Germany’s SAP, the world’s largest maker of business software, offered a glimmer of hope that companies may again be investing in information technology when it said software sales last year were not as sluggish as expected.

The Walldorf-based group said sales of software and related services like subscriptions for web-based computer applications decreased only 5 per cent to €8.2bn in 2009, outperforming a drop of 6-8 per cent forecast in October.

SAP’s preliminary full-year result was a second piece of good news for the IT-industry – a bellwether of confidence in corporate boardrooms – after US business software maker Oracle posted a surprise increase in sales last month.

Both companies were hit hard when corporate clients slashed software spending as financial crisis tipped into global recession at the end of 2008, and only three months ago SAP was still cautioning that the market remained tough.

Source: FT