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SAP AG
Company typeAktiengesellschaft
(ISIN: DE0007164600, FWB: SAP, NYSE: SAP)
ISINDE0007164600 Edit this on Wikidata
IndustryComputer software
FoundedWeinheim, Germany (1972)
Headquarters
Germany Walldorf
,
Germany
Key people

Leo Apotheker, CEO & President, Global Customer Solutions & Operations.
Members of the Executive Board:
Bill McDermott (Global Field Operations),
Jim Hagemann Snabe (Business Solutions & Technology),
Erwin Gunst (COO),
Gerhard Oswald (Global Service & Support),
Claus Heinrich (Human Resources, Processes & Information),
John Schwarz (Business Objects),
Werner Brandt (Finance & Administration).
Hasso Plattner, Chairman of the Supervisory Board
ProductsSAP Business Suite, SAP ERP, SAP Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM), SAP Supply Chain Management (SAP SCM), SAP Supplier Relationship Management (SAP SRM), SAP Product Lifecycle Management (SAP PLM), SAP NetWeaver, SAP Business One, SAP Business ByDesign, SAP Business All-in-One
Revenue€10.25 billion (2007)[1]
8,161,000,000 Euro (2023) Edit this on Wikidata
6,139,000,000 Euro (2023) Edit this on Wikidata
Total assets38,335,000,000 Euro (2023) Edit this on Wikidata
Number of employees
51,447 (August 2008)
Websitewww.sap.com

SAP AG (ISIN: DE0007164600, FWB: SAP, NYSE: SAP) provides enterprise software applications and support to businesses of all sizes globally. Headquartered in Walldorf, Germany, with regional offices around the world, SAP is the largest software enterprise in Europe and the fourth largest software enterprise in the world. [2] The company's best known product is its SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (SAP ERP) software.

History

The 1970's

In 1972, five former IBM employees – Dietmar Hopp, Hans-Werner Hector, Hasso Plattner, Klaus E. Tschira, and Claus Wellenreuther – founded a company called Systems Applications and Products in Data Processing in Mannheim, Germany.[3] Their vision was to develop standard application software for real-time business processing. Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) became SAP's first customer in 1972. One year later, in 1973, SAP’s first financial accounting software was released, forming the basis for the continuous development of other software components in what later came to be known as the "R/1 system." "R" stands for real-time data processing. [4] In 1976, Systems Applications and Products in Data Processing became SAP GmbH. By the end of the decade, in 1979, SAP R/2 was born. [5]

The 1980's

During the 1980s, SAP relocated to Walldorf, Germany, near Heidelberg. SAP expanded internationally with the founding of subsidiaries in Denmark, Sweden, Italy, and the United States. SAP R/2 was redesigned to handle different languages and currencies. In August 1988, SAP GmbH became SAP AG (a corporation by German law). Four of the founding members - Hopp, Plattner, Tschira and Hector - formed the SAP executive board. Public trading started in November of 1988. Shares were listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The German business journal Manager Magazine named SAP as its Company of the Year – a distinction the company received multiple times in the years following. [6]

The 1990's

In 1991, Prof. Dr. Henning Kagermann joined the SAP executive board. SAP R/3 was released in 1992. With SAP R/3, SAP followed the trend from mainframe computing to a three-tier architecture of database, application, and user interface. Dr. Peter Zencke became a SAP executive board member in 1993 and Claus Heinrich and Gerhard Oswald became members in 1996. SAP celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary in 1997. On August 3, 1998, SAP was listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). In 1998, the first leadership change at SAP took place. Dietmar Hopp and Klaus Tschira moved to the supervisory board and Dietmar Hopp was appointed as chairman of the supervisory board. Henning Kagermann was appointed as co-chairman and co-CEO of SAP alongside co-CEO Hasso Plattner. Near the end of the decade, SAP announced the mySAP.com strategy, linking e-commerce solutions to existing ERP applications, using Web technology. [7]

The 2000's

As a result of the Internet, the user became the focus of software applications. SAP developed SAP Workplace, paving the way for the idea of an enterprise portal and role-specific access to information. Werner Brandt joined SAP in 2001 as a member of the SAP Executive Board and Chief Financial Officer. Léo Apotheker became president of Global Customer Solutions & Operations and a member of the SAP Executive Board in 2002. Henning Kagermann became the sole CEO of SAP in 2003. In February 2007 his contract was extended until 2009. Léo Apotheker was appointed deputy CEO in 2007. Also in 2007, after continuous disputes over the responsibility of the development organization, Shai Agassi, a member of the executive board who had been named as a potential successor to Kagermann, left SAP. [8] Léo Apotheker became co-CEO alongside Kagermann in 2008 and Apotheker is now sole CEO. In April 2008, the SAP supervisory board appointed three new members to the SAP Executive Board: Erwin Gunst, Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe. SAP acquired Business Objects in 2008. SAP provoked controversy and frustration among its users in 2008 by raising the cost of its maintenance contracts. The issue is the subject of intense discussion among user groups. [9] [10]

Business and Markets

SAP AG Headquarters, Walldorf.

