EUROPE'S HIGH-TECH HEAVY

We want to be the standard business platform on which our customers run their software, and be market leader the same way we are market leader in business applications. The crucial requirement is that the platform be open for customers to run other vendors' applications as well. We don't want to put the customer in a cage where he can only run our software; we're not afraid to compete over performance.

What will business software allow me to do in five or 10 years?

You will save time. Today, 17 or 18 percent of work time is still spent entering or finding data, filling out forms, exchanging information over the telephone. Much of that can be automated. You will no longer have to set up a meeting and bother 10 people and spend three hours, just to realize that a certain problem had already been solved a certain way before. Second, we will avoid even more human intervention; people are always the bottleneck. Embedded systems like RFID [radio frequency identification] chips will make it possible for things to identify themselves and pass on information. Humans will no longer have to tear open cartons or count shipping pallets; the entire supply chain will be automated. We have the first wave of automation behind us, where what used to take a week from order to delivery now takes 24 hours. There will be a second wave.

Growth, profits and IT spending are up. What kind of recovery is SAP seeing?

After two years of decline, the market is finally growing again. But we're not seeing a return to the growth rates of four, five years ago. Customers are more sensitive to the return on IT investment and don't want to see a new technological wave every year or two. The industry is now capable of introducing new technology in an additive manner instead of [asking customers] to throw all their old investments overboard.

© 2004