SAP gathers momentum in SMB market

Business software vendor SAP Africa's launch into the local small and medium-sized business (SMB) market last month has exceeded its "most optimistic expectations", the company said this week.

SAP has been inundated by prospective partners and customers since launching its mySAP All-in-One software for the SMB market in early March, according to Patricia Martins, SMB Manager for SAP Africa.

The company hopes to gain significant ground in the highly competitive SMB market through mySAP All-in-One, which will be delivered to its target market exclusively through a network of channel partners. This channel is critical for the company to reach companies that normally wouldn't think of SAP, which is better known for software which runs big corporations.

SAP has already signed six partners in specific industries, and is finalising agreements with partners in the component suppliers and automotive industry, fabricated metals, and the refining and beneficiation industries. The first customers are expected to go live on mySAP All-in-One by the third quarter of this year.

"What distinguishes small and midsize companies is not the size of their business, but more often, the industry in which they operate," said Martins. "We are leveraging the vertical industry experience of our entire ecosystem - SAP, our customers, and our partners - by working with key partners to develop cost-effective, pre-packaged mySAP All-in-One solutions that help small and midsize businesses operate with the power and sophistication of big business, with limited implementation timeframes and predictable cost and return on investment."

SAP's small business offering is not simply a watered down version of an enterprise-class business computing solution, but delivers core enterprise applications - including CRM, accounting, warehouse management, purchasing, material resource planning, sales and distribution.

In the past, SAP relied on its own workforce to sell software to its traditional customer base of large, multinational enterprises. But as a result globalisation, economical and political growth, SMBs are compelled to invest in ERP solutions, and so SAP has embarked on an ambitious strategy to target SMBs.

This strategy, Martins said, requires "finding the right partners and bringing them up to speed on our products".

Channel partners will add tightly integrated applications, enabling, for example, online sales, logistics, data management and advanced warehousing for specific industries. The partners include the likes of UCS Solutions in the retail and wholesale sector, EPI-USE and Swicon (HR), SCT Services (Consumer Products) and Pebbletree (service providers) and BPS (Construction and Engineering).

"The small and midsize business software and solutions marketplace is growing increasingly competitive today," said UCS Solutions' Tony Nugent. "But working in partnership with SAP to create pre-packaged solutions meeting the unique needs of our customers has given us an additional competitive-edge over vendors offering a less robust out-of-the-box solution."

"Efficient, accurate, and timely CRM and financial management is critical for technical and professional service providers," said Hendri Pretorius of Pebbletree. "mySAP All-in-One delivers a cost-effective means for small to midsized services firms to improve the timeliness and accuracy of these processes, resulting in improved client satisfaction and retention and accelerated revenue recognition. The solution enables service providers to quickly gain better insight into the financial performance of individual service contracts and to increase profitability."

"SAP has an aggressive and active program in place and we intend to increase dramatically the number of mySAP All-in-One solutions available," said Martins. "The growth in available solutions, each with a unique industry focus and the capability to meet industry-specific needs, showcases our ongoing global commitment for SAP to be the business solutions leader in the small and midsize business marketplace."