SAP News

[ Integrated mar.com ]: "As revenue growth failed to meet expectations, SAP revealed a strategic shift in 4Q06 by introducing a new midmarket line of business that will operate in parallel to the traditional large enterprise business. The shift is significant for several reasons: 1) SAP has never put the midmarket under a P&L before; 2) the offering should directly address adoption hesitancy with a SaaS version; and 3) the midmarket plan smoothes the pathway of software consumption from SaaS to hosted to on-premise ownership. TBR believes the lessons SAP learns with the new midmarket business will prove invaluable as the company seeks to reignite growth among the large enterprise segment."

MySAP ERP 2005 upgrade challenges and advice: "Why should users upgrade to mySAP ERP 2005 instead of mySAP ERP 2004?
Riedel: It starts with maintenance. If you look at the maintenance piece, right now you are able to sit on the release much longer, which gives you, to a certain extent, a better return on investment. Also, with [mySAP ERP] 2005 you still have the flexibility to introduce new functionality. Those are two main things that you can't do with [mySAP ERP] 2004.
On top of that, look at all the effort SAP is putting into it. All the efforts within SAP are clearly focused right now toward 2005, the respective enhancement packages, and switch frame technology to integrate industry solutions. So the investments in regards to making 2005 a robust business process platform toward 2010 and beyond is something you can't find within 2004.
Therefore customers who are in the midst of a 2004 upgrade project should look at whether it would be a good idea to go to 2005. And that's really a very strong point for us. 2004 is a good release, but there are things you don't get, and consequently it's not enterprise SOA, and you won't see 2004 going toward enterprise SOA."

SAP signs Kagermann through '09 InfoWorld News 2007-02-15 By Nancy Weil, IDG News Service: "Kagermann turns 60 in July and the company's personnel policy requires that contracts of members of the executive board at and beyond that age be renegotiated with the supervisory board. His upcoming birthday and the need to negotiate his contract had fueled speculation that Léo Apotheker, SAP board member and president of global field operations, and Shai Agassi, president of the product and technology group, would take over as a dual-CEO team. "

SAP under fire: Did the company drop the ERP ball by chasing SOA?: "'For SAP, the year 2007 will be the most critical one in the recent history,' Angeli wrote. 'While the company is still working on revamping its product line, the competitors are preparing to attack. While the ABAP engine makes slight progress, the ERP components still wait for many enhancements requested by customers. This negligence will play well into the hands of SAP challengers, mainly Microsoft with its Dynamics AX.'
Rob Ericsson, president of L10 Systems of Roanoke, Va., agrees that Microsoft is set to give SAP trouble in the small and midsized market. He concedes that SAP's offerings are more robust, but Dynamics will probably be 'good enough' for many smaller companies that don't have millions to spend on IT.
'[Microsoft Dynamics] has a very nice user interface and probably lower TCO,' Ericsson said. 'I've worked with SAP in medium-sized businesses [less than $20 million in revenue], and it was a struggle for the internal IT department to maintain the SAP environment and keep it moving forward. Small companies have a difficult time attracting and retaining skilled SAP administrators and developers.'

Another common complaint seems to be that SAP has a tin ear for user input and slow turnaround once the company does get the message, according to some readers.

'I agree with Axel's analysis that SAP has been neglecting enhancement requests from customers, including our own client who is a gold partner,"

E2open hosted supply chain visibility software gets SAP Netweaver integration - Manufacturing Computer Solutions news article: "It means that mySAP ERP users can now directly extend their supply chain visibility and control, globally if need be, with direct and seamless integration via the NetWeaver Exchange Infrastructure using E2open’s Inter-company SCM version 6.0 order management solution.

And that applies to manufacturers’ supplier- and customer-facing processes – internal processes can be managed within SAP solutions via the E2open order management solution package, enabling electronic closed-loop request/response processes as far into the supply network as makes sense.

For example, if mySAP ERP creates a purchase order, it’s sent to SAP NetWeaver XI, forwarded to E2open and thus to suppliers’ systems. Suppliers then respond with an accept, reject, partial accept etc. E2open’s order management solution then sends the responses automatically back to SAP NetWeaver XI, and on to mySAP ERP.

The benefits: reduced implementation time and cost and improved data integrity through stable integra

SAP Signs Kagermann for Two More Years: "Henning Kagermann is staying on as CEO at SAP AG through May 31, 2007, the company's board announced on Feb. 15.
Kagermann's contract was set to expire at the end of the year. The 59-year-old executive will turn 60 in July; under SAP's bylaws, board member who are 60 and older have their employment contracts renewed on an annual basis.
ADVERTISEMENT The two-year contract for Kagermann is longer than some industry observers expected, but could be appropriate for SAP as it transitions to both its Enterprise Services Architecture—a roadmap on track to be completed in 2007—and develops a new suite of software for the mid-market."

