| Type | Aktiengesellschaft |
|---|---|
| Traded as | ISIN: DE0007164600 FWB: SAP NYSE: SAP |
| Industry | Computer software |
| Founded | Weinheim, Germany (1972) |
| Founder(s) | Dietmar Hopp Hans-Werner Hector Hasso Plattner Klaus Tschira Claus Wellenreuther |
| Headquarters | Walldorf, Germany |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Key people | Bill McDermott (Co-CEO, Global Field Operations) Jim Hagemann Snabe (Co-CEO, Business Solutions & Technology) Gerhard Oswald (COO) Werner Brandt (Finance & Administration) Hasso Plattner (Chairman of the supervisory board) |
| Products | SAP Business Suite SAP ERP SAP CRM SAP SCM SAP SRM SAP PLM SAP NetWeaver SAP Sybase ASE SAP Business One SAP Business ByDesign SAP Business All-in-One SAP Rapid Deployment Solutions SAP Business Objects portfolio List of SAP products |
| Revenue | €12.464 billion (2010)[1] |
| Operating income | €2.589 billion (2010)[1] |
| Profit | €1.816 billion (2010)[1] |
| Total assets | €20.718 billion (2010)[1] |
| Total equity | €9.757 billion (2010)[1] |
| Employees | 53,513 in over 50 countries (31 December 2010)[1] |
| Website | SAP.com |
SAP AG (ISIN: DE0007164600, FWB: SAP, NYSE: SAP) is a German software corporation that makes enterprise software to manage business operations and customer relations. Headquartered in Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg, with regional offices around the world, SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software.[2] The company's best known products are its enterprise resource planning application (SAP ERP), SAP BusinessObjects software, and most recently, Sybase mobile products and in-memory computing appliance SAP HANA.
SAP was founded in June 1972 as Systemanalyse and Programmentwicklung ("System Analysis and Program Development")[3] by five former IBM engineers in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg (Dietmar Hopp, Klaus Tschira, Hans-Werner Hector, Hasso Plattner, and Claus Wellenreuther).[3] The acronym was later changed to stand for Systeme, Anwendungen und Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung ("Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing").
As part of the Xerox exit strategy from the computer industry, Xerox retained IBM to migrate their business systems to IBM technology. As part of IBM's compensation for the migration, IBM acquired the SDS/SAPE software, reportedly for a contract credit of $80,000. The SAPE software was given by IBM to the founding ex-IBM employees in exchange for founding stock provided to IBM, reportedly 8%. Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) was SAP's first ever customer in 1972.[4]
In 1973 the SAP R/1 solution was launched.[5] Six years later, in 1979, SAP launched SAP R/2.[5] In 1981, SAP brought a re-designed product to market. However, SAP R/2 did not improve until the period between 1985 and 1990. SAP developed and released several versions of R/3 in 1992 through 1995. By the mid-1990s, SAP followed the trend from mainframe computing to client-server architectures. The development of SAP’s internet strategy with mySAP.com redesigned the concept of business processes (integration via Internet).[3] SAP was awarded Industry Week’s Best Managed Companies in 1999.[6]
In 1976, "SAP GmbH" was founded, and moved its headquarters the following year to Walldorf. SAP AG became the company's official name after the 2005 annual general meeting. AG is short for Aktiengesellschaft (corporation).
In August 1988, SAP GmbH transferred into SAP AG (a corporation by German law), and public trading started 4 November. Shares are listed on the Frankfurt and Stuttgart stock exchanges.[3]
In 1995, SAP was included in the German stock index DAX. On 22 September 2003, SAP was included in the Dow Jones STOXX 50.[7] In 1991, Prof. Dr. Henning Kagermann joined the board; Dr. Peter Zencke became a board member in 1993.[8] Claus Heinrich,[9] and Gerhard Oswald[10] have been members of the SAP Executive Board since 1996. Two years later, in 1998, the first change at the helm took place. Dietmar Hopp and Klaus Tschira moved to the supervisory board and Dietmar Hopp was appointed Chairman of the supervisory board. Henning Kagermann was appointed as Co-Chairman and CEO of SAP next to Hasso Plattner. Werner Brandt joined SAP in 2001 as a member of the SAP Executive Board and Chief Financial Officer.[11] Léo Apotheker was a member of the SAP Executive Board and president of Global Customer Solutions & Operations from 2002, and was appointed Deputy CEO in 2007. Apotheker became co-CEO alongside Kagermann in 2008.