SAP operates in three geographic regions – EMEA, which represents Europe, Middle East and Africa; the Americas (SAP America is headquartered in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania), which includes both North America and Latin America; and Asia Pacific Japan (APJ), which includes Japan, Australia, India and parts of Asia. In addition, SAP operates a network of 115 subsidiaries, and has R&D facilities around the globe in Germany, North America, Canada, China, Hungary, India, Israel, Turkey and Bulgaria.

SAP focuses on six industry sectors: process industries, discrete industries, consumer industries, service industries, financial services, and public services.[11] It offers more than 25 industry solution portfolios for large enterprises [12] and more than 550 micro-vertical solutions for small businesses and midsize companies. [13]

Functional units of SAP are split across different organizational units for R&D needs, field activities and customer support. SAP Labs is mainly responsible for product development whereas the field organizations spread across each country are responsible for field activities such as sales, marketing and consulting. The head office of SAP AG in Germany is responsible for overall management as well as core engineering activities related to product development. SAP customer support, also called Active Global Support (AGS) is a global organization which provides support to SAP customers worldwide.

User Groups are independent, not-for-profit organizations of SAP customer companies and partners within the SAP Ecosystem that provide education to their members, influence SAP product releases and direction, exchange best practices, and provide insight into the market needs. Examples of User Groups are the Americas' SAP Users' Group (ASUG),[14] the Germany SAP User Group (DSAG),[15] the SAP Australian User Group (SAUG) [16] and the SAP UK & Ireland User Group. [17] [18] Further SAP User Groups can be found at the overview SAP User Groups Around the World. In 2007, the SAP User Group Executive Network (SUGEN) was established to foster the information exchange and best practice sharing among SAP User Groups and to coordinate the collaboration with SAP for strategic topics. [19]

Partnerships are core to SAP’s strategy and in its 35 years of history the network of software solution providers, value-added resellers, distributors, technology and services partners has developed into a broad ecosystem that is among the industry's largest. [20] SAP partners include Global Services Partners with cross-industry multinational consulting capabilities, [21] Global Software Partners providing integrated products that complement SAP Business Suite solutions, [22] and Global Technology Partners providing user companies with a wide range of products to support SAP technology, including vendors of hardware, database, storage systems, networks, and mobile computing technology. [23] SAP partners with CSC, Capgemini, Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Hewlett-Packard, Siemens IT Solutions and Services and Accenture in offering services, including assessment, government and architecture for R3. [24]

SAP solutions for small businesses and midsize companies are delivered through its global partner network. In 2008, SAP signed SAP Global Service partnership with HCL Technologies, a $4.9 b technology service provider, headquartered in India. [25] The SAP PartnerEdge program, SAP's partner program, offers a set of business enablement resources and program benefits to help partners including value added resellers (VARs) and independent software vendors (ISVs) be profitable and successful in implementing, selling, marketing, developing and delivering SAP solutions to a broad range of customers. [26]

SAP Labs is the research and development organization of the parent company. SAP has its development organization spread across the globe. Many, but not all, labs locations are hosting SAP Research groups. Prominent labs are located in Palo Alto, USA; Bangalore, Hyderabad and Gurgaon India; Ra'anana and Karmiel, Israel; Montreal, Canada and Shanghai, China. SAP Labs located in Bangalore is the largest development unit in terms of number of employees outside the SAP headquarters located in Walldorf, Germany.Other SAP Labs locations include France, Bulgaria and Hungary. Each SAP Lab has prominent area of expertise and focus. SAP Labs in Sofia, Bulgaria for example specializes in development of Java based SAP software products. Whereas, SAP Labs in U.S. is famous for its focus on innovation and research. [27][27]

The SAP Developer Network (SDN) is a community of developers, consultants, integrators, and business analysts gaining and sharing knowledge about ABAP, Java, .NET, SOA, and other technologies via expert blogs, discussion forums, exclusive downloads and code samples, training materials, and a technical library. [28] The Business Process Expert (BPX) Community is a collaborative environment for business process experts to share information, experiences and best practices to leverage enterprise SOA in order to increase business agility and IT value. [29] The SAP Enterprise Services Community serves as a platform for members from customers, industry experts and partners working collaboratively to define enterprise services.[30] Industry Value Networks (IVN) bring together customers, partners and SAP to co-innovate and develop solutions to solve industry-specific customer challenges. There are currently eleven active IVNs (e.g. Banking, Chemicals, Consumer Products, High Tech, Public Sector, Retail).[31]

Products

SAP's Business Suite (also known as SAP ERP 6.0 and previously known as SAP R/3) includes five enterprise applications: [32]

• Enterprise resource planning (ERP)
• Customer relationship management (CRM)
• Product life cycle management (PLM)
• Supply chain management (SCM)
• Supplier relationship management (SRM)

Other SAP product offerings include:

• Solutions for sustainability
• BusinessObjects intelligence platform
• BusinessObjects GRC solutions
• BusinessObjects EPM solutions
• Solutions for auto-ID and item serialization
• Manufacturing
• Service and Asset Management
• Solution extensions
• Alloy
• Duet