Forrester Research: SAP Bolsters Midmarket Focus With Two New Offerings: "Forrester's take: Major apps vendors have been touting visual configuration tools for some time, but SAP appears close to actually delivering process-model driven configuration. The advanced design is consistent with an emerging trend in applications construction that Forrester is referring to as 'Dynamic Applications.' Flexible model-driven configuration is an important innovation that will transfer control of application management to the business user and enable greater business agility and lower IT support costs. The downside? The current state of SAP's process visualization tooling (as represented in the demonstration prototype), however, is too complex for a full transfer of ownership. Plus, A1S customers will only get access to a limited amount of the inherent flexibility that this model-driven architecture offers.
It should be noted that SAP did not demonstrate the A1S application user interface at its analyst event, only the configuration tools, so we have not evaluated the quality of the UI versus SAP All-in-One. SAP has promised to deliver further information on the product functionality, usability, architecture, and go-to-market strategy in the year to come. "

Oracle WebCenter Suite takes Web 2.0 to the enterprise: "Oracle is moving its Fusion initiative a significant step forward by providing customers with insight into its user interface strategy, according to Jim Murphy, an analyst with Boston, Mass.-based AMR Research.
'This is going to be a way of insulating users from the complexity that has to happen on the backend as Fusion occurs over the next six or seven years,' Murphy said.
WebCenter Suite, Murphy said, is also an important part of Oracle's plan to respond to some of the 'hype' surrounding Web 2.0 and keep pace with rival software vendors SAP AG, IBM and Microsoft, which also have plans in the market. IBM, for example, announced a new social networking platform called Connections at its recent Lotusphere conference. "

Rubber ERP - Express Computer: "The focus during this project was to ensure that the company was able to speedily demonstrate the value of ERP to the rest of the industry through a combination of process innovation, improved productivity and enhanced revenues or profitability.
Keeping these factors in mind, Patni integrated SAP’s ASAP methodology, its proprietary cost-benefit analysis framework called iReturns, and a comprehensive change management roadmap to achieve a smooth ERP implementation.

With the SAP implementation, Gujarat Reclaim is in a position to retrieve information about its inventory of raw materials of various grades and plan its manufacturing. It is now able to control critical parameters such as the cost of packing, freight and material rejections."

CRM software rankings tell a familiar tale: "The Cambridge, Mass.-based research firm named Siebel CRM (from Redwood Shores, Calif.-based Oracle Corp.) and Germany's SAP AG as the leaders in its latest Wave report on enterprise CRM suites.
'The CRM market has been in a lot of turmoil,' said Bill Band, principal analyst at Forrester and co-author of the report. 'Some may say [Siebel and SAP] are the only two vendors people think about. But that's not really the case. There's a wide range of other players out there.'
Forrester separates the CRM market into three categories: enterprise CRM suites; midmarket CRM suites; and CRM specialty vendors. In the enterprise category, Forrester evaluated 13 applications. The Siebel and SAP applications emerged on top, but there were plenty of applications Forrester considered strong contenders, including Infor CRM, Epiphany, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Onyx CRM, Oracle's E-Business Suite CRM, PeopleSoft CRM and Siebel CRM OnDemand, RightNow, and Salesforce.com."

Oracle in early talks for Intec Business Money Telegraph: "Charles Phillips, Oracle's president, met Intec's chief executive Kevin Adams in central London earlier this month. Although Intec has yet to receive an offer from Oracle, a potential transaction has been discussed.
Intec, which produces billing systems for telecoms companies, has beaten Oracle in two recent competitive tenders. Shares in Intec – hit by a profit warning last week – bounced 3 per cent on Friday in anticipation of a bid.
advertisement
Any successful bidder is likely to have to pay a substantial premium to the current share price of 33.75p. General Atlantic, the US private equity heavyweight, built a 23 per cent stake in Intec at an average price of 63p – almost twice the current price."

Solix unveils Google enterprise search for Oracle E-Business suite: "The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based software maker's new Solix ARCHIVEjinni with Google enterprise search employs the Google Search Appliance to let users find and retrieve data across production and archived instances of Oracle's database and E-Business suite applications. The company says the new software is the first search-enabled archiving system for enterprise data.
Solix recently unveiled the new enterprise search capabilities along with two other new products: Solix MIGRATEjinni and an Oracle-validated non-trigger version of Solix's flagship ARCHIVEjinni software.
Solix MIGRATEjinni allows users to migrate data across applications and includes data mapping and conversion capabilities and a graphical user interface. The company says the software lets users efficiently switch data and business processes from current applications to new ones as they're deployed. MIGRATEjinni also includes a data-migration testing environment. "

Kannan's Site - SAP CEO Professor Henning Kagermann -an avid mathematician: "Q: You have a reputation for being an avid mathematician. What mathematical feats do
you find most amazing?
SAP CEO Professor Henning Kagermann (Laughing) : Well, actually, whenever we travel together, my assistant gives me math problems. The achievements that impress me the most are the ones made around 200 years ago. At that time, Euler developed
the equation ei π = –1. For me this is the most beautiful accomplishment achieved in mathematics to this day."

