Business software leader SAP last night unveiled SAP Business ByDesign, the most complete on-demand business software solution specifically addressing a new market of prospective, fast-growing midsize customers.
Designed around four key principles of completeness, ease of use, adaptability and significantly cutting total cost of ownership, SAP Business ByDesign delivers an on-demand software solution with built-in service and support. It offers a personalised trial for invited customers to explore, evaluate and experience the solution.
Complementing the existing portfolio of SAP solutions for small businesses and midsize companies, the solution is already helping an inaugural group of live customers to improve business processes across their organisations.
SAP Business ByDesign is available immediately for selected early customers in the United States and Germany, with the opportunity now opening for early customers in China, France and the United Kingdom.
"With SAP Business ByDesign, today we are adding a completely new business model to our successful, established one and are changing the on-demand marketplace," said Henning Kagermann, CEO of SAP AG, at the launch announcement in New York.
"SAP Business ByDesign is designed to dramatically simplify IT for midsize companies by substantially reducing the cost of ownership and combining efficiency with business flexibility. The technical advantages of SOA enter the level of business processes and allow customers to exploit the full potential of new business trends without becoming IT experts. Such an affordable, easy-to-use and complete offering has been missing for midsize companies in the sweet spot until today," said Kagermann.
Director of SAP's SME business in Africa, Derek Kudsee, confirmed that SAP Business ByDesign will be available in South Africa during the first half of 2008.
"Being first to market with a solution that companies can buy on a subscription basis confirms SAP's leadership in this space. We believe this new solution will further accelerate our growth right across the SME spectrum. It strongly complements the existing SAP Business One and SAP Business All-in-One solutions that have already achieved significant take-up in South Africa's SME sector," says Kudsee.
Extending reach of SAP portfolio into $15bn market
The product portfolio for SMEs enables SAP to address the business requirements of all sizes of companies, from the smallest businesses through all types of midsize companies and larger enterprises.
The new SAP Business ByDesign is the most complete on-demand business software solution targeted exclusively toward new mid-market prospects in the size range of 100 to 500 employees; growing companies that typically have not invested in these types of integrated business solutions.
SAP estimates that there are more than 60 000 such companies in Germany and the United States alone, and sees a worldwide market potential of more than $15 billion.
SAP Business One is designed for the small business segment, while SAP Business All-in-One is built specifically for midsize companies that need deep industry-specific functionality and extensibility to meet their precise requirements.
Said Henry Morris, analyst firm IDC's senior vice-president for Worldwide Software Services: "SAP's new on-demand solution for the mid-market represents a bold initiative, featuring innovations in ease of use and ease of configuration while incorporating the learning gained by SAP's years of experience in the applications business."
Game-changing business solution built on future-proof platform
Fundamentally different than competitive mid-market solutions, SAP Business ByDesign is a game-changing business solution that drives faster time to value, drives easier consumption and helps minimise customers' overall IT costs dramatically, by reducing the need for user training, hardware investments, service, support and IT staffing.
Fully leveraging enterprise service-oriented architecture, the solution was built from the ground up on SAP NetWeaver, providing a future-proof platform for business that provides for a high degree of flexibility to adapt business processes in order to address evolving market demands.
This offers midsize customers the assurance that their investment today is protected, as their IT solution is able to scale to their requirements as their businesses grow and evolve over time.
Expanding role for partners
SAP will rely significantly on its partner ecosystem strategy to drive the SAP Business ByDesign offering.
SAP is currently engaging with early solution reseller and service partners, as well as with complementary content partners.
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SAP is the world's leading provider of business software*. More than 41 200 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 life cycle management and supplier relationship management.
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