For years, SAP wasn’t particularly concerned about dissuading customers, competitors and partners of the prevailing sentiment that it was a slow, methodical and, at times, plodding organization that abhorred change.
But as eCRM Guide reports, a regime change and a stagnant stock price has lit a fire under top executives charged with finding the German software maker’s placein the fast-growing cloud computing and on-demand software market.
This week, SAP rolled out Business ByDesign 2.5, a belated refresh of its flagship SaaS offering for both enterprise and small and midsized customers. It includes three new starter packages with tightly defined implementation timelines and prices– crucial details the company has historically kept extremely vague and concealed in past administrations.
As SAP struggles to make up for the two or three years it essentially squandered while competitors such as IBM, Oracle, Salesforce and Microsoft were plowing ahead with their grand SaaS plans, the company is trying to reshape its product line and its image with this update.
SAP kept its word to investors this week by releasing Business ByDesign 2.5, the oft-delayed on-demand enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) suite update that could make or break the company’s reputation in the burgeoning SaaS market.
Three years after SAP (NYSE: SAP) unveiled Business ByDesign, this latest version is now available in the U.S., the U.K., China, France, Germany and India. During its second-quarter earnings call last week, SAP officials promised customers and investors that it would release the update within a matter of a couple days.
Often criticized by analysts and customers who watched competitors such as Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) all roll out SaaS packages faster with greater features more competitive prices relative to their on-premise application suites, SAP is trying to make amends by launching a trio of starter packages with this release to entice customers of all sizes to jump aboard the SaaS bandwagon.
SAP officials said Business ByDesign 2.5 will be long on in-memory analytics, mobile devices support and enhanced lifecycle management apps to support large-scale, high-volume transaction loads for enterprise customers.