:: SMBedge Features :: Parkway Group Healthcare Chooses Oracle: "Parkway Group Healthcare has selected the Oracle E-Business Suite to streamline the back-office administration functions of its hospitals and related subsidiaries, a move it expects would reduce the total cost of managing business operations while supporting its long-term business objective of delivering excellent healthcare service and high-quality patient care across Asia.

The Oracle E-Business Suite, an integrated suite of back-office applications with healthcare-specific functionality, is used by more than 300 leading healthcare providers worldwide. Parkway will leverage the Oracle solution to lower the total cost of ownership as compared to their previous back office suite, achieve transactional efficiencies through automated and streamlined business processes, and enable more informed decisions and improved operations through enterprise-wide daily business intelligence.

The Oracle E-Business Suite back-office applications selected by Parkway include Human Resource Management (HRMS), Financial Management (FMS), Asset Maintenance (EAM) and Materials Management (SCM). "

Oracle updates licensing models: "The company yesterday announced that it has streamlined pricing across its applications portfolio, including JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, Siebel and Oracle E-Business Suite products.
With more than 20 acquisitions under its belt over the last few years, Oracle says the newly announced pricing model is designed to create consistency across its various product lines.
The new licensing program includes the Component Model, the Custom Applications Suite Model, the Enterprise Applications Model and the SMB Model.
Oracle says the Component Model is 'a simple a la carte' plan that offers on demand, or utility-based pricing.

The Custom Application Suite Model offers the ability to create custom bundles based on specific business needs.
The Enterprise Applications Model sets prices based on specific metrics, such as a firm's annual revenue, and it offers unlimited use of applications. "

SAP CRM projects at risk, Gartner says: "Through the end of 2008, 25% of CRM projects will be postponed or cancelled, according to Gartner.
This rate of postponement and cancellation is largely a result of a CRM skill shortage -- of consultants and systems integrators in particular -- the Stamford, Conn.-based research firm says in a recent report.
SAP CRM projects are more likely than projects involving other CRM vendors to run into these problems.
'Demand outstrips supply for skilled, experienced SAP CRM consultants,' said Matthew Goldman, research director for Gartner. That's thanks not only to new SAP CRM sales, but because many customers held off on deploying CRM until they finished their ERP rollout. "

Satisfaction Up at Oracle: "Upon completion of its latest survey of customers, Oracle today announced that satisfaction levels from companies relying on JD Edwards, Oracle® E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft and Siebel applications continue to accelerate. The results show that on average, customer satisfaction has increased by 16 percent over the past 12 months, and that 98 percent of Oracle Applications customers plan to use, expand or upgrade their current implementations.


JD Edwards, Oracle E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft and Siebel applications continue to accelerate


Common reasons cited by customers for the high-level of satisfaction include breadth of product portfolio, product innovation and world-class support. Customer satisfaction is also being driven by “Applications Unlimited,” Oracle’s long-term plans to provide continued enhancements to current Oracle Applications beyond the delivery of Oracle Fusion Applications in 2008. "

Telecoms and Software News: "guidance
Last night, Oracle released its results for the quarter to 30 November, its fiscal Q2 2007. Total revenues were $4.16 billion, up 26% on last year's revenues, or 23% at constant currencies. Operating income was $1.36 billion up 22% (16% constant currencies), and though operating margin declined to 32.6% from 33.9% a year ago, last year's margin was boosted by the reversal of litigation expenses, and without this the margins would have been almost identical.
Total EMEA revenues were up by 30% to $1.42 billion. However, since the average value of the Euro was 6% higher in the quarter just closed compared to last year and in the UK (Oracle's largest market outside the US) the pound was higher by almost 7%, the EMEA revenues were probably up by around 24% in constant currencies. Revenues from the Americas were up by 25% to $2.17 billion while Asia-Pacific revenues were up 22% to $571 million."

Top gun says Indian, Chinese engineers threaten high-tech - Haaretz - Israel News: "'We cannot wait,' said Agassi. 'If we wait, bad things will happen. Millions of new engineers in India and China threaten Israeli high-tech. Israel has to wake up. The Chinese and Indian wave could engulf us. We won't even feel it. One day, we just won't exist.'

