Often confronted with more risks - including exchange rates, geo-political issues, HIV/AIDS, lack of infrastructure, and economic and systemic concerns - than their European or North American peers, South African and African companies are looking for ways to reduce the additional risks created by consolidation of software vendors.
SAP Africa's director of strategic initiatives, Simon Carpenter, says: "There are quite enough challenges for organisations on this continent. The last thing they want is to be limited in growth and capability by the very information technology (IT) that promised to leapfrog them into the economic mainstream.
"So, when their enterprise solution vendors go on the acquisition trail and, therefore, into wholesale revision of their products, they lose confidence in the future of their systems - and start looking around for a vendor that promises long-term product and services stability without compromising innovation of those products and services.
"We've seen this happening on a very big scale elsewhere in the world where, making use of the SAP Safe Passage offering, more than 200 organisations have moved non-disruptively and affordably from competitor products to SAP since the beginning of 2005.
"And companies on this continent are now beginning to show the same sort of interest in Safe Passage."
The Safe Passage programme offers organisations financial protection for their existing investment in non-SAP business solutions, maintenance services for those solutions during the transition to SAP applications, financing options that make the move to SAP solutions more than affordable, data migration services and tools, protection services to mitigate risk during the switch from non-SAP to SAP systems, and a clear road map to the next generation of business software.
Safe Passage starts by giving organisations immediate access to the SAP NetWeaver technology integration platform to help them simplify integration of applications and then, when they are ready, migration to other SAP solutions such as mySAP ERP. "We call it going 'from good to great'," Carpenter says.
Companies of all sizes in all industries - including Altana Chemie AG, Areva T&D India, Arizona Electric Power Cooperative, Inc, AXA, Bilcare, CLLS, Diesel, Foodstuffs South Island, GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, Holland Casino, Riddell Bell, Rotk"appchen GmbH, Swiss Army Brands, Thakral, Twit Wing, UniLab, Veka AG, Waste Management, Winkhaus Data GmbH, Ya.com and YAZAKI Europe Limited - have taken SAP Safe Passage.
They cite as their reasons the strength and availability of SAP business solutions and technology for their industries, SAP commitment to their business goals, and SAP's solid vision and strategy.
"The response to Safe Passage in particular and SAP's 2005 results in general show that the market has recognised the value and validity of SAP's strategy of growing organically through business partners rather than by acquisition," Carpenter says. In 2005, SAP gained seven percentage points of worldwide share against its peer group, putting SAP's global peer group market share at 62%.
"Interestingly, our peer group share in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region now stands at 71% - indicating that in Africa, too, the market understands that those of our competitors who have been on the acquisition trail will now have to spend time and attention on themselves - consolidating and integrating the different companies they've bought.
"We, on the other hand, can focus on our customers. And because we're already on a single, modern platform we can easily and affordably provide them with state-of-the-art products and services with least disruption and risk to their businesses.
"Safe Passage is all about doing that in a pragmatic and mindful manner so that customers can derive the maximum value from their current technology investments with the added comfort of knowing that SAP can provide a well architected path to the future."
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SAP is the world's leading provider of business software*. Today, more than 33 200 customers in more than 120 countries run SAP applications - from distinct solutions addressing the needs of small and midsize enterprises to suite offerings for global organisations. Powered by the SAP NetWeaver platform to drive innovation and enable business change, SAP software helps enterprises of all sizes around the world improve customer relationships, enhance partner collaboration and create efficiencies across their supply chains and business operations. SAP solution portfolios support the unique business processes of more than 25 industries, including hi-tech, retail, financial services, healthcare and the public sector. With subsidiaries in more than 50 countries, the company is listed on several exchanges, including the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE under the symbol "SAP". (Additional information at http://www.sap.com.)
(*) SAP defines business software as comprising enterprise resource planning and related applications such as supply chain management, customer relationship management, product lifecycle management and supplier relationship management.
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