[May 12, 2004] SAP Introduces CRM, ERP and Vertical Industry Packaged Offerings for Midmarket Companies SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced new packaged offerings for customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP) and vertical industry applications designed to meet the resource, price and industry requirements of midmarket companies. Available from SAP and its partners, the midmarket offerings incorporate SAP® Best Practices and provide fixed-scope, pre-defined packages of software and services that address specific business processes and can be implemented rapidly with fast return on investment. The new packaged offerings include software and services to help midmarket companies address CRM, ERP and industry-specific processes for the automotive, chemicals, consumer products, high-tech, industrial machinery and components and professional services provider industries. The announcement was made at SAPPHIRE® '04, SAP's international customer conference being held in New Orleans, Louisiana, May 11 - 13. As the foundation for the new packaged offerings, SAP Best Practices are based on solutions from mySAP? Business Suite, leveraging SAP's deep industry expertise and technology experience from more than 30 years of serving the world's leading companies. This helps midmarket companies accelerate the implementation process and reduce risk, enabling businesses to address immediate areas of need while providing a technology baseline and seamless upgrade path to support ongoing growth. A recent university survey of 192 SAP customers found that SAP Best Practices on average reduce overall project implementation time by 22 percent when compared with other implementations. Enhanced CRM for Midmarket Companies "Our outlook for midsize enterprises investing in CRM software is 'positive' because we have found overwhelming proof of the benefits of CRM initiatives among midsize enterprises," said Wendy Close, research director, CRM, Gartner Research. "However, CRM vendor viability will remain a critical consideration, because it is likely that more than 50 percent of the vendors in this market will be acquired, merge or go out of business by 2005." With SAP Best Practices packages for CRM, SAP provides midmarket companies with proven technology to drive efficiency and growth and the assurance of dealing with the market leader. Based on the latest version of mySAP? Customer Relationship Management (mySAP CRM), the midmarket offerings include 16 packages that address key customer-centric processes ranging from marketing and campaign management, lead management and Internet sales to activity and opportunity management, interaction center and field sales, service order management and interaction center service. The SAP Best Practices packages of software and services are being made available by SAP and its partners in key markets globally. Among the offerings available in North America, SAP Consulting provides a CRM services package leveraging best practices for interaction center management through its Service Select program, which provides customers with the opportunity to quickly realize value from mySAP CRM. With capabilities for information help desk and complaint management, the offering helps companies decrease costs by managing calls more efficiently and improving customer satisfaction through better customer service. Additional midmarket CRM offerings are provided through SAP partners, which incorporate SAP Best Practices as part of mySAP? All-in-One microvertical industry solutions for small and midsize businesses. "itelligence continues to see increased interest in mySAP All-in-One solutions, both in our reseller territory and our microvertical solutions worldwide," said Steve Niesman, president and CEO, itelligence, a leading global SAP business partner serving midsize businesses. "As our customers and prospects increasingly seek scaleable, cost-effective solutions featuring improved customer service and support that require integrated CRM functionality, we view SAP Best Practices for CRM as an essential ingredient that will help fulfill their needs." Core ERP Offerings for Lower Total Cost of Ownership SAP's ERP offering for midmarket companies delivers world-class enterprise management capabilities, based on mySAP? ERP, in a pre-packaged, fixed-scope and fixed-price deployment. It addresses the core mission-critical business processes and requirements of midmarket companies and enables more efficient operations, greater employee productivity, flexibility in responding to changing business conditions and greater real-time insight. Unlike other vendor offerings that require a "rip and replace" approach, the SAP package follows an incremental, "deploy as you go" model and can leverage a company's existing technology investments. With the packaged ERP offering, midmarket companies receive a fully deployed and running ERP system based on specific SAP Best Practices that accommodate country and industry-specific processes and consulting services. Customers can adopt ERP incrementally, supporting current needs for financial management and logistics operations, such as procure-to-pay and order-to-cash, and can enhance the deployment over time with additional capabilities such as employee self-services and human resources that support country-specific legal requirements and business practices. The packaged offering meets the needs of midmarket companies by providing leading ERP functionality, based on the SAP NetWeaver? open integration and application platform, with a clear project scope, reduced risk and time to value and lower total cost of ownership over the life of the deployment. Vertical Solutions with Built-in Industry Expertise SAP's new vertical offerings for midmarket companies provide a high degree of industry-specific functionality based on the expertise of SAP in serving thousands of customers across more than 25 vertical industries, as well as that of its partners in serving approximately 360 microvertical industries with mySAP All-in-One solutions for small and midsize businesses. The industry-specific SAP Best Practices packages address key strategic processes to meet the unique needs of growing businesses in the automotive, chemical, consumer products, high-tech, industrial machinery and equipment and professional services industries. SAP is working with its partners to introduce the packages in key markets globally. For midmarket chemical companies, SAP Best Practices packages combine elements of enterprise management, business intelligence, supply chain management, Internet sales and recipe management to reduce production costs, improve process control, facilitate global trade and manage customer relationships. The offerings also help chemical companies manage environmental health and safety compliance as an integrated part of human resources, plant maintenance, production, purchasing and sales. Developed in conjunction with SAP partners, the solutions can be deployed in a modular fashion, offering faster return on investment, lower total cost of ownership and the ability to scale over the life of the business. "Using an SAP Best Practices approach, we consolidated four legacy systems into one, significantly reducing inventory and overall operating costs and changing our monthly closing time from two weeks to four days," said Hanna Lukosavich, vice president and CIO, Resolution Performance Products, a maker of epoxy resins, curatives and other specialty products. The SAP packaged offering for midmarket professional services businesses is designed for project-based services organizations in which people and knowledge are the main "products." It provides services directors, project and resource managers and consultants with effective tools for project, resource and project financial management, including time and expense recording, various billing methods, project controlling and integration with financial management. "As the global market leader in providing solutions to midmarket companies, SAP is incorporating its years of knowledge and experience into packaged offerings sized to fit the needs of our customers," said Léo Apotheker, executive board member and president of global field operations, SAP AG. "Our packaged offerings recognize the distinct needs of midmarket companies and demonstrate SAP's ongoing commitment to developing solutions that respond to the precise industry and resource requirements of our customers across the entire business spectrum." [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]