SAP Africa has announced the appointment of Lawrence Kandaswami as Managing Director of its South African business.

Kandaswami has amassed nearly two decades of management experience having served in senior positions within other blue chip South African organisations including De Beers and Business Objects.

"Kandaswami joined SAP South Africa in 2008 and was most recently the Head of SAP South Africa's Public Sector organisation. 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," detailed SAP in its announcement.

Kandaswami says he has been appointed at an exciting time as the company spearheads digital transformation and its innovation agenda in Africa's most advanced economy.

"Despite these challenging economic times, SAP is enabling its customers to simplify so they can operate more efficiently and simultaneously innovate, so they remain 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 and its world-class applications and analytics - so they can reimagine how they create and maintain value," Kandaswami explained.

Brett Parker, SAP Africa CEO, added, "We are delighted that Lawrence has taken on this important role at SAP Africa. He will be responsible for executing SAP's South Africa strategy and his proven track record of leadership and business acumen will greatly benefit SAP customers, partners and employees in South Africa as one of our key African markets. I am confident that Lawrence will effectively drive our regional efforts to fulfil SAP's vision of improving people's lives by partnering with our customers to implement SAP solutions."