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SAP SE
Company typeSocietas Europaea
FWB: SAP NYSE: SAP
ISINDE0007164600 Edit this on Wikidata
IndustryEnterprise software
FoundedWeinheim, Germany
FounderDietmar Hopp
Hans-Werner Hector
Hasso Plattner
Klaus Tschira
Claus Wellenreuther
Headquarters
Walldorf
,
Germany
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Hasso Plattner (Chairman)
Bill McDermott (CEO)
ProductsSee list of SAP products
RevenueIncrease €16.81 billion (2013)[1]
Increase €4.46 billion (2013)[1]
Increase €3.32 billion (2013)[1]
Total assetsIncrease €27.09 billion (2013)[1]
Total equityIncrease €16.04 billion (2013)[1]
Number of employees
66,500 (2014)[2]
WebsiteSAP.com
SAP SE head office, Walldorf

SAP SE (Systems, Applications & Products in Data Processing) is a German multinational software corporation that makes enterprise software to manage business operations and customer relations. SAP is headquartered in Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, with regional corporate offices in the United States and Canada.[3]

The company has developed several independent software products to help business better meet their customer needs [enterprise resource planning] an application systems and management known as (SAP ERP), its enterprise data warehouse product – SAP Business Warehouse (SAP BW), Materials Management [MM] module software, a Sales and Distribution [SD] application that aids the company in adding customer sales transactions, Controlling [CO] module when a company needs internal reporting. All of these software applications can be purchased à la carte or in a software package known as SAP Enterprise Central Component [ECC] system. A new feature recently added to the SAP functionality is Sybase mobile products and the in-memory computing appliance SAP HANA.

History

Foundation

When Xerox decided to exit the computer industry in 1975, they asked IBM to migrate their business systems to IBM technology. As part of IBM's compensation for the migration, IBM was given the rights to the Scientific Data Systems (SDS)/SAPE software, reportedly for a contract credit of $80,000.

Five IBM engineers from the AI department [4][5] (Dietmar Hopp, Klaus Tschira, Hans-Werner Hector, Hasso Plattner, and Claus Wellenreuther, all from Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg) were working in an enterprise-wide system based on this software, only to be told that it would be no longer necessary. Rather than abandon the project, they decided to leave IBM Tech and start another company.[6]

In June 1972, they founded [Systemanalyse und Programmentwicklung] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) ("System Analysis and Program Development") company, as a private partnership under the German Civil Code.[6] The acronym was later changed to stand for Systeme, Anwendungen und Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung ("Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing").

Their first client was the German branch of Imperial Chemical Industries[7] in Östringen, where they developed mainframe programs for payroll and accounting. Instead of storing the data on punch cards mechanically, as IBM did, they stored it locally. Therefore, they called their software a real-time system, since there was no need to process the punch cards overnight (for this reason their flagship product carried an R in its name until the late 1990s). This first version was also a standalone software, that could be offered to other interested parties.

Enterprise resource planning

In 1973, the first commercial product was launched. It was called SAP R/98,[8] and offered a common system for multiple tasks. This permitted the use of a centralized data storage, improving the maintenance of data. From a technical point of view, therefore, a database was necessary.[9]

In 1976, SAP GmbH was founded, and moved its headquarters the following year to Walldorf, Germany.

Three years later, in 1979, SAP launched SAP R/2, expanding the capabilities of the system to other areas, such as material management and production planning.[8] 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 released the new SAP R/3 in 1992. SAP developed and released several versions of R/3 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).[6] SAP was awarded Industry Week’s Best Managed Companies in 1999.[10]

The company's official name became SAP AG (a public limited company) after the 2005 annual general meeting.

Corporate restructuring

In August 1988, SAP GmbH became SAP AG, and public trading started on 4 November 1988. Shares were listed on the Frankfurt and Stuttgart stock exchanges.[6] In 1995, SAP was included in the German stock index DAX and on 22 September 2003, SAP was included in the Dow Jones STOXX 50.[11]

In November 2010, SAP lost a US$1.3 billion intellectual property lawsuit—related to the actions of the SAP subsidiary TomorrowNow—to Oracle Corporation; the penalty was cited as the largest software piracy judgment in history.[12] SAP filed post-trial motions to lower the damage awarded to Oracle and stated it may also file an appeal.[13] On 9 September 2011, the verdict was overturned by Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton, who called the penalty "grossly excessive."[14]

