SAP counts up to 90 percent of China's biggest companies, most of them formerly state-owned, among its clients, including oil giant CNOOC Ltd and steel maker Baosteel Iron & Steel Co Ltd, Klaus Zimmer, SAP's Greater China head, said in a phone interview.
The world's biggest maker of business software hopes to keep expanding its market share by pursuing more smaller and mid-sized customers that now do much of their buying from home-grown companies like Kingdee
"In Asia, China is among our top three markets, behind Japan and catching up or nearly on par with Australia," Zimmer said. "It could pass Australia, possibly next year."
The revenue of SAP in China rose 42 percent last year and expected to come close to that in 2005, compared with a rate of 12-13 percent for the wider market in enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for the next five years, Zimmer said citing industry data.
China's ERP market is expected to be worth $346 million this year and is forecast to hit $386 million in 2006, according to International Data Corp.
Zimmer conceded the growth rate could slow next year as SAP picked up market share, which he estimated at about a third for its core products that help enterprises manage their business.
"It will slow down for us, but it will be a stable double-digit growth rate the next couple of years," he said. "I'm not sure what it will be next year, but we can definitely double the predicted market rate."
China is one of the world's fastest growing software markets, worth about $20 billion in 2003, according to official data.
The broader Asia region accounted for about 14 percent of SAP's 590 million euros ($696.1 million) in global software revenue in the third quarter, with regional sales up 18 percent from a year earlier.
SAP, which competes in China with the likes of US software giant Oracle Corp, is among a growing number of software makers looking to China not only as a place to sell, but also one to design software as they tap into its low costs and relatively skilled workers.
The company now employs about 1,000 people in the market, up from just 100 three years ago. It is in the process of staffing a new software design centre in Shanghai, which now has 300 people but is designed for up to 1,000.