SAP News

Telecoms and Software News: "In an interview in today's Financial Times Germany, Klaus Zimmer, head of SAP in Asia, has detailed plans for software development in China. A new laboratory in Shanghai will open at the end of March, with an initial staff of 500. By year-end, it will increase its workforce to 1,000 and expand it further to 1,500 at a later stage. In addition, a new SAP research centre with 100 staff will be opened in Chengdu, West China, this month. Comment: At the beginning of this year, CEO Henning Kagermann announced that SAP will expand its development capacities in China and Eastern Europe. Though SAP currently employs almost 1,000 people in China, the majority work in sales, and the number of developers is still in the lower three-digit range. This move will increase that number significantly. The 1,100 new jobs represent 31% of the 3,500 positions SAP wants to create globally in 2006. China will replace Israel as SAP's fourth-largest research hub, after Germany, India and the US."