SAP to Eliminate Nearly 80 Jobs in Canada As Part of Restructuring

German software maker SAP AG’s restructuring plan, announced in January this year, will end up eliminating around 80 jobs in Canada.

SAP will lay off 64 employees in Ontario and 15 in Quebec, reported IT World Canada, citing unnamed sources.

Most of the jobs facing the axe are at the company’s research and development (R&D) units servicing the clients using the company’s ERP software.

Few more jobs may be lost in British Columbia, stated the news portal.

The German multinational is restructuring its business after many of its clients started choosing cloud software rather than on-premise applications.

The restructuring, according to SAP, will help the company save up to US$1.28 billion annually from 2020 onward.

But it will also lead to elimination of more than 4,000 jobs across its offices worldwide. Canada will be hurt least, because at the time of announcing the restructuring program, SAP officials said that most of the jobs on the chopping block are in the United States and Germany.

There are more than 3,000 Canadians working for SAP. Last year, when it launched a new delivery center in Toronto, the company said it had planned to invest CAD$550 million in the country annually to consolidate its operations.

SAP will also hire new employees as part of the same restructuring program. However, employees dealing with the company’s on-premise software are at the risk of losing jobs but engineers with expertise in cloud technology may see their future brightened in the company.