Acquisitions

Acquisition number Acquired company Acquisition date Specialty Country of origin Acquisition costs
59 Concur Technologies Sept '14 Travel USA $8.3b
58 SeeWhy May '14 Behavioral target marketing USA
57 Fieldglass Mar '14 Contingent labor and services USA
56 KXEN Oct '13 Predictive analytics FRANCE
55 Hybris May '13 Retail Switzerland
54 Camilion March '13 Insurance solutions Canada
53 SmartOps Feb '13 Inventory optimization USA
52 Ticket-Web Feb '13 CRM for sports and entertainment promoters USA
51 Ariba Oct '12 Supplier network USA $4.3b
50 Syclo Jun '12 Mobile asset management USA
49 datango Jan '12 Electronic performance support technologies Germany
48 Netbase Dec '11 Social media analytics USA
47 SuccessFactors Dec '11 Talent Management USA $3.4b
46 Right Hemisphere Sep '11 3D visualization USA
45 Crossgate Sep '11 B2B eCommerce USA
44 Secude Mar '11 Security software (Not the whole company, only some assets were acquired) Germany
43 Cundus Dec '10 Disclosure Management Germany
42 Sybase May '10 Database, middleware, mobile software USA $5.8b
41 TechniData May '10 Environmental, Health and Safety Germany
40 SAF Sep '09 Inventory Management Switzerland $91m
39 Highdeal May '09 High-volume billing France
38 Visiprise Jul '08 Manufacturing Execution USA
37 Yasu Oct '07 Business rules India
36 Business Objects Oct '07 Business Intelligence France $6.78b
35 Wincom Communications May '07 Internet Communication software USA
34 MaXware May '07 Identity software Norway
33 Outlooksoft May '07 Planning & consolidation USA
32 Pilot Software Feb '07 Strategy Management software USA ~$200m
31 Factory Logic Dec '06 Lean scheduling and supply synchronization USA
30 Praxis Software Solutions Jul '06 Web-based CRM and eCommerce USA
29 Frictionless Commerce May '06 SRM software USA
28 Virsa Systems Apr '06 Compliance solutions USA
27 SAP Systems Integration Dec '05 Consulting services Germany
26 Callixa Nov '05 Enterprise Integration Information software USA
25 Khimetrics Nov '05 retail software USA
24 Triversity Sep '05 POS software Canada
23 Lighthammer Jun '05 Manufacturing Intelligence and Collaborative Manufacturing USA
22 DCS Quantum Feb '05 Automotive Dealer Management United Kingdom
21 TomorrowNow Jan '05 grey-market support USA
20 ilytix Jan '05 SAP BusinessOne Business Intelligence Norway
19 A2i Jul '04 Master Data Management USA
18 SPM Technologies Dec '03 IT architecture consulting Germany
17 DCW Software Jul '03 OS/400 Applications Germany
16 Guimachine Dec '02 NetWeaver Visual Composer toolkit USA
15 IMHC May '01 Integrated managed health care from IDS USA
14 Expression May '02 real-time file sharing ?
13 Topmanage Feb '02 SAP BusinessOne Suite Israel
12 Paynet International AG Dec '01 Invoice Processing Germany
11 COPA GmbH Nov '01 Beverage industry consulting Germany
10 Infinite Data Structures May '01 Trade Management / CRM USA
9 Toptier Mar '01 Enterprise Information Portal and Integration Infrastructure USA ~$400m
8 Prescient Consulting Feb '01 Consulting services USA
7 In-Q-My Technologies GmbH 2000 J2EE Server Bulgaria
6 Campbell Software 1999 Workforce Management USA
5 AMC Development 1998 Call Center telephony integration software USA
4 OFEK-Tech 1998 Warehousing and distribution center software Israel
3 Kiefer & Veittinger 1997 Sales force Applications Germany
2 Dacos 1996 Retail solution Germany
1 Steeb 1991 Consulting services Germany

Business and markets

As of 2007, SAP is the world's largest business software company and the third-biggest independent software provider by revenue.[15] The corporation operates in four geographic regions: EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa), NA (United States and Canada), LAC (Latin America and Caribbean), and APJ (Asia Pacific and Japan), which represents Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, India, Greater China and Southeast Asian countries.[citation needed] In addition, SAP operates a network of 115 subsidiaries, as well as R&D (Research and Development) facilities in Germany, India, the US, Canada, France, Brazil, Turkey, China, Pakistan, Hungary, Israel, Ireland and Bulgaria.[citation needed]

SAP focuses upon 25 industries and six industry sectors: process industries, discrete industries, consumer industries, service industries, financial services and public services.[16] It offers integrated product sets for large enterprises,[17] mid-sized companies and small businesses.[18]

Enterprise Service-Oriented Architecture

Service-oriented architecture has been incorporated into the SAP ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system and other products defined within the SAP Enterprise Services Architecture (Enterprise SOA).

Enterprise SOA

SAP Enterprise Service Oriented Architecture (or Enterprise SOA) has been defined by SAP SE as "an open architecture for adaptive business solutions" and "the blueprint for an architecture that enables innovation and standardization in a single environment".[19] Enterprise SOA is enabled by the SAP NetWeaver platform, and builds on the benefits of Web services. SAP has positioned Enterprise SOA to deliver the benefits offered by service-oriented architecture, including enabling both flexibility and business efficiency. SAP states that Enterprise SOA provides companies with a "cost-effective blueprint for composing innovative new applications by extending existing systems, while maintaining a level of flexibility that makes future process changes cost-effective".[20] SAP Solutions that currently use Enterprise SOA are mySAP CRM, mySAP ERP, and mySAP SRM.

E-SOA Authentication

SAP E-SOA supports different authentication methods