"There was a contract we were expecting to close in this period with a central government department, but it was delayed."

SAP also reported strong growth in its cloud business, where 12 months new and upsell subscription billings increased fourteenfold. Even when including SuccessFactors in SAP's 2011 numbers, the growth is 116 percent.

Dramatic growth rates are easy when you start from a low base, but Cohen detailed direct customer numbers, to Computerworld UK. "The cloud business is going very well, even though we had a modest starting point in Europe because SuccessFactors was much more of a presence in US," he said. "However, we signed over 50 new cloud contracts with businesses in Europe this quarter."