Agassi, 38, once named by Time Magazine as one of the world's 100 most influential people, warned Israel is making a terrible mistake in failing to prepare itself for the high-tech awakening in the East.

'Israel produces 8,000 engineers each year. By comparison, China produces 1.5 million engineers annually. The venture capital industry supplies 20,000 salaries, but Israel puts out only 8,000 engineers. We are coming to a halt,' said Agassi. 'Israel should enable import of Indian and Chinese engineers to the local high-tech industry. After staying here for a few years, they will go back, and in five or 10 years, they will enable Israeli companies to break into India and China'. "

Column: Is there an SAP PMO in your future?: "SAP's recent decision to package upgrade functionality into 'bite-size' chunks will drive changes in the way SAP customers deal with organizational and governance issues. The complexity of implementing and integrating a continual stream of upgrade packages for mySAP ERP 2005 creates a need for strict upgrade methodology and proven upgrade process excellence.
SAP functional enhancement packages are smaller in scope than the larger, monolithic upgrades of the past, but the potential number of these upgrades and their impact on the numerous instances of SAP installed across an enterprise will necessitate changes.
Given the challenge, customers should consider establishing a Program Management Office (PMO) dedicated to developing a strategic upgrade roadmap and managing the ongoing upgrade process in a manner that ensures that the new SAP functional enhancement packages create minimal disruption and tightly align with specific business process innovation needs. "

Mon Blog: 2007, the birth of Fusion applications.: "Two years ago when Oracle announced this, I was skeptical. I couldn't believe that it is possible to bring out an application suite that has the best features of Peoplesoft, JD Edwards, Oracle and of course Siebel which came in later, by 2008. I never doubted the technical expertise that Oracle has but it has always been the schedule that baffled me. I put this very question to John himself when he was here in Hyderabad a few months ago. He did not give me any plan or statistic but he just told me ' Heck, I do not care if you or Larry believe that the schedule is unrealistic. I believe that it can be done.' Talk about confidence huh!

Given that the fusion suite is going to include the best features of all the product lines and that it is going to be built on the next generation technology stack, I think its time I start blogging on the very definition of 'Fusion application'. I mean basic things like what does it look like, what will it be built on and how the offering is going to differentiate itself from SAP's products in the market."

SAP CFO says aims to sustain double-digit growth Regulatory News Reuters.com: "But Brandt said SAP's priority for spending its cash pile would be small acquisitions. SAP had 2.8 billion euros in liquid assets at Sept. 30.
'We paid between 400 and 500 million euros for the acquisitions of U.S.-based Virsa this year. This order of magnitude is also thinkable in the future. Most transactions, however, will continue to be considerably smaller,' he said."

How To Succeed In Business - Forbes.com: "Léo Apotheker, 53, runs sales, marketing and operations from SAP's base in Walldorf, Germany. The German-born, no-nonsense executive helped ensure SAP's 6.5% annual sales growth the past five years.
Apotheker's competition is Shai Agassi, who runs technology strategy and development out of Palo Alto, California. At age 7 the Israeli was programming on punch cards. In 2001, at 32, he sold his software firm TopTier to sap for $400 million. A year later he joined SAP's executive board, the youngest member by more than a decade and the only non-German.
The two contenders have been subtly trying to trip each other in the race to the top. One former strategist for SAP says Apotheker, in executive meetings, has been frequently lamenting the pace of technology development and tells his best salespeople to let Kagermann know when the software isn't good enough to sell (a sure shot against Agassi's efforts). Agassi is rumored to be including Kagermann on upbeat progress e-mails to his staff, a change from the past. Insiders say Apotheker will win. If so, Agassi would be ripe for poaching, says tech headhunter Mel D. Connet."

Say what? 'Shai is meaningless' News.blog CNET News.com: "Shai Agassi, the president of SAP's product and technology group, is a rising star at the company. The 38-year-old is rising so fast that he is in line for the position of CEO at one of the largest software companies in the world.
In response to a question regarding how long it may take before the industry can say with confidence that his ideas are working out, he responded:
'I think, first, it's not about Shai. Shai is meaningless. In the overall scheme of things, this is not about an individual; it's about our 12,000-(engineer) organization. They're all-important and they're all contributing.'
Maybe he needs to learn to talk himself up more. "

SAP INFO: "This complexity can be overcome with the Maintenance Optimizer, which has been available in SAP Solution Manager since December 2006. As of April 2007, it will be the only source for downloading Support Packages or legal changes for SAP NetWeaver 2004s and applications based on this, such as mySAP ERP 2005. The Maintenance Optimizer can be used to maintain other SAP solutions, or the previous procedure can still be used.

