SAP Unveils SAP® CRM On-Demand Solution; Delivers Immediate Business Value and Strategic Path for Enterprise CRM
SAP Extends mySAP(TM) CRM, Gives Customers the Benefits of an Integrated IT Landscape; IBM to Provide Applications On Demand Hosting and Consulting Expertise
NEW YORK and PALO ALTO, Calif., Feb. 2 -- Delivering on its commitment to provide enterprise customers with solutions that meet both current and future business needs, SAP AG (NYSE:SAP) today announced an expansion of its market-leading mySAP(TM) Customer Relationship Management (mySAP CRM) solution to include an on-demand option. The SAP(R) CRM on-demand solution is designed for large and midsize organizations to manage sales, service and marketing in an easy-to-use solution delivered directly via the Internet, offered through a subscription-based licensing model.
SAP has created the first hybrid CRM solution that transcends on-demand and on-premise, while integrating with core enterprise solutions in both deployment models. To facilitate this unique hybrid approach, SAP has pioneered the "isolated-tenancy" model that combines the high availability and low risk of a single-tenancy approach with the efficiencies and deployment speed of a multi-tenancy architecture. As a result, companies can evolve their CRM solution to align with their unique business needs and customer strategies in ways that go beyond the limitations of today's narrowly focused on-demand "pure plays."
SAP also announced that SAP and IBM have extended their long and proven strategic alliance to provide on-demand application hosting services for the SAP CRM on-demand solution. IBM will also provide expertise in helping customers innovate, for example, in how they reap the benefits of their CRM deployments.
In making today's announcement, SAP unveiled its first on-demand product, the SAP(R) Sales on-demand solution, designed to help organizations manage their customers, contacts and sales pipelines with affordable, simple-to-use and easy-to-configure tools. Available immediately, the on-demand sales solution will be followed by additional on-demand CRM offerings intended for release in 2006, including marketing and service products.
Designed to create a unique win-win situation for both business users and IT managers, the SAP CRM on-demand solution will help line-of-business executives such as the VP of sales, service managers and marketing professionals meet current business needs for a fast and easy on-ramp to enterprise CRM. At the same time, the solution addresses the requirements of CIOs who need a solution that can capitalize on existing IT investments, deliver new, integrated business processes to a growing user community with minimal disruption to the business and its systems of record, while avoiding a costly solution environment populated by disparate and disconnected applications. SAP is the only provider whose on-premise and on-demand solutions are based on a common architecture, data model and common user interface, providing for a seamless transition that is easy to manage, ensures continuity of data and processes and minimizes change-management costs.
"The software-on-demand phenomenon has broken the purchase-and-usage paradigm broadly for enterprise software but especially in the CRM applications market," said Mary Wardley, VP CRM Applications, IDC. "IDC believes hybrid CRM solutions and coexistence of delivery models are essential for meeting the varied needs of organizations. SAP's entry into this market with SAP Sales on-demand is an important first step for SAP, in bringing this delivery option to its customers within the context of an integrated applications environment."
SAP Sales On-Demand Solution
The SAP Sales on-demand solution enables customers to rapidly meet traditional sales force automation (SFA) business needs such as account and contact management, activity management, opportunity and pipeline management, calendar and task management, as well as sales analytics to help companies better manage new and existing business opportunities, lead generation, sales execution and client engagement. The SAP Sales on-demand solution taps SAP's years of experience developing sales and CRM applications, offering customers the right functionality to meet the current needs of the sales organization while providing a foundation for a long-term CRM strategy:
-- Usability: Core CRM features served through a new user interface tailor-made for sales and marketing users, offering a variety of shortcuts and navigation aids;
-- Synchronization: Integration with desktop productivity applications for sales collaboration;
-- Deployment: The hosted, Web-based model enables rapid go-live and customization, with fast user adoption and minimal training;
-- Affordability: Priced as a monthly service, with list prices starting at $75.00 per user, per month;
-- Flexibility: Unlike other vendors, SAP does not lock customers into long-term contracts for its on-demand offering;
-- Integration: Designed from the ground up to seamlessly integrate with enterprise systems -- such as enterprise resource planning and supply chain management -- to deliver business process execution and improve the transparency of customer interaction.
-- Continuity: Enables a seamless transition to on-premise deployment when the business is ready for more robust CRM capabilities
"Although we initially looked at on-demand niche offerings, SAP presented a compelling value proposition that takes SFA tools to the next level -- a quick and easy jumpstart that can adapt to our growing sales and marketing organization for the long term," said Michael S. Michlovich, director, Marketing & Sales, DuPont IT. "With the SAP CRM on-demand solution, we can stay focused on sales results and leave solution management to SAP. SAP's on- demand solution offers the added benefit of integrating with our existing SAP infrastructure so that we can leverage existing critical data such as customer profiles and sales history."
"American Standard has a need for a simple, easy to deploy, easy to use SFA solution, and SAP's new offering meets our requirements," said Kenneth Damato, senior vice president of Sales, American Standard. "What made our decision to go with the SAP Sales on-demand solution easier to make is that we share the vision that SFA will eventually be connected to a more robust CRM business process, that will include marketing and service and more, as our company's needs grow and mature. Having an on-ramp strategy to a more robust CRM road map makes SAP's new offering in line with our strategic business plan."
Strategic Partnership with IBM
In selecting IBM as its hosting services partner for the first offering of on-demand solutions, SAP extends a long and proven strategic alliance with IBM in helping enterprise-level customers meet their business challenges across many industries and on a global scale. IBM will provide safe, secure, reliable and highly-available hosting services -- based on proven IBM eServers and also offered with DB2 database technology. The SAP solution will be powered by IBM's Applications On Demand Platform, which automates application hosting and management to provide a scalable and efficient platform for running business applications. This agreement builds on IBM and SAP's existing strategic alliance -- with one of the largest SAP practices in the industry -- to provide IBM consulting services to SAP to help customers gain the full value of their CRM deployments.
"Customers are the life blood of every business. Fully-integrated customer information allows businesses to serve and interact with customers in innovative ways," said Marc Lautenbach, General Manager, IBM Americas. "IBM and SAP together are making it easier for companies to leverage customer information to support speedy decision-making, better responsiveness and the ability to pursue new business opportunities. For the first time, our shared clients can determine the pace of their CRM deployments while enjoying the benefits of fully integrated, enterprise-wide business processes that grow with their enterprises. In other words, they can make an affordable down- payment on their future growth."
SAP Pioneers Isolated Tenancy
With the announcement of the SAP CRM on-demand solution, SAP has bridged the gap between single tenancy and multi-tenancy environments, bringing together the best of both worlds to meet the real requirements of enterprise customers today. Customers appreciate the efficiencies of a software-as-a- service model found in today's niche, pure-play offerings, including speed of deployment, automatic software updates and central management to keep costs low. At the same time, customers are seeking high availability, security and low risk that come from isolated and dedicated resources that are found in traditional hosting -- or single-tenancy environments. Especially important for enterprise customers is the knowledge that their system's performance and continuous operations do not depend on the overall usage by other customers at any level, including the database. With its new isolated-tenancy approach, SAP can give customers the benefits of centrally served software while delivering a level of independence, along with dedicated technology and resources that assure a safe environment.
"Our enterprise services architecture vision aligns business needs and new technology innovation to deliver more flexibility to customers," said Shai Agassi, president of the Product and Technology Group and member of the executive board, SAP. "The SAP CRM on-demand solution delivers on this commitment by offering companies a new path for their CRM journey -- to act immediately and grow strategically, without disruption."
The SAP Sales on-demand solution will be offered to customers on a per- user, per-month pricing program based on pre-defined scope and is available globally today with initial language options in English and German. Additional language-specific versions, including French, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish and Chinese, will be rolled out over the next 90 days. More detailed information about the SAP CRM on-demand solution can be found at www.sap.com/crm.
About mySAP CRM
Moving beyond traditional CRM functionality, SAP's innovation and unmatched industry expertise are setting new standards for the way companies connect with their customers and partners, creating customer-centric business processes across enterprise wide operations and business applications. mySAP(TM) Customer Relationship Management (mySAP CRM) delivers the market's greatest breadth and depth of functionality, offering more than 280 end-to- end, industry-specific processes to cover the unique business demands of more than twenty-five industries. Built on the open, Web services-based architecture of the SAP NetWeaver(R) technology platform, mySAP CRM helps companies leverage existing IT investments, achieve lower total cost of ownership, gain faster return on investment and continually evolve the business processes having the greatest impact on success. (Additional information at www.sap.com/crm )
About SAP
SAP is the world's leading provider of business software solutions*. Today, more than 32,000 customers in more than 120 countries run SAP(R) software -- from distinct solutions addressing the needs of small and midsize enterprises to suite offerings for global organizations. Powered by the SAP NetWeaver(R) platform to drive innovation and enable business change, SAP business solutions help enterprises of all sizes around the world improve customer relationships, enhance partner collaboration and create efficiencies across their supply chains and business operations. SAP industry solutions support the unique business processes of more than 25 industries, including high tech, healthcare, retail, public sector and financial services. With subsidiaries in more than 50 countries, the company is listed on several exchanges, including the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE under the symbol "SAP." (Additional information at www.sap.com/ )
(*) SAP defines business software solutions as comprising enterprise resource planning and related software solutions such as supply chain management, customer relationship management, product life-cycle management and supplier relationship management.
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