Henning Kagermann became the sole CEO of SAP in 2003.[12] In February 2007, his contract was extended until 2009. 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 the organization.[13] In April 2008, along with the announcement of Apotheker as co-CEO, the SAP supervisory board also appointed three new members to the SAP Executive Board, effective 1 July 2008: Corporate Officers Erwin Gunst, Bill McDermott, and Jim Hagemann Snabe.[14] With the retirement of Kagermann in May 2009, Apotheker took over as the sole CEO. He was replaced by new co-CEOs Bill McDermott, head of field organization, and Jim Hagemann Snabe, head of product development, effective 7 February,
In November, 2010, SAP lost a $1.3 billion intellectual property law suit (related to the actions of the SAP subsidiary TomorrowNow) to Oracle Corporation – cited as the largest software piracy judgment in history.[15] SAP filed post-trial motions to lower the damage awarded to Oracle and stated it may also file an appeal.[16] On 9 September, 2011, the verdict was overturned by Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton, who called the penalty "grossly excessive."[17]
In December 2011, SAP AG agreed to buy SuccessFactors Inc. for $3.4 billion in cash or 52 percent more than the share closing price on December 2, 2011. With the acquisition, SAP AG will become more competitive with Oracle Corp. in the Cloud computing market.[18]
In 1988 SAP began partnerships with educational institutions around the world. The initial partnerships were with educational institutions in Germany, but in 1995 SAP rolled out the SAP University Alliances Program (SAP UAP) in the America. The first university member in the Americas was California State University, Chico (CSU, Chico). CSU, Chico began the partnership with SAP in 1995 and became the founding member of the SAP UAP in 1996. Since that time the SAP UAP has grown to more than 1000 educational institutions around the world and more than 200 in North America at this time (2011). Currently (2011) more than 250,000 students around the world have access to a SAP system through the SAP University Alliances.
SAP is the world's largest business software company and the third-highest revenue independent software provider (as of 2007).[19] It operates in four geographic regions: EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa), AMERICA (United States and Canada), LAC (Latin America and Caribbean), and APJ (Asia Pacific and Japan), which represents Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand, India, Greater China, and Southeast Asian countries. In addition, SAP operates a network of 115 subsidiaries, and has R&D (Research & Development) facilities around the globe in Germany, India, the US, Canada, France, Brazil, Turkey, China, Hungary, Israel, Ireland and Bulgaria.
SAP focuses on six industry sectors: process industries, discrete industries, consumer industries, service industries, financial services, and public services.[20] It offers more than 25 industry solution portfolios for large enterprises[21] and more than 550 micro-vertical solutions for midsize companies and small businesses.[22]
Service-oriented architecture moves the ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) landscape toward software-based and web services-based business activities. This move increases adaptability, flexibility, openness, and efficiency. The move towards E-SOA helps companies reuse software components and not rely as much on in-house ERP hardware technologies, which makes ERP adoption more attractive to small and mid-sized companies.
According to a press fact sheet from SAP, "SAP is the only enterprise applications software vendor that is both building service-orientation directly into its solutions and providing a technology platform SAP NetWeaver and guidance to support companies in the development of their own service-oriented architectures spanning both SAP and non-SAP solutions."[23]
SAP E-SOA, client certificate-based authentication is the only authentication method (besides username/password) and the only Single Sign-On method to be supported across all SAP technologies. Kerberos and logon tickets, for example, are not compatible with SAP service-oriented architecture.[24]
SAP's products focus on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). The company's main product is SAP ERP. The current version is SAP ERP 6.0 and is part of the SAP Business Suite. Its previous name was R/3. The "R" of SAP R/3 stood for realtime – even though it is not a realtime solution. The number 3 related to the 3-tier architecture: database, application server and client (SAPgui). R/2, which ran on a Mainframe architecture, was the predecessor of R/3. Before R/2 came System RF, later dubbed R/1.
SAP ERP is one of five enterprise applications in SAP's Business Suite. The other four applications are:
Other major product offerings include: the NetWeaver platform, Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) solutions, Duet (joint offering with Microsoft), Performance Management solutions and RFID. SAP offers service-oriented architecture capabilities (calling it Enterprise SOA) in the form of web services that are wrapped around its applications.
