SAP Eyes SMEs !!!

By S.Suren

In this posts I thought I'll discuss on how SAP is looking to show its dominance in the Small and Midsize Enterprise solution market.

SAP currently has 3 Solutions catering to the needs of companies in the SME Segment. Namely:

SAP Business One (also known as SAP B1)- This solution is meant for companies with 10 - 100 employees and a revenue of $5 million to $100 million and those companies that do not need all the requirements of a complete ERP. However, SAP Business One is deemed to be a fully fledged integrated business management solution catering to all the different processes that a company in this segment would need to monitor and have control upon. I have had the pleasure of working with this and should say it has a "Drag & Relate" function which I would call a master piece, and this has been patented by SAP.

SAP Business One allows small and midsize businesses to grow beyond the piecemeal approach to business software, which prevents many businesses from managing effectively across their entire operations. It features an embedded customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities to ensure seamless integration among sales, service and other customer-facing activities. SAP Business One comes with industry specific solutions too and further enhancements are catered to with the installations of tried and tested add ons.

mySAP All in One (also known as mySAP A1) is designed to meet the needs of small and mid-market businesses, and specifically those with sophisticated business processes and ambitious development plans. This solution is targeted at companies with revenue of $100 million to $250 million and less than 2500 employees. Its the mySAP Business Suite scaled down and preconfigured for specific indsutries.SAP All in One takes extracts from the functionality of mySAP ERP suite and is integrated with all of its internal modules using best in class practice as per micro industry verticals.

mySAP A1 mainly caters to the higher end of the mid-size companies. It has more functions to cater to the complexities and customizations that would be needed in relation to particular unique practices of companies in this end. It is assumed that the implementation of mySAP All in One would normally take 3 to 4 months as per the industry solutions available. This has proven to be one of the most successful solutions provided by SAP , proven by its Market Leader position in the Magic Quadrant as published by Gartner.

SAP AG global strategy with the mySAP All in One solution is to partner up with channel partners who would be using their industry specific expertise in providing consulting and support services for mySAP All in One for their particular industry.

The final and the newest member to the family is :

SAP Business ByDesign (better known as SAP A1S) - This solution is catered to suit the requirements of midsized companies with 100 - 500 employees. Another important thing to note is that SAP A1S is the first to embrace the SaaS (Software as a Service) delivery model, its important as a up-to-date consultant that you know these terms well, as this is what is going to make up the future.

I should say as my personal opinion that SAP Business ByDesign does have an appeal to it, with its interface and the various ERP Logistical functions it caters too. Its not a surprise that other consultants who got to work on it first hand were quite enthusiastic about it. At present there are many installations and projects bring carried out with this new solution in parts of Europe and in selected industries. SAP AG have some aggressive plans with this new product and sure enough interested parties will be hot on their tracks, and me not being an exception will keep posting with the latest info.

Remember 2010 and 2014 are the magic target dates ... all the best!!

Hope you found this post interesting and informative, your comments and suggestions are welcome at ssurenlk@msn.com.

Have a nice day !!

Industry Awareness

A few years back is was generally the case where a consultant in one particular field could easily move into other industries and learn the process and implement it, this was an accepted way of consulting too.

However with the increasing trend in industry specific solutions by ERP Vendors and specialist knowledge needed in this industry to be recognized as a good consultant, clients in these industries have become more demanding on who they choose as their consultant, going for those with the most domain experience. This trend is very much catching up seeing the dawn of yet another new business model with ERP vendors working with partners who specialize to be the consulting service provider.

Therefore it is recommended for those mainly in logistics to be more aware of the type of domain you want to specialize in and read about it. I strongly believe that anything done with passion and interest can and will never be irrelevant, enjoy what you are in and be updated; it’ll all come in handy.

I’ll be happy to assist in anyway, feel free to drop me and email!!!

Have a nice day!!

S.Suren

Working Together !!

By : S.Suren

As we are all aware in the present day business take-overs in the ERP Industry has been a term used most often.

However we should also keep in mind that there have been companies working together to enhance their services in areas where they felt a lone effort was not feasible.

Some companies working together and their projects :

SAP and IBM working on a product codenamed Atlantic to be released in the final quarter of this year. Its an application that will allow users to access SAP business suits applications via IBM Desktop softwares.

ORACLE takes over BEA - As of now, it is too early at this time to comment on what they are likely to produce together, but its only rational to assume that given BEA's Middleware solutions, ORACLE is likely to use this in a Enterprise Application Enviornment, my example would be where the Vendor Payment system would access information from a Vendor Rating program perhaps.

SAP and Business Objects- The product to released very soon, however the release dates and information on the product are being kept on a low profile.

SAP & WIPRO - Wipro is said to act on the design requirements of SAP Interactive forms and also perform implementation services for the SAP Interactive Forms by Adobe.

IBM & Cognos - Here we can expect integration of COGNOS products in providing value information for users across companies that have IBM's Information Management Technology.
Given the important of BI in Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) this new deal is going to come in very handy for IBM.

Hope you found this post useful, thats all there is as of now, however shall keep the site updated when more news flows in. Your input and suggestions are also welcome, mail ssurenlk@msn.com.

A Previous related posts : Take-Over Syndrome

Have a nice day !!

A Year that was....Events of 2007 @ SAP !!!

By S.Suren

Hi ,

In this posts I thought I'll list some of major events at SAP in 2007.

Resignation of Shai Agassi - President of SAP’s product and technology group Shai Agassi steps down from his position. He now is involved with a project named "Project Better Place" a venture focusing on electric vehicles and working on alternative energy issues. Read More

Launch of Business ByDesign - With the increasing important being placed on SaaS (software as a service) in the industry, SAP launched its own version of SAP which caters to this need. Business ByDesign is a hosted solution and is now presently being implemented in certain European companies. Read More

TomorrowNow lawsuit - The allegations by ORACLE on SAP's TomorrowNow's team of having systematically stole software as part of a concerted effort to beat Oracle. This has led to major confusions and problems within the department seeing many resignations of top officials in the department. The hearing for this has been postponed to 2009. Read More

SAP's Acquisition of Business Objects - SAP always projected the image that the company in organic growth, however with the intense competition in the market and the important of working with partners in the relevant field to gain market share in new areas, SAP adopted Oracle's approach of growth. SAP went on to acquire Business Objects for $6.78 Billion, this some say was in response to Oracle's acquisiton of Hyperion. Read More

There were smaller acquisitons made by SAP during the year too, one of which was YASU, a company in Hyderabad, that specilises in Business Process Management, which goes on to show that there is likely to be a series of acquisitions to follow to keep the leader in its position.

Hope you found this article informative and interesting.

Have a nice day !!

S.Suren