collaboration between India and Germany. That is at the core of what I am doing,” says Gangadharan. Both countries are focusing on digitisation, supply chain resilience, green tech and exchange of skilled workforce. She takes pride in the fact that 40% of SAP’s global R&D workforce is based out of India. SAP Labs India is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Much of that is happening due to three things—innovation ecosystem in India, availability of talent (2.5 million professionals working on software product engineering) and Union government’s focus on ‘digital first’. Gangadharan says 16% of the world’s AI talent comes out of India, which makes it among the top three nations in the field. To cater to the rise in business, SAP is opening its second campus in Bangalore. — Anup Jayaram