Net income for the Walldorf-based company rose to $254m during the quarter against overall revenue of $1.7bn, also up 11%.
Software license revenue rose 17% to $434m. SAP’s mainstay ERP suite led the way with sales of $174m for the quarter, an increase of 12% from a year ago. SAP’s supply chain management business was also up a healthy 9%.
Sales in the US were strong, spiking 27% during the quarter and driven by key wins over it nearest applications rival Oracle. Sales for the US totaled $131m.
EMEA revenue, to the surprise of some financial analysts, also jumped 6% to $926m, driven by larger volume of smaller deals and steadily growing sales in the SMB market. Curiously SAP’s home market of Germany experienced a slight decline of 2%. SAP blamed high unemployment rates and a soft economy.
SAP says its Safe Passage maintenance program, which targets nervous PeopleSoft and JD Edwards customers, has also been well received, though officials declined to say how many had signed-up to date.
PeopleSoft bought JD Edwards in 2003 and was itself subsequently acquired up by Oracle a year later in a deal worth $10.3bn.
Despite losing out to rival software maker Oracle in a bidding war for Retek last month, sales to retail customers remained steadfast. SAP also benefited from a $25m break-up fee, which boosted profit lines.
The numbers speak for themselves, said SAP chief executive Henning Kagermann who said the company was off to a great start in 2005.
He expects to see growth of between 10 to 12% year-on-year growth in 2005. Kagermann still has concerns over what he called a tough price environment.
Nevertheless SAP’s numbers will alleviate concerns of industry-wide slowdown in the sector following a slew of recent profit warnings by software vendors like Siebel Systems.
