SAP has doubled its customer base in India from 1,000 to 2,000 over the last one year. Markets in India and China will play a key role in its drive to sign up 100,000 customers by 2010, the company said Tuesday.

The company's entire executive board, including Henning Kagermann, CEO and chairman of the executive board, is currently visiting India, reflecting the rising importance of the country to SAP as a market and a center for technology development and support services, the company said.

On a previous visit to India, Kagermann had shown interest in working with Indian outsourcers both for their skills and the lower costs they offer to customers.

Last year, SAP announced that it would invest $1 billion in India by 2010, primarily in its offshore development and services and support hub in the country.

SAP Labs India is currently the company's largest research and development and support operation outside Germany. While its Bangalore operations focus on product development, a new facility in Gurgaon near Delhi focuses on global service and support.

The company also announced Tuesday that Indian outsourcer Wipro will become an SAP global services partner and will establish a solutions lab in Bangalore to showcase the benefits of enterprise SOA.