SAP to tap Hungarian talent

Germany-based business software maker SAP said Thursday that it will open a new research and development facility in Budapest, Hungary, by May of this year. This is the second SAP lab in the East European bloc countries, after the first in Sofia, Bulgaria.

The Budapest facility will have an initial head count of 50, but the staff strength will go up to 300 software developers by the end of 2006, SAP said. The R&D center, which will focus on research into supply chain management products, will be under Albrecht Diener, senior vice president and head of Supply Chain Development at SAP. Laure Le Bars will run the center as its managing director.