New maintenance process
As soon as the customer has selected the product version to be maintained, the Maintenance Optimizer displays the relevant corrections directly – both the Support Packages (Stacks) and legal changes. The customer therefore no longer needs to look for them on the SAP Service Marketplace. This ensures that all the required packages are implemented and the SAP solution is available again in consistent form, once maintenance has been completed. "

: "EZ ERP builds on HCL's proposition of Integrated Services approach that combines Infrastructure services along with Packaged Application, associated services and required hardware.
Designed for Small and Medium Chemical and Process industry vertical, the pre-configured EZ ERP pack is available at two defined price points - Rs 79 lakh and Rs 89 lakh, with flexibility to scale the pre-configured package up or down.
Nagaraj Bhargava, Director, Marketing and Alliance, SAP India, said, 'The Chemical Industry in India, which has a long and productive history, is now experiencing rapid growth and expansion, both domestically and globally. Through this partnership, which combines the proven chemical industry specific solution and best business processes from SAP, with the domain - implementation experience of HCL, we look forward to delivering sustained value to midsized organizations in the chemical vertical.'"

Oracle's Upgrade Blitz - Internet News by InformationWeek: "Oracle president Charles Phillips said the new releases fulfill the promise of Oracle's Applications Unlimited program--the vendor's pledge to update and support its applications, including those it acquired, even after Fusion ships. 'When we made all these acquisitions, understandably there were some concerns,' Phillips said.
Oracle has built closer ties among its application suites in part by linking all the apps to Oracle Fusion Middleware, by providing a common management framework, and by sharing capabilities such as business intelligence, business process analysis, and identity and access management. Customers, for example, can use a single set of business intelligence dashboards to examine data from Oracle financial applications, Siebel CRM apps, and JD Edwards manufacturing software.
John Wookey, the senior VP leading Fusion development, says it's on schedule for 2008, and Oracle will release details about the software in the next few months. "

SAP targets strong US growth this year - Yahoo! News: "Nevertheless, sales growth in 2006 was disappointing at only 11.7 percent, short of the expectations of both analysts and the group itself.
'We had headwind from the forex side,' McDermott said. He rejected suggestions that there was any fundamental weakness.
'2006 was a very strong year. After attaining records in 17 previous quarters, it's difficult to carry on achieving high percentage growth rates. It's normal that the growth rate slows when the base has expanded,' he said.
SAP's archrival in the US is Oracle, but the German giant has managed to gain market share in the region, McDermott said."

Telecoms and Software News: "Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said in December 2006 that search functionality was a key function for Oracle's future growth, and that 'Fusion applications would have search built in as a primary navigation tool'. This release, which includes the availability of an embedded version, throws Oracle right into the centre of the enterprise search market place and will tempt many existing and future Oracle technology users to stick with software from Redwood Shores rather than look for third party tools."

Oracle Promises Easier Upgrade to E-Business Software Suite: "Jan Wagner, president of the independent Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG), said Version 12 demonstrates Oracle’s commitment to continued investment in its existing applications, even as it moves forward with a plan to combine them into a best-of-breed product line. “It shows users have chosen an application with a future,” he said.

Wagner is the London-based director of financial operations and internal review at NATO, which uses Oracle’s 11i financial applications. Having seen previews of Version 12 before the launch, he noted that one of the enhancements is an improved reporting capability using Oracle’s Java-based XML Publisher software, which is part of the Fusion Middleware suite. "

Siebel 8.0 leaves users with CRM upgrade quandary: "Siebel 8.0 is now certified on Oracle Fusion Middleware and features support for non-Oracle technologies like IBM WebSphere, BEA WebLogic, SQL Server 2005 and IBM DB2. The task-based user interface is designed to increase the productivity of novice users by guiding them through unfamiliar tasks. Real-time business process change allows line-of-business employees to change rules and processes with a drag-and-drop tool that requires no coding. The new search tool allows users to retrieve information inside and outside the CRM application. Oracle Enterprise Search 10g is provided out of the box with Siebel 8.0.
Additionally, Abbo said, customers can more easily deploy the application in modules. For example, a company could start by deploying the service application and follow up with marketing.
'It's a tremendous vote of confidence that a year later the product is rolling out,' said Mary Wardley, analyst with Framingham, Mass.-based IDC. 'With the benefits of middleware it wraps together well. As Oracle's core CRM product, there's a lot of weight behind it.' "

Oracle launches five new products: "Today's news touched on the old -- Oracle's continued pledge of support; the new -- Oracle's new versions; and the future -- Oracle's plan to move to service-oriented architecture (SOA), which Oracle will reach through its Fusion Middleware, according to Phillips. The announcement was trumpeted as a continuation of Oracle's Applications Unlimited program, through which the Redwood Shores, Calif.-based company has pledged not only to continue to support but to develop the application suites it has acquired.
'When we made these acquisitions, understandably there was some concern, so we announced Applications Unlimited to give people a framework and [an idea of] what they can anticipate,' Phillips said. 'Whatever product you're using, we'll support that product for a lifetime -- not just support but continued new releases.'

