The self-styled Tripartite alliance, Hewlett Packard, SAP and Microsoft, say they have brought cheap ERP to the South African market. Their QuickStart product, aimed at medium sized enterprise, was launched locally recently.
QuickStart is based on bundled solutions of server hardware, the NT operating system and application software. It is pre-configured for HP hardware and includes pre-installed SAP R/3 software. The bundle is sold at a fixed price.
The system supports user groups from as small as 15 up to a maximum number of 200 users.
It has long been expected that ERP vendors will explore new market sectors after the market for ERP and related products sagged in recent years. SAP internationally saw only a 7% growth in sales for the first quarter of the year, down from a 63% growth for the same period last year. "Competition is becoming really fierce," says Ian White of SAP, referring to potential customers. The same can be said to hold true for his own company.
The QuickStart package also offers an optional 99,9% uptime guarantee. "Which means," says HP server product manager Andrew Fletcher, "that we get to sell two servers instead of one."
HP will provide a technology financing option, giving the customer a single point of contact for financing and only one bill at the end of the month.
The companies claim that QuickStart can be operational within weeks and still bring customers significant savings compared to a traditional ERP installation.
QuickStart will be introduced to selected customers via product events during May.
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