A sharp drop in business confidence is a hallmark of any recession, helping to deepen the downward cycle as businesses put off spending on everything from technology to inventory. As a result, businesses that cater to other businesses are often among the hardest hit, especially if they don’t offer a staple product required to keep the doors open.

The flipside of that coin is that business services and technology companies are often some of the first to bounce back, as their corporate clients release pent up spending demand in a recovering economy.

Between 2008 and the first half of this year, Credit Suisse estimates that corporate investment fell by nearly 6 percent across Europe, with a 3.5 percent decline in the euro zone. In fact, in the second quarter when the euro zone gross domestic product (GDP) managed to gain 0.3 percent, corporate investment remained negative on a year-over-year basis. Overall, net investment accounted for just 2 percent of GDP.

But there are indications that a turn is coming, after a European Commission index that tracks business sentiment hit a two-year high last month. Granted, it is coming off an extremely low base, but positive is positive.

Interest rates are also falling, with investors no longer punishing the European bond market and European governments backing off their austerity push. Bank rates are also generally on the decline—the average interest rate on bank loans has fallen from nearly 7 percent in 2008 to about 3.2 percent today. Lenders appear to have gotten a better handle on the economic situation.

It will likely take several quarters for business spending to recover, but it won’t hit pre-recession levels any time soon.

Conditions are right for an uptick in corporate investment. That’s particularly true when it comes to technology, because most business will remain committed to doing more with less to shore up profits.

German technology company SAP (NYSE: SAP) will be a major beneficiary of these trends.

SAP’s main business is the development and marketing of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, which is used to automate tasks, ensure the smooth flow of information among divisions, and expedite functions such as accounting, manufacturing and research and development. It also standardizes processes and, ideally, improves both internal and external client relationships.

The ERP market is highly competitive, with SAP going head-to-head with companies such as Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) and Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM).

But SAP has some aces in its hand, most notably its HANA system and its recent entry into the cloud computing space.

HANA relies on in-memory databases, allowing for real-time access to business data rather than forcing employees to review time-consuming batch reports. As a result, analytic work can be accomplished much more quickly, allowing for faster decision times, a factor to which ERP clients are increasingly sensitive.

HANA has become the cornerstone of SAP’s software-as-a-service (SAS) business, with revenue from the platform growing by more than 18 percent in the most recent quarter to about EUR102 million. The clip of HANA’s revenue growth should continue to increase in coming quarters, as SAP offers more pre-built solutions that accommodate the platform and don’t require high levels of customization.

SAP has also been aggressively pushing into the cloud computing space, acquiring two companies last year to bolster its technology. SAP in August also acquired Hybris, a Swiss e-commerce technology company, to expand its technology portfolio in the mobile, cloud and e-commerce areas.

In the second quarter, SAP’s revenues grew by 8 percent year-over-year to EUR4.1 billion. Support revenues were up 11 percent, software and related services grew 10 percent, and software and cloud subscription revenues grew 7 percent.

That growth was stronger than generally expected, with earnings per share (EPS) of EUR0.73 beating analyst expectations of about EUR0.70.

The Americas were the company’s highest performing region, with 18 percent sales growth. Latin America in particular was one of the biggest contributors, as businesses there continue to mature and adopt new technology.

Europe remained a relative drag, with the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region growing by just 3 percent. The biggest problem was the Asia-Pacific market, where sales were down 7 percent, largely due to the macroeconomic challenges in China.

I expect SAP’s financial performance to strengthen in the coming quarters, thanks to both the stabilization in China and Europe’s nascent economic recovery. That outlook is helped by the fact that the company is continuing to improve and expand its technologic offerings, broadening the array of solutions it can offer clients and solidifying its competitive position.

The consensus analyst estimate looks for EPS of EUR3.50 this year, more than 47 percent growth on a year-over-year basis. The current estimate for 2014 is for EPS of EUR3.96, but I believe earnings growth of just 13 percent is overly pessimistic, particularly as SAP expands its distribution network through strategic partnerships with companies such as the India-based IT company Wipro (NYSE: WIT).

At this point, the most significant potential danger is that rather than improving, economic conditions in Europe or China continue to deteriorate. But steady (albeit slow) growth in the US is helping to pull both regions up by the bootstraps, not only in terms of spending but also as the US Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing allows money to flow into potentially higher yielding investments.

A good bet on a rebound in business spending, SAP rates a buy up to 86.