All five products have been certified on Oracle's Fusion Middleware, allowing users to form tighter integrations and take advantage of Oracle Business Intelligence. Additionally, Fusion Middleware will underpin all of the applications Oracle will build and update under Fusion, the effort to combine its many applications under one umbrella. Fusion is still on schedule for "

Moneycontrol: "i-flex and Oracle won their first joint customer last month in the US retail banking sector. The Connecticut-based People’s Bank, which has assets of 11 billion dollars, chose Flexcube to replace its legacy technology. i-flex wants to gear up for the expected conversion wave in the US banking industry. "

At the conference, SAP CEO Henning Kagermann outlined plans to introduce a new midmarket solution offering breakthrough innovations in faster, lower-risk implementation, continuous adaptability and easier user adoption. The new solution will deliver the benefits of enterprise SOA under a new "try-run-adapt" model leveraging the Internet and telesales, and can be managed entirely remotely, from day-to-day operations to upgrades. The solution is beginning initial market validation, and SAP plans to introduce more details about the product road map and its associated components at an event later in the current quarter, Kagermann said.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/070124/aqw043.html?.v=1

Software maker SAP's 4th-quarter profit rises, but outlook depresses shares - International Herald Tribune: "But markets and analysts were focused on software sales, which are a key benchmark for companies like SAP and rival Oracle Corp., which use them to generate revenue from maintenance and consulting.
Software sales rose 7 percent to €1.26 billion (US$1.64 billion). While they increased 13 percent in Europe and the Middle East, they were static in the Americas and rose by only 2 percent in the Asia-Pacific region.
For the full year, SAP said software sales increased 10 percent to €3.07 billion (US$3.99 billion). The company already had warned on Jan. 11 that software sales would come in around that level, missing previous guidance of 15 percent to 17 percent growth.
SAP said it cut €30 million (US$39 million) from its third-quarter software revenue sales after it amended a contract with a U.S. customer, which it did not identify."

MySAP ERP 2005 upgrades increasing, ASUG president says: "For example, at TechEd 2006, Shai Agassi, SAP's products and technology group president, said the company would not have a major new version of mySAP ERP until 2010. Until that time, the company will periodically release updated features in bunches called enhancement packages.
'Prior to that announcement many customers were waiting for 'the next release' to adopt,' Masney said. 'With the clear market message that there's not going to be a 'next release' until 2010, we are seeing a large uptick in 2007 in the number of upgrades that customers are undertaking due to this predictability.'
In addition, many customers who have not upgraded from older versions are coming off maintenance plans. SAP's '5-1-2' maintenance strategy -- five years of maintenance, one year of extended maintenance for an additional 2% and two years for an additional 4% above the annual maintenance fee -- means that users of older versions are now facing a choice, Masney explained.
'Certainly there is some incentive to take advantage of upgrading to a supported product, because many of the older products are no longer on maintenance,' Masney said. 'When the core of your business and IT platform is mySAP ERP, certainly that's a part of the incentive to upgrade.' "

SAP users slow to migrate to mySAP, opens door for Oracle: "An estimated 95% of SAP customers are not using mySAP applications, keeping the door slightly ajar for Oracle Corp. to attract those customers to its software suite, according to analysts at Forrester Research Inc.

Forrester estimates between 90% and 95% of customers remain on SAP R/3 Enterprise applications, and Oracle executives want to figure out a way to reach those customers with an alternative, said Ray Wang, a senior analyst at Forrester Research. Oracle is increasing its presence in vertical industries by acquiring companies to prove expertise, Wang said. "

Investor's Business Daily: SAP Targets Midmarket For Growth: "IBD: Has your thinking changed about SAP's organic growth strategy vs. Oracle's acquisition approach?
Kagermann: We have said we'll focus mainly on organic growth, and that is the reason why we will invest, to build innovation ourselves.
If there are opportunities for smaller acquisitions, we'll consider them as in the past. But there will not be major ones. There is no change on that point.
IBD: How do you respond to investors concerned about threats to your market-leading position, both from Oracle and smaller firms such as Salesforce.com? (CRM)
Kagermann: That is not happening. We have a higher win rate than ever against Oracle in large accounts. And Salesforce offers something for sales force automation, but they're not comparable to what we're doing with a full suite (for business software). They are not in the same market compared to the depth and breadth of our products."

