SAP AG

'SAP AG' (, , ) is the largest European software enterprise and the third largest in the world, with headquarters in Walldorf, Germany.

Contents

History

Business and markets

Products

Partnerships

Competitive Landscape

See also

External links

References

History

SAP was founded in 1972 as ''Systemanalyse und Programmentwicklung'' by five former IBM engineers in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg (Dietmar Hopp, Hans-Werner Hector, Hasso Plattner, Klaus Tschira, and Claus Wellenreuther).^[1] The acronym was later changed to stand for ''Systeme, Anwendungen und Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung'' ("Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing").
In 1976 "SAP GmbH" was founded and the following year it moved headquarters to Walldorf. ''SAP AG'' became the company's official name after the 2005 annual general meeting.
Henning Kagermann became the sole CEO of SAP in 2003.^[2]
In February 2007 his contract was extended until 2009. Based on this decision, Shai Agassi, a member of the executive board who had been named as a potential successor to Kagermann, left the organization.^[3]

Business and markets

SAP is the world's largest business software company and the third-largest independent software provider in terms of revenues.^[4]
It operates in three geographic regions – EMEA, which represents Europe, Middle East and Africa; the Americas, which represents both North America and Latin America; and Asia Pacific Japan (APJ), which represents Japan, Australia and parts of Asia.
SAP focuses on six industry sectors -- Process industries, Discrete industries, Consumer industries, Service industries, Financial services, and Public services,^[5] It offers more than 25 industry solution portfolios for large enterprises^[6] and more than 550 micro-vertical solutions for midsize companies and small businesses.^[7]

Products

SAP's products focus on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), which it helped to pioneer. The company's main product is SAP ERP. The name of its predecessor, SAP R/3 gives a clue to its functionality: the "R" stands for realtime, the number 3 relates to a 3 tier client-server architecture (database layer-application layer-presentation layer) 3-tier architecture: database, application server and client (SAPgui). R/2, which ran on a Mainframe architecture, was the first SAP version.
Other major product offerings include Advanced Planner and Optimizer (APO), Business Information Warehouse (BW), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Supply Chain Management (SCM), Supplier Relationship Management (SRM), Human Resource Management Systems (HRMS), Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Exchange Infrastructure (XI), Enterprise Portal (EP) and SAP Knowledge Warehouse (KW).
The APO name has been retired and rolled into SCM. The BW name (Business Warehousing) has now been rolled into the SAP NetWeaver BI (Business Intelligence) suite and functions as the reporting module.
The company also offers a new technology platform, named SAP NetWeaver which replaces SAP Business Connector for Integration/middleware capabilities ^[8] and offers a systematic approach to Enterprise SOA solutions with a collection of products. While its original products are typically used by Fortune 500 companies, SAP is now also actively targeting small and medium sized enterprises (SME) with its SAP Business One and SAP All-in-One.
SAP officials say there are over 100,600 SAP installations serving more than 41,200 companies in more than 25 industries in more than 120 countries.^[9]

Partnerships

SAP holds a partnership with Hewlett-Packard. This partnership will expand around new services linked to NetWeaver and Enterprise SOA (service-oriented architecture). The software infrastructure for business applications developed by SAP is to be upgraded by Hewlett-Packard. One of the services to be upgraded is the Discovery System which was launched by SAP earlier this year. Among other services there are assessment, government and architecture for R3.^[10]

Competitive Landscape

SAP competitors are primarily in the Enterprise Resource Planning Software industry. SAP also competes in the Customer Relationship Management, Marketing & Sales Software, Manufacturing, Warehousing & Industrial Software, and Supply Chain Management & Logistics Software sectors.^[11]
Oracle Corporation, SAP's major competitor in the USA, filed a case against SAP for malpractice and unfair competition in the Californian courts on 22nd March 2007. The complaint alleged that a Texas subsidiary, SAP TN (formerly TomorrowNow before purchase by SAP), which provides discount support for legacy Oracle product lines, used the accounts of former Oracle customers to systematically download patches and support documents from Oracle's website and appropriating them for SAP's use.^[12][13] Some ERP market analysts suggest the suit could be part of a strategy by Oracle to decrease SAP's presence in the software maintenance market, in which Oracle and SAP compete (the latter through its subsidiary TomorrowNow).^[14][15]
SAP has admitted to "some inappropriate downloads" however the company denies the theft of any intellectual property.^[16]

See also

★ List of SAP products

★ SAP Implementation

★ List of ERP software packages

External links

★ SAP.com official site.

★ SAP.com/company official company overview

★ SAP Community Network

★ SAP Enterprise Services Community

★ Customer Magazine of SAP AG in German and English

★ SAP Design Guild SAP's resource & forum for people-centric design

★

References

1. ''SAP History: From Start-Up Software Vendor to Global Market Leader''
2. Henning Kagermann: Balancing Change and Stability in the Evolution of SAP's Enterprise Software Platform
3. Shai Agassi Leaves SAP
4. For CRM, ERP, and SCM, SAP Leads the Way
5. Business in Brief: Markets
6. SAP ALL-IN-ONE – SOLUTIONS FOR MIDSIZE COMPANIES
7. Industry Solutions: Innovation - One Industry at a Time
8. webMethods for SAP replacement whitepaper for SAP BC customers
9.
SAP Announces Preliminary 2007 Second Quarter and Six Months Results

10. HP and SAP Partners to Offer New Services

11.
SAP Competitors

12.
13. Oracle Sues SAP
14. Maintenance Contracts at Heart of Oracle, SAP Dispute
15. The lawsuit As barometer: SAP finally scores big with TomorrowNow
16. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article2019797.ece SAP admits 'inappropriate' Oracle downloads - Times Online