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German software firm SAP raised its revenue forecasts for the full year on Thursday, after sales of its cloud computing products and its bottom line swelled in the second quarter.
The Walldorf-based firm reported net profits of €720m between April and June, up 8.0% year-on-year.
Operating, or underlying profits grew 13%, to €1.04bn, on the back of revenues up 4.0% at 6.0 billion.
Of those revenues, sales of SAP's cloud computing services - where customers pay a regular subscription fee to store and process their data on its computers, unlike its traditional one-off software sales business - remained the star of the group's show, adding 30% to reach €1.2bn.
Oracle competitor SAP also completed in April its acquisition of Californian firm Callidus Software, which makes customer relationship management (CRM) tools - the first outside firm it had snapped up in three-and-a-half years.
The group's profits had paled in recent quarters as it invested in pumping up its cloud business.
But now, "we are increasing guidance as a signal that a new wave of growth has been unleashed," chief executive Bill McDermott said in a statement.
Using non-IFRS accounting standards - which exclude certain costs - the group expects to increase overall currency-adjusted revenue by between 6.0% and 7.5%, to between €24.98bn and €25.3bn.
Still in currency-adjusted terms, net profits should increase between 9.0% and 11%, to between €7.4bn and €7.5bn, the firm said.
