JOHANNESBURG – SYSTEMS Applications Products (SAP) Africa has announced the appointment of Lawrence Kandaswami as Managing Director of its South African business.

He moves up from his position as Head of SAP South Africa’s Public Sector

organisation.

Kandaswami will be responsible for executing SAP’s South Africa strategy with his proven track record of leadership and business acumen expected to benefit SAP customers, partners and employees in South Africa as one of the company’s key African markets.

“It is an exciting time to become the leader of an organization that is spearheading Digital Transformation and the innovation agenda in Africa’s most advanced economy,” said Kandaswami.

He said despite challenging economic times, SAP was enabling its customers to simplify so they can operate more efficiently and simultaneously innovate, so they remained relevant and competitive in a dynamic Digital Economy.

“Success for SAP is about helping our customers effectively exploit the power of our Digital Data Platform – SAP HANA(r) and its world-class applications and analytics – so they can reimagine how they create and maintain value,” said Kandaswami.

Brett Parker, SAP Africa Chief Executive Officer, expressed delight with the appointment.

 “We are delighted that Lawrence has taken on this important role at SAP Africa.  I am confident that Lawrence will effectively drive our regional efforts to fulfil SAP’s vision of improving peoples’ lives by partnering with our customers to implement SAP solutions that beat complexity to run simple, to run digital and to run better.”

During his SAP tenure, he has held various leadership roles in the areas of Consulting, Presales, Strategic Customer Sales, Platform Solutions, Group Sales and Business Analytics.

Kandaswami, who joined SAP in 2008, brings to the role almost two decades of management experience, having held senior positions in various blue chip South African organisations including De Beers and BusinessObjects.

SAP Africa is the continental entity of SAP, the Germany-headquartered multinational software corporation.