SAP shares slump on disappointing 2007 outlook Jayed.us: "Shares in SAP, the world’s leading maker of business software, have tumbled on the stock exchange here after the group warned that profitability could decline slightly this year. In mid-morning trading in Frankfurt, SAP shares were showing a loss of 2.03 euros or 5.29 percent at 36.34 euros, making it the biggest loser on the blue-chip DAX 30 index. Investors were disappointed by the group’s warning that increased investment could eat into SAP’s bottom line in 2007."

SAP grows in market share: "Q4 represented SAP's 12th consecutive quarter of double-digit software license revenue growth (in constant currencies) globally. Q4 also represented SAP's 17th consecutive quarter of double-digit software license revenue growth (in constant currencies) in the Americas region. 2006 represented another year of strong market share gains for SAP.
SAP's worldwide share of Core Enterprise Applications vendors increased to 24%, a gain of 2.8 percentage points for the full year. By the end of 2006, SAP's market share of core enterprise applications was more than 2x the next largest vendor. In Q4 2006 alone, SAP signed more software licenses than Oracle did in the full year. 2006 represented the first year, since 2000, that SAP has recorded double-digit software revenue growth (in constant currencies) in each of its sales regions (Americas, Asia Pacific, and EMEA).


mySAP ERP / BPP adoption is going well. SAP NetWeaver revenue grew 55 percent in 2006. SAP had 4,000 productive mySAP ERP customers at the end of 2006, out of a total of 7,300 mySAP ERP customers. Initial customer feedback has been very positive. "

[ Integrated mar.com ]: "The executive appointments within SAP's SME organization include:
-- SME Indirect Channel: Terrance Scerri is senior vice president of SME Indirect Channel, responsible for overseeing the SAP PartnerEdge indirect channel program, extending and diversifying SAP's partner ecosystem while ensuring that channel program investments improve operational excellence, strengthen partner performance and increase customer satisfaction. He succeeds Donna Troy, executive vice president, who will leave SAP to pursue other personal and professional interests. Scerri joined SAP in early 2006, and in his position as senior vice president of global small business sales, reported to Troy.
Two new regions senior VPs were also announced -- Tom Kindermans as senior vice president SME in EMEA Central, and Stephen Watts as senior vice president SME in Asia Pacific. Rodney Seligmann remains executive vice president, US and North America. "

SAP unveils sales and operations app - 02/Feb/2007 - ComputerWeekly.com

SAP has extended its range of SAP xApps composite applications, the firm’s new range of quickly deployable applications that solve specialised business challenges across diverse industries.
The newest SAP xApp is designed to help companies overcome hurdles to achieving operational, sales and financial goals.
The new SAP xApp Sales and Operations Planning (SAP xSOP) composite application will help companies align business units on the best-suited, lowest-risk plan for financial success, said SAP.
The application will enable finance, sales, purchasing and production departments to collect, analyse and track all sales and operations planning (S&OP) data in a central location.
This will dramatically reduce the time information workers spend hunting down data, and enhancing information visibility for decision makers, said the supplier.

It’s not a technique with which I am familiar though it sounds an aweful lot like the conversations I have with customers pretty much on a daily basis. I gather the exercise was conducted in the context of sales. I reproduce the entire list because each comment holds interest:

• Get to the point - give me the info I need right away and in a no-BS fashion
• Stay away from the SAPanese
• I want to make a decision on whether to explore further or to go away… and I want to make that decision quickly
• KEEP THE DESIGN SIMPLE
• They threw up all over the content
• Show me exactly what the components are and how much they cost
• Overall, give us a buyer’s view not a technologist views of the world
• As far as the products themselves, tell us what they do right away
• Communities.. get me right into the forums and I want to see references and case studies, events calendar, and they want to be tied geographically to other users and partner offerings

I don’t know why anyone should be surprised at the general tenor of the comments. And definitely not inside SAP. I am surprised that SAP found it necessary to conduct a specific study to elucidate this information.

http://www.accmanpro.com/2007/02/02/selling-the-truth-at-sap/

Oracle apps launch, short on glitz, long on reassurance InfoWorld News 2007-02-01 By China Martens, IDG News Service: "'We thought we did a lot of work pitching Apps Unlimited at OpenWorld, but we found afterwards users still had a lot of questions,' said John Wookey, senior vice president of applications at Oracle, in an interview at the event. Oracle's OpenWorld user conference was in October in San Francisco. Although JD Edwards World A9.1 shipped last April, the other products have only recently become available, for instance, EBS 12.0 debuted last week.
Capabilities across the board included role-based analytics, business intelligence dashboards, master data management and XML-based reporting. Specific improvements included a new task-based user interface and enterprise search functionality in Siebel 8.0 and new human capital management features such as talent management in PeopleSoft 9.0
Wookey also noted that plans are under way for the next releases of all the products. 'Apps Unlimited is not a one-time thing, it will go forward,' he said. For instance, Siebel 8.1, which will include a focus on self-service capabilities, should be out late this year. "

egoboss: SaaS vendors welcome SAP to hosted midmarket party: "'We think it's fantastic,' said Bruce Francis, vice president of corporate strategy at Salesforce.com, talking Friday about SAP's announcement. 'It feels like we should send Henning Kagermann a fruit basket. He's just blown wide open accounts that were welded shut.'
Previously, when Salesforce.com would approach some companies, they'd be told the user wasn't interested, according to Francis. 'The customer would say, 'We're an SAP shop and SAP doesn't do on-demand,'' he said. Now that SAP has formally committed to a full on-demand offering, Salesforce.com is more likely to be included in any future software evaluations made by those users, Francis added.
In a Thursday e-mail to NetSuite staff, CEO Zach Nelson also welcomed SAP's news, describing it as the vendor's 'IBM moment.'
Nelson recalled a comment his former boss Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison made in relation to a previous competitive situation. Nelson wrote, 'Larry Ellison once told me that the best thing that happened to Oracle in the early days was IBM’s preannouncement of a relational database years before it was available. It gave credibility to the then-new idea of relational databases and created demand that IBM could not fulfill.'"

E-Commerce News: CRM Systems: Oracle Bid Rumor Boosts SAP Shares: "Shares in SAP (NYSE: SAP) climbed to the top of the German ST0XX 50 in Monday morning deals amid renewed talk that U.S. software giant Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) will bid for the German group, with some dealers saying they have heard the bid will be priced at 38.50 euros (US$49.78) per share, dealers said.
'There's talk that Oracle will bid 38.5 euros per share for SAP,' said one London-based dealer, although he said he didn't think there is much substance to the rumor."

SAP jumps into on-demand ERP market: "SAP historically has pushed companies to install and run SAP software within their own four walls. Responding to market pressure from smaller, more agile start-ups such as Salesforce.com Inc., SAP just last year offered its first on-demand product, a CRM application. Last week, SAP CEO Henning Kagermann said his company will offer a complete set of hosted and on-demand applications for mid-market customers that want to get applications up and running quickly with very little customization.
Customers will be able to set up and test the software on their own before making a purchase, using what Kagermann called a 'try, run and adapt' model. 'We assume customers will set up their own test system and play around with their own data,' he said. 'We want to eliminate risk altogether.'"

The Four Hundred--SAP to Chase the SMB Market--Again: "SAP currently has 38,000 customers and has a goal of reaching 100,000 customers by the end of 2010. The A1S product is the lynchpin of that strategy. If IBM doesn't have the A1S product in development on the System i5 platform--well, I don't know what I will do. But I know what Big Blue will do: miss out on a huge opportunity.
Not everyone is welcoming SAP to a renewed effort in the midrange. 'One has to wonder if SAP truly understands the mid-market or whether this strategy is solely an effort to detract attention from the slowing growth of their Fortune 500 base,' said Jim Schaper, chief executive officer at Infor. 'Medium-sized customers do not want all-in-one products that need massive customization efforts to address their line of business. That approach is a relic of the past, when ERP implementations were akin to corporate open heart surgery. Infor has built a strong growing company on delivering solutions with industry experience already built in. The bottom line is that customers want more functionality, less complexity, and the lowest total cost of ownership. That is not the plan we see from SAP.'
Infor, which is a privately held company that includes the former MAPICS, SSA, Baan, Geac, and myriad other software firms, has over 70,000 customers and $2.1 billion in sales. Infor is the largest application software company in the IBM midrange, ahead of Oracle's JD Edwards unit. "

The upgrade, delivered as part of Oracle's Applications Unlimited program--its long-term strategy for continuing to develop current Oracle apps--is just one component of Oracle's latest wave of releases. In conjunction with its Siebel CRM rollout, the company also announced the newest installments of four other product lines including its organic and acquired suites: Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12, Oracle's PeopleSoft Enterprise Release 9.0, JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 8.12, and JD Edwards World A9.1.
A major area of focus for Siebel 8, according to Abbo, is ease of use; a central facet of Siebel 8's shored up functionality is its task-based user interface. Rob Bois, research director at AMR Research, says AMR's recent surveys are still showing relatively high CRM failure rates, and survey respondents usually point to either inadequate training or poor usability in the application as a key factor. The task-based UI "takes a lot of the clutter out of the way and concentrates users only on the necessary pieces of information they need to complete a task," Bois says.
http://www.destinationcrm.com/articles/default.asp?ArticleID=6663