SAP says sees strong momentum, keeps outlook

FRANKFURT, April 25 (Reuters) - SAP, the world's biggest maker of business software, said it saw strong momentum for its main products and kept its full-year outlook after reporting a 10 percent jump in first-quarter net profit to 583 million euros ($769.7 million).

SAP said on Wednesday it still expects 2012 operating profit will rise to 5.05-5.25 billion euros at constant currencies from a 40-year record level of 4.71 billion in 2011.

"We see strong momentum for our flagship in-memory platform SAP Hana, our cloud and mobile solutions, and our core applications and analytics products," SAP's co-Chief Executives Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe said.

Second-quarter software revenue growth is seen at 15-20 percent at constant currencies and software and software-related service revenue growth is anticipated in a 14-16 percent range.

SAP, based in Walldorf near Heidelberg, built its business on large, integrated software systems sold to many of the world's biggest companies, such as Apple, GE, McDonald's and Pepsi.

SAP competes with Oracle but also with IBM, which has been shifting its focus from hardware to higher-margin services and software over the past decade.

IBM said last week its software business - it's largest segment - had a strong quarter with revenue of $5.6 billion, up 5 percent.