SAP chief calls for more customer focus

Vienna

May 16th, 2007

SAPPHIRE, the annual customer and partner conference of global ERP giant SAP,
which now wants to be known more as a business transformation company, kicked of
in Vienna, on the 14th of May. Over 8000 attendees consisting of partners,
customers, consultants, industry analysts and bloggers, media, and SAP officials
from across the world are taking part in the event which is turning into a major
annual conglomeration of business users.

While the entire show is through and through a hardsell of various SAP
technologies, solutions, and unpgrades in the pipeline, one message that comes
across loud and clear is that amid increasing competition in this space,
companies like SAP will drastically enhance their customer engagement spectrum.

In his opening keynote, Henning Kagerman, chairman and CEO of SAP said,
"Our focus will be to give a big boost to the competitiveness of our
customers". No wonder then that SAP sees its role in an organization far
beyond just ERP now.

"Roll out of new products, mergers, and building specialization areas in
this direction, is the right step" explained a New York based analyst, who
was quick in pointing out that one of the slides in Kagerman's presentation did
indicate that a large part of SAP's big customers are still undecided on the
future course of their platform of preference. It is therefore the right time
for SAP to take steps and make announcements that will reassure customers, he
felt. With an increased focus SAP is pitching for a role in concepts such as
measuring corporate performance and ensuring corporate governance, risk
management, and compliances.

SAP also announced that its customers world over were responding positively
to its all-in-one solutions, with over 10,000 customers in more than 50
countries benefiting from them. The company also announced a new business
opportunity for its partners and customers that work on co-innovation as a
community collaboration model, especially for banking and insurance
applications.

Kagerman also made his support open for the need for collaboration when he
said," Individual and team collaboration in enterprises is going to be very
important, especially if IT has to be fully leveraged".

SAP also made other announcements, which included a tie-up with old
competitor SunGard, a $4 billion software solutions company for financial
services sector. In another significant move SAP announced that it has acquired
Wicom, a leading European IP based solutions company that focuses on contact
center and enterprise communications solutions. These moves are expected to
further consolidate SAPs position in BFSI and BPO space.

That the company is not just about enterprise applications was made clear
when Leo Apotheker, deputy CEO of SAP announced that the Vienna city
administration will now run its network, which is one of the largest in Europe,
connecting 30,000 employees with 1.7 million residents, on the SAP platform.

SAP is also aggressively going after some key e-governance projects in India,
an area that is in take-off mode now.

(The author was hosted in Vienna by SAP)