While its original products were typically used mainly by large organizations (e.g., Fortune 500 companies), SAP now also offers solutions targeted at small- and medium-size enterprises (SME): [33] [34]

• SAP Business All-in-One
• SAP Business ByDesign
• SAP Business One
• SAP BusinessObjects portfolio

Services

SAP supports more than 82,000 customers worldwide, with 140,000 installations in 120 countries. SAP's ecosystem consists of 51,500 team members, including 13,000 consulting and education employees and 7,700 service and support staff. SAP has 185,000 certified partner employees, 77 trainings centers, 7 global support centers and 9 custom development centers. [35]

SAP offers the following services and education to support its applications:

SAP Services: [36]

• SAP BusinessObjects consulting services
• Business process outsourcing
• Consulting services
• Custom development
• Financing for SAP solutions
• Product and service introduction
• SAP Application Management
• SAP Hosting
• SAP NetWeaver MDM
• Services for Banking-Industry
• Services for SOA
• Software maintenance and support
• Tools, technologies, and methodologies

SAP Education: [37]

● Learning and deployment strategy
● Project team training strategy
● Learning needs analysis
● Education readiness review
● Usage healthcheck

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.[38] SAP's top competitors include IBM, Microsoft and Oracle.

Oracle, SAP's major competitor, filed a case against SAP for malpractice and unfair competition in the California courts in March 2007. The complaint alleged that a Texas subsidiary, SAP TN (formerly TomorrowNow before being purchased 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 appropriate them for SAP's use.[39][40]. Later SAP admitted wrong-doing on smaller scale than Oracle claimed in the lawsuit. SAP admitted to inappropriate downloads; however the company denies the theft of any intellectual property.[41]

SAP provoked controversy and frustration among its users in 2008 by raising the cost of its maintenance contracts. The issue is the subject of intense discussion among user groups. [42]

See also

References

  1. ^ "SAP profit drops 6% in fourth quarter". Computerworld. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
  2. ^ Software Top 100: "The World's Largest Software Companies".
  3. ^ SAP. "Geschichte der SAP - Die ersten zehn Jahre[[Category:Articles containing German-language text]]" (in German). Retrieved 2008-01-29. {{cite web}}: URL–wikilink conflict (help)
  4. ^ http://www.sap.com/germany/about/company/geschichte/geschichte_1.epx
  5. ^ http://logistics.about.com/od/supplychainsoftware/a/SAP.htm
  6. ^ http://www.sap.com/about/company/history/index.epx
  7. ^ http://www.sap.com/about/company/history/index.epx
  8. ^ http://www.managingautomation.com/maonline/news/read/Shai_Agassi_Leaves_SAP_28302
  9. ^ http://www.sap.com/about/company/history/index.epx
  10. ^ http://www.computerworlduk.com/management/it-business/supplier-relations/news/index.cfm?newsid=10632
  11. ^ http://www.sap.com/company/investor/inbrief/markets/index.epx. Retrieved on 2007-10-15
  12. ^ http://www.sap.com/germany/company/investor/reports/gb2006/en/business/midmarket-solutions-2.html#1
  13. ^ http://www.sap.com/germany/company/investor/reports/gb2006/en/business/industry-solutions.html
  14. ^ http://www.asug.com
  15. ^ http://www.dsag.de
  16. ^ http://www.saug.com.au
  17. ^ http://www.sapusers.org
  18. ^ http://www.sap.com/communities/usergroups.epx
  19. ^ http://www.sugen.net
  20. ^ http://www.sap.com/ecosystem/partners/index.epx
  21. ^ http://www.sap.com/ecosystem/customers/directories/services.epx
  22. ^ http://www.sap.com/ecosystem/customers/directories/software.epx
  23. ^ http://www.sap.com/ecosystem/customers/directories/technology.epx
  24. ^ http://www.sap.com/ecosystem/customers/directories/services.epx
  25. ^ http://www.sap.com/about/newsroom/press.epx?pressid=9075
  26. ^ https://websmp202.sap-ag.de/~sapidp/011000358700006265482006E/
  27. ^ http://www.sap.com/about/company/saplabs/index.epx
  28. ^ http://www.sap.com/communities/index.epx
  29. ^ https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/bpx
  30. ^ http://www.sap.com/ecosystem/communities/escommunity/index.epx
  31. ^ http://www.sap.com/ecosystem/communities/ivn/index.epx
  32. ^ http://www.sap.com/solutions/index.epx
  33. ^ http://www.thespot4sap.com/Articles/TheBasics_1.asp
  34. ^ http://www.sap.com/solutions/sme/index.epx
  35. ^ http://www1.sap.com/services/index.epx)
  36. ^ http://www.sap.com/services/index.epx
  37. ^ http://www.sap.com/services/education/index.epx
  38. ^ Hoover's. "SAP Competitors".
  39. ^ "Oracle Sues SAP" (Press release). Oracle. 2007-03-22. Retrieved 2007-09-03.
  40. ^ "Oracle Sues SAP". oracle.com. Oracle. Retrieved 2007-09-03.
  41. ^ SAP admits 'inappropriate' Oracle downloads- Times Online
  42. ^ SAP faces user wrath over price hikes

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