Enterprise software giant SAP has pointed to the strong performance of its SaaS cloud solutions as it released its results for the second quarter of 2021.
Its involvement in the customer experience space comes via a majority ownership of experience management firm Qualtrics, as well as its own offerings including a CRM solution.
The company said it expected cloud portfolio revenue, which includes Qualtrics and Customer Experience, to grow by 15-18% in the coming year, aiding overall cloud and software revenue to grow by between 2% and 3%.
The company’s recently launched holistic digital transformation offering, Rise with SAP, was another highlight, having seen strong demand and adoption.
“We’re seeing strong adoption of our cloud portfolio as customers select SAP for their business transformation,” said CEO Christian Klein. “Our strategy is working; This is the third straight quarter of strong execution, and we continue to deliver unparalleled customer value through the strength of our platform and applications.
SAP also said it was focusing on three non-financial indicators for the current year, including customer loyalty and employee engagement – as well as carbon emissions. Accordingly, it was aiming for a Customer Net Promoter Score between 5 and 10, compared with 4 in 2020, and an Employee Engagement Index between 84% and 86%.
“This has been another strong quarter with accelerating growth for SAP’s cloud portfolio. We saw excellent customer momentum and adoption and are raising our outlook for revenue and profit,” said Luka Mucic, CFO.
In an earnings call with investors, Mucic continued, saying: “After an excellent first quarter, our cloud transition gained even more momentum in the second quarter with growth accelerating across our cloud portfolio. […] Our total current cloud backlog continued its growth trend and accelerated sequentially to 20% growth, approaching €8bn. This was backed by a strong performance in Business Technology Platform, Business Process Intelligence, Qualtrics as well as customer experience.”
