China is now SAP’s second home, where it is deploying world-leading innovation

President Xi Jinping is a big believer in the “Chinese Dream”, the great dream by which China’s 1.3 billion people can achieve better livelihoods and national rejuvenation by assiduously working together. As world's largest business software maker, SAP has been partnering with the Chinese people to achieve this great dream.

Whenever I visit China, I am always impressed at the pace of progress. China’s businesses have rapidly adopted new technologies. Since they are not dragged down by outdated digital infrastructure, they often leapfrog global competition. Mobile technology innovation in China is state-of-the-art. Some of the savviest retail marketing worldwide can be seen in Chinese cities like Shanghai and Beijing.

Technology increases China’s capacity to achieve the “Chinese Dream.” We at SAP know it because we have been in the technology business for more than four decades. SAP is the world’s biggest business software maker. Using powerful in-memory technology, advanced analytics, and the creative ideas from our strong development team, we make business around the world run better. With more than 66,500 employees in more than 130 countries, SAP has 253,000 customers in more than 188 countries, which translates to millions of end-users. More than 80% of Fortune 500 companies in the world run SAP.

During its 22 years in China, SAP has had very close and successful co-operation with Chinese companies. We have offices in more than 12 major cities. Our 11,600 customers range from big enterprises like China Petrochemicals, Agricultural Bank of China and Huawei to small and mid-size enterprises (SMEs) in urban and rural areas. These SMEs constitute 74% of our customer base.

We have made some impressive progress with our Chinese customers. For example, SAP helped Sinopec Group to achieve up to 10 times the speed of data loading, accelerating 100 times near real-time reporting capabilities. The Agricultural Bank of China, one of the four state-owned banks, has chosen SAP Sybase ASE and IQ to support collaborative development across its various branches. With the help of SAP, Agricultural Bank of China will build an advanced IT platform in order to establish a diverse portfolio and extensive distribution network. The list goes on. While helping Chinese enterprises to achieve their goals, SAP itself is constantly growing in China: we have come to see China as our second home.

China has provided SAP a broad playing field across our lines of business. According to the Chinese government, an important strategy in achieving the Chinese dream is to use advanced Internet technologies to greatly enhance workforce productivity and efficiency without wasting energy and polluting the environment. In this way, the Chinese dream becomes green and sustainable.

Having developed some of world's most advanced technology like our HANA in-memory platform for Big Data analytics, SAP can help China build a sustainable economy while helping China’s enterprises succeed globally. Big Data and mobile technology are quickly revolutionizing everything from how banks monitor fraud to how retailers manage their inventory to how consumer giants run their global supply chain. Chinese companies like Lenovo and Nongfu Spring have rapidly adopted SAP HANA to work with Big Data and achieved stellar outcomes.

Today SAP is developing important software in China for use by the Chinese market first. We will then market it worldwide. We have built world-class development labs in China, we are partnering with leading Chinese universities and recruiting their brightest talents. It is a win-win business for us.

In a way, the Chinese dream is not only for the well-being of 1.3 billion Chinese nationals, but also for the benefit of people around the world. SAP and many of our customers have realized the fact that the world has become smaller and economies have become more tightly interdependent than ever before. "One World, One Dream" was the slogan used in the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008.Hand in hand with the Chinese people, we at SAP are working to realize our dream together.

Bill McDermott is co-CEO of business software company SAP AG.