Dropulić: Unfulfilled contracts between the state and large corporations have resonated poorly

– The public sector in Croatia must understand that in collaboration with business, the rules of business apply and that agreements and a handshake mean a lot, rather than contracts signed by the state with large global companies never being fulfilled – emphasized Igor Dropulić, director of SAP Croatia, at the end of his opening speech, kicking off the business segment of the SAP World Tour, a conference organized by SAP, the largest software producer for integrated transactional solutions in the economy.

Dropulić was critical, as we unofficially learned shortly before his opening speech, regarding the failure to meet obligations under the contract for the development of the hospital information system, as well as the signed contract for the delivery of SAP solutions for public administration at a very favorable price, which was canceled due to the Public Procurement Act. Dropulić is also angry about the lack of decisions made before and several months after the elections, which has slowed down IT investments in state companies. He criticized the state for four amendments to the Public Procurement Act in just two years.

Otherwise, Dropulić dedicated a large part of his presentation to explaining why we need reforms in the state and public administration right now, but he also ‘accounted’ for his work at the helm of the Croatian branch of SAP. He compared the announced goals of his company for 2010 with what has been achieved so far. SAP’s goal is to capture more than 35 percent of the ERP software market in Croatia by 2010 and to have more than 200 users, with revenue growth from licenses exceeding 20 percent. According to the current state, as Dropulić noted, SAP holds more than 30 percent of the market, has 127 users, but due to the ‘slow’ past election year, the overall results will not be as expected, but will be at the level of 2006, which was a record business year for SAP Croatia. (Igor Škevin)