SAP still not a force in cloud after sales cash drizzle

German software maker SAP AG is facing an uphill battle to become a force in the cloud market after revealing subscription-based sales amounted to just €29m (£23.7m) in Q1.

This represents year-on-year growth of 625 per cent on the opening three months of 2011 but that's clearly from a minuscule base.

Total revenues were up eight per cent in constant currency to €3.35bn (£2.7bn) including a modest one per cent rise in traditional software sales to €637m, but software and related services fared better, up ten per cent to €2.62bn (£2.1bn).

The firm said it "moved swiftly" to overcome sales execution issues in North America where sales where it "saw a weaker performance than expected" and added that some European markets "started slower".

The HANA push - a platform of software and partner hardware - contributed €28m, and mobile added €21m.

The SuccessFactors acquisition, on a standalone basis, saw a 69 per cent year-on-year spike in Q1 billings from new biz customers, SAP said.

“We see strong momentum for our flagship in-memory platform SAP HANA, our cloud and mobile solutions, and our core applications and analytics products,” said SAP joint CEOs Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe in a statement.

"SAP continues to help companies run like never before – helping to solve fundamental business challenges with unmatched industry expertise," they added. ®