Software AG: 50 million euros invested in HELIX plan, doubling the number of employees in China in the next two years

[51CTO.com original article] Recently, the enterprise software company Software AG held a media communication meeting in Beijing. Software AG President and CEO Mr. Sanjay Brahmawa and President of Asia Pacific and Japan Ms. Anneliese Schulz attended the meeting and accepted media interviews. At the meeting, Software AG officially announced its business expansion plan in China, including: hiring more local talents, building a strong partner ecosystem, and strengthening Software AG's market solution portfolio, especially the integrated solutions for enterprise applications, cloud, Internet of Things (IoT) devices and data.

Software AG's corporate strategy: HELIX

The reporter learned that this year marks the 50th anniversary of Software AG, which has entered China for 26 years and is headquartered in Germany. In the past five years, driven by the demand of various industries in Asia Pacific and Japan to accelerate digitalization and adopt new technology solutions, Software AG's business in the region has grown by 30% year-on-year. In 2018, Software AG achieved business revenue of 866 million euros. Currently, Software AG has more than 4,700 employees and is active in more than 70 countries and regions. Its software capabilities serve a variety of industries, mainly in the fields of manufacturing, logistics, engineering design, utilities, telecommunications and retail.

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Mr. Sanjay Brahmawa, President and CEO of Software AG

"In our 50-year history, we have undergone many changes and presented ourselves with a new look." Sanjay Brahmawa said: "Software AG's new corporate strategy is 'HELIX (spiral upward)'." The main meaning of this strategy is to build on the company's existing advantages, provide support to global customers, and provide value to customers, thereby making Software AG an industry-leading software supplier and achieving sustainable profitable growth.

To support the advancement of the multi-year transformation plan "HELIX", Software AG has pledged to provide a total of 50 million euros in financial support to invest in product development, human resources supply and ecosystem construction.

Redefine integration and help enterprises achieve digital transformation

China's digital economy is in an accelerated development stage. By 2022, more than 65% of GDP will come from the support and promotion of digital technology. According to IDC China's research, 40% of Chinese companies have embarked on the road of digital transformation, which will greatly promote the rapid development of many fields including IT, intelligent manufacturing, biomedicine, energy, environmental protection, and marine and aerospace.

Software AG is at the forefront of digital transformation, with solutions that combine leading business and IT design and planning capabilities in one collaborative approach to enable business growth and IT transformation.

Software AG has a rich product line, such as the integration technology webMethods, which is mainly used to connect and optimize various applications, the so-called API connection and hybrid integration. With webMethods, the problem of data source connection is solved. Another example is Cumulocity IoT, which is an open, independent, and device-independent platform that provides Terracotta and Apama, can support streaming data analysis and artificial intelligence applications, solve the problems of data analysis and business innovation, plug and play, and already supports more than 300 industry protocols. The pre-installed software has integrated more than 150 devices.

Sanjay Brahmawa said that relevant survey data showed that in the field of global digital transformation, integration and API is a 10.2 billion euro market, the potential market of IoT and analysis accounts for about 8 billion euros, and the market size of business transformation exceeds 2.4 billion euros. He believes that Software AG has a lot to do in this market of more than 24 billion euros.

Therefore, while Software AG continues to develop steadily based on its existing product and service portfolio, its new products will focus on the three major areas of integration and API, IoT and analytics, and business transformation. It will expand into the fastest-growing markets of North America, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, China, and Japan, serve key industries such as manufacturing, telecommunications, logistics and supply chain, and help industry users successfully achieve digital transformation.

The Chinese market is an important investment target market for Software AG, and the number of employees in China will double in the next two years.

In the 26 years since entering the Chinese market, Software AG not only owns dozens of large companies including China Aviation Industry Corporation, State Grid, Galaxy Securities, Longyan Tobacco, etc., but its customer network also covers a wide range of industries including finance and banking, manufacturing, energy and public utilities, and healthcare.

Sanjay Brahmawa told reporters that the Chinese market is a very important growth point for Software AG and an important investment target market for Software AG. Software AG's business in the Chinese market is growing at a rate of 30% per year. "We are very excited about the future development of China. In the next two years, Software AG's employees in China will double. There are about 1,000 employees in the Asia-Pacific region, all of whom can support Chinese customers."

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Anneliese Schulz, President of Asia Pacific and Japan, Software AG

Talking about the Chinese market, Anneliese Schulz said: "The Chinese market is both an opportunity and a challenge for our company. For me personally, the Chinese market is very interesting, mainly in three aspects: First, customers and partners are very willing to learn and actively learn. Second, I see that Chinese customers and partners are very active in innovation, and they also hope to achieve greater development and expand their business globally. Third, I see that Chinese companies have great enthusiasm and are willing to change, transform themselves, and achieve transformation." It is based on the above three points that Anneliese Schulz said that Software AG and China's economic development have the same opportunities to cooperate.

"In China, the key factor for foreign companies to succeed is strong cooperation." Anneliese Schulz pointed out that in building an ecosystem, Software AG mainly focuses on three types of partners: OEMs and distributors, system integrators, and growing companies.

In the interview, Anneliese Schulz also revealed: "Given that companies attach great importance to speed, agility and scalability, we are constantly strengthening our commitment to Chinese companies to help them meet the challenges of integrated technologies from applications to the edge, thereby driving the pace of innovation. By allowing Chinese companies to freely choose the most effective suppliers, partners and deployment solutions, we can help them seize new opportunities in the digital age and eliminate the barriers between their respective business ecosystems."

She emphasized that Software AG will continue to expand its partner network in China to better help customers accelerate innovation through integration, API, business transformation and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions.

Software AG launches "Freedom as a Service" concept, freedom also means HELIX

In addition, at this media communication meeting, Sanjay Brahmawa also introduced the company's development philosophy - "freedom as a service".

The freedom here mainly has two meanings: first, users have the right to freely choose technology, and do not need to lock in any manufacturer. Software AG can provide services. Second, technology can help users liberate data and let users use data freely, thus transforming data into value.

Why is "freedom" emphasized so much? Sanjay Brahmawa explained to reporters:

First and foremost, it’s what our customers want — for our software to integrate with everyone and everything, freely.

Second, it’s a demand from our partners. They want the freedom to trust alliances that don’t threaten their existing products and services.

Third, for the company team, freedom means there is no friction in collaboration across the organization - no barriers or dangers. This means employees are free to play roles, experience, take ownership, execute and pass on that knowledge and experience to customers.

Today, freedom also means HELIX for Software AG, which is the company's formula for sustainable profitability and growth over the years. All freedom as a service, offered as a subscription model with flexible delivery, is also part of the reason for Software AG's success.

[51CTO original article, please indicate the original author and source as 51CTO.com when reprinting on partner sites]