While its original products were typically used by Fortune 500 companies, SAP now actively targets small and medium sized enterprises (SME) with its SAP Business One and SAP Business All-in-One.
On 19 September 2007 SAP announced a new product named SAP Business ByDesign. SAP Business ByDesign is a software as a service (SaaS) offering, and provides a fully integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, On Demand. SAP Business ByDesign was previously known under the code name "A1S".[25] In October 2007, SAP AG announced the friendly takeover of Business Objects. This acquisition expanded SAP's Product Suite of Business Intelligence (BI) solutions and increased the customer installed base to 89,000.[26]
In February 2009 SAP AG, which invested in Coghead, purchased the start-up’s intellectual property. SAP will only be using the company’s technology as an internal resource and has no plans to offer Coghead’s products to its customers.[27]
In May 2010 SAP AG announced that it is buying the database software maker Sybase for US$ 5.8 billion in cash.[28] The deal closed at the end of July 2010. Sybase will continue to run as a separate, independent unit but will be leveraged across the other SAP areas.
As of July 2010 TechniData is a 100% subsidiary of SAP AG.[29]
In October 2010, SAP AG announced the release of SAP HANA 1.0 (High-performance Analytics Appliance), an in-memory appliance for Business Intelligence allowing real-time analytics.
SAP Enterprise Learning (environment) is an enhancement of the previous version of the learning management system, SAP Learning Solution 600. Apart from the features in SAP Learning Solution 600, SAP Enterprise Learning (environment) contains a virtual learning room feature powered by Adobe Connect.[30] SAP officials say there are over 100,600 SAP installations serving more than 41,200 companies in more than 25 industries in more than 120 countries.[31] An example installation can be experienced in the SAP Learning on Demand Portal. SAP uses this for delivering SAP Online training as a Learning on Demand offering. Some of this content is available as free e-learning, e.g. as e-books or simulations.
SAP Press has published a book on SAP Enterprise Learning. [32]
SAP Human Resources Management System is one of the largest modules in the SAP R/3 system which consists of many sub modules that assist with tasks of human resource management.
SAP partners include Global Services Partners with cross-industry multinational consulting capabilities,[33] Global Software Partners providing integrated products that complement SAP Business Suite solutions,[34] 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.[35]
Solution extensions partners: this is a small number of companies which provide functionality that complements SAP solution capabilities. These enhancements fulfill high quality standards and are certified, sold and supported by SAP directly. These partner companies include Adobe, CA Technologies, Hewlett-Packard, IDS Scheer, OpenText, Nakisa, Inc, ICON-SCM, Prometheus Group and SmartOps. [36]
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 $6 b technology service provider, headquartered in India.[37] SAP PartnerEdge has also signed with Enfos Inc, a software as a service company, to develop their EcoHub Partner Sustainability Solution platform. 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.[38]
Gartner states that SAP PartnerEdge has "set a new standard for innovation in channel development for the small and midsize business application market."
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.[39] 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 to increase business agility and IT value.[40] The SAP Enterprise Services Community serves as a platform for members from customers, industry experts and partners working collaboratively to define enterprise services.[41] 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).[42] Another important aspect of the SAP Community Network is the Career Center. By facilitating targeted recruitment, the Career Center acts as the free source of jobs and talent for SAP's partners, customers and vendors.
Functional units of SAP are split across different organizational units for R&D needs, field activities and customer support. SAP Labs are mainly responsible for product development where as the field organizations spread across each country are responsible for field activities such Sales, Marketing, Consulting etc. Head office located in SAP AG 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 to provide support to SAP customers worldwide.
SAP Labs is the research and development organization of the parent company.[43] SAP has its development organization spread across the globe. As of Jan, 2011, but not all, labs locations host SAP Research groups.[44]
The labs are located in Germany, France, Bulgaria and Hungary in Europe; Palo Alto, USA; Bangalore and Gurgaon, India; São Leopoldo, Brazil; Ra'anana and Karmiel, Israel; Montreal and Vancouver, Canada and Shanghai, China. SAP Labs India[45] is the largest development unit in terms of number of employees outside the SAP headquarters located in Walldorf, Germany.[46]
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 Palo Alto, California is famous for its focus on innovation and research.
SAP opened in June, 2009 its new SAP Labs campus in Brazil, representing the first SAP Labs Center in Latin America and the eighth worldwide. The facility is located in São Leopoldo, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul and employs 375 people. Of particular note are the building’s structure and interior, which are composed entirely of environmentally friendly materials. Since these materials were not available in Brazil, constructing the facility did not come cheap for SAP. However, Erwin Rezelman – director of SAP Labs Latin America – emphasizes that the project was an effort not only to create a "green house" in Latin America, but also to design offices with a pleasant work atmosphere.
SAP Labs Latin America has just received Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification for the building.
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),[47] the German speaking SAP User Group (DSAG),[48] the SAP Australian User Group (SAUG)[49] and the SAP UK & Ireland User Group.[50][51] Further SAP User Groups can be found at the List of SAP Users' Groups.
In 2007, the SAP User Group Executive Network (SUGEN) has been established to foster the information exchange and best practice sharing among SAP User Groups and to coordinate the collaboration with SAP for strategic topics.[52]
SAP has two annual conferences: SAPPHIRE and SAP TechEd. SAPPHIRE is SAP's customer-facing event. It is generally where SAP has announced major product changes and strategic direction. It is typically held annually in the spring, in both North American and Europe.
SAP TechEd is the more technical conference, aimed at SAP's ecosystem of consultants and software development partners. SAP TechEd has been held since 1995, and it usually held in four locations around the world every year in the fall. Technical sessions and workshops are held during the conference, as well as Birds of a Feather sessions, and a developer's competition: DemoJam. An associated one-day Unconference event, Community Day, was initiated in 2006 for the SAP Developer Network (SDN). In 2008 a Community Day program was added to address the Business Process Expert (BPX) community.
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.[53]
Oracle Corporation, SAP's major competitor, filed a case against SAP for malpractice and unfair competition in the California courts on 22 March 2007. In Oracle Corporation v. SAP AG Oracle alleged that a Texas subsidiary, SAP TN (formerly TomorrowNow before purchase by SAP), which provided 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 appropriated them for SAP's use.[54][55] Later SAP admitted wrong-doing on smaller scale than Oracle claimed in the lawsuit. SAP has admitted to inappropriate downloads; however the company denies the theft of any intellectual property.[56]
SAP claims to grow organically in contrast to its main rival, Oracle, which has spent close to US$40B during 2004–2010 acquiring many competitors. SAP was able to increase its annual profits by 370% since 2002.[57]
In a departure from its usual organic growth, SAP announced in October 2007 that it would acquire Business Objects, a market leader in business intelligence software, for $6.8B.[58]
SAP provoked controversy and frustration among its users in 2008 by raising the cost of its maintenance contracts. The issue was the subject of intense discussion among user groups.[59]
The resulting pressure saw SAP and SUGEN (SAP User Group Executive Network) agree to a major benchmarking exercise to prove the value of the new support pricing policy to customers. In December 2009, SAP delayed its Enterprise Support price rises until agreement had been reached on the benchmarks and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).[60]
In January 2010 SAP did a U-turn on Enterprise Support and reintroduced its standard support package for customers, saying the move was “a demonstration of its commitment to customer satisfaction”. The move to reinstate standard support – at 18 percent of annual license fees, “will enable all customers to choose the option that best meets their requirements,” the company said.[61] SAP has also announced that it is freezing prices for existing SAP Enterprise Support contracts at 2009 level.
One of SAP's highest partnership levels lead to a product being designated as an Endorsed Business Solution (EBS). Globally, only 33 companies are SAP Endorsed Business Solution providers. The EBS partnership is an invitation only partnership. These companies are:
Aris Global[62]
CA
Conformia Development
Epic Data
ESRI
FRS Global
Greenlight
HCL
Implico
InQuira
Invensys Wonderware
KSS Fuels
Meridium
NRX Global
Open Text
Oracle
ORSoft
OSIsoft MDUS
Oversight Systems
Prologa
Questra
Quorom
RIB Software
SPSS
StreamServe (Open Text)
TechniData cFP
Triple Point
Verint Systems
Vision Chain
Visiprise
Werum Software Systems
Wipro
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