Is Business Objects an Opportunity in Emerging Markets like Central Eastern Europe?

The economic downturn is altering the nature of demand for software solutions in CEE (Central Eastern Europe), leapfrogging mature markets. Early last year BI was a marginalized topic in CEE, and everyone was focused on functionality creation and systems construction. Only the very IT intensive sectors like telecom and financial services in the more mature CEE countries were playing with BI tools, but there was a very limited market opportunity for the SI community, as many end users were working at those tools by themselves, independently.

Once the economic crisis settled in, many of the SAP development projects in CEE were put on hold, or even substantial budget de-allocation occurred, e.g. in Russia. Since beginning of the year – and just as valid as my post – a visible shift in demand emerged among many SAP installed customers. Now the focus is on understanding the existing operations and getting quick answers about the critical operational parameters and customers. Essentially, better data visibility. Now, BI and analytics are definitely a hot areas these days in CEE, while one year ago such a topic was considered only as a luxury in many IT environments.

Local SAP offices in CEE have high hopes to leverage depressed demand for classic ERP with Business Objects in the near term. Actually certain CEE markets have seen a spike in the BO business since November-December, while since March interest in BI has become mainstream across the key countries in CEE.

I am PAC's lead analyst for the SAP Services market in CEE, and would love to hear your take... as SAP customers considering roll-outs in CEE, as well as IT services suppliers trying to expand and improve on this market. So please, leave your thoughts & feedback!