SAP, the word's leading provider of e-business software solutions recently announced a joint venture with Internet portal Yahoo.
The partnership will deliver a jointly developed enterprise portal product during the second quarter of 2001. The portal will provide a single point of entry from which employees, customers, partners and suppliers can gain access to information, applications and services from both SAP and Yahoo, as well as third-party e-business applications and services, and content from Yahoo's 2000 partners.
The partnership with Yahoo is part of a larger SAP initiative - the creation of a new subsidiary, SAP Portals Inc. The 700-strong company based in Palo Alto, California, will focus on developing and marketing comprehensive, open-enterprise portal and business intelligence products.
"These products will enable organisations and individuals to collaborate effectively anywhere and at anytime," said George Oertel, Managing Director SAP Africa. "The related enterprise portal strategy from SAP and Yahoo means all communities within an organisation will be able to securely access their working environment from airport Internet kiosks, the home office, the hotel room laptop or even the corporate office network."
Oertel added that the new company is sure to solidify SAP's "pole position" in the enterprise portal market.
SAP Portals has combined the assets of three SAP group units: TopTier Software (the Web-business software maker), which SAP is in the process of acquiring; the current SAP AG unit that is dedicated to mySAP Workplace enterprise portal and mySAP Business Intelligence solutions; and eSAP, the group's professional services subsidiary focusing on enterprise portal and e-business projects.
Besides providing products to its parent company, SAP Portals will license its technology and expects a significant portion of its revenues to accrue from outside the SAP installed base. The new company will work with both SAP and Yahoo to provide "an unparalleled combination of an enterprise portal platform and open access to applications, services and rich personalised content".
"The combination of SAP and Yahoo will provide the best solution for all companies in terms of content, scalability and application integration," said Hasso Plattner, chief executive and co-founder of SAP. Yahoo's chairman, Tim Koogle, commented that the alliance means a great deal for Yahoo. "The partnership with SAP gives us access to a huge enterprise customer base," he said.
The partners will work together to develop the joint enterprise portal, which they plan to market directly to customers through their respective sales channels. "Yahoo is the most visited Internet Web site in the workplace and an enterprise portal developed by the two companies is a natural extension of what we both do well: provide scalable and customised content and solutions on a global basis with the individual in mind," concluded Oertel.
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SAP is the world's leading provider of e-business software solutions. Through the mySAP.com e-business platform, people in businesses around the globe are improving relationships with customers and partners, streamlining operations, and achieving significant efficiencies throughout their supply chains.
Today, more than 13 000 companies in over 100 countries run more than 30 000 installations of SAP software. With subsidiaries in over 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/index.asp)
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