Opportunities in Brazil are expanding as access to cloud services drives new market segments. In fact, according to BNamericas, licensed software revenue experienced an increase of 33 percent in 2013. The nation now represents SAP’s (News - Alert) third largest market as cloud subscribers increase and the company’s in-memory platform, HANA, becomes more attractive for the average user.
SAP focused on geographic expansion in Brazil, taking its offerings to northeastern, midwestern, southern and Sao Paulo state regions. Urban centers are also attractive as the demand for access to next-generation solutions is rapidly growing among businesses. SAP’s SME solution, Business One, also enjoyed 70 percent growth.
As Brazil continues to represent significant opportunity, SAP is also enjoying healthy demand in the Southern Cone. Revenue for software increase 25 percent in Chile and 26 percent in Argentina. HANA is enjoying strong demand in both areas and cloud solutions continue to garner new and profitable attention.
While this news is certainly good for SAP stakeholders, it also signals a growing trend among providers throughout the world. Launching new operations generally had geographical boundaries; company leaders had to select locations based on the available infrastructure. The availability of the cloud changed this reality and eliminated the barriers that once existed. As long as users have access to the Internet, they can have access to anything they need to run the business, including hosted phone systems.
Users with an Internet connection can leverage office suite software, customer relationship management platforms, enterprise resource planning solutions, file sharing, hosted phone systems, billing, payroll, contact center operations, search appliances, workforce management, salesforce automation and so much more, all without the deployment of a data center, network or even a physical location.
This kind of access is removing the barriers to entry for a number of different entrepreneurs and industries. The cost for operational launch is drastically reduced and newly developed ideas can emerge on the market much faster than in the past. The competitive playing field is leveled and opportunities are no longer relegated to the large enterprise.
Still, countries do need to have the infrastructure in place to at least enable high speed connections so companies can gain access to these solutions they need to be competitive. Fortunately, they no longer have to do so at a cost that keeps viable players out of the game.
Edited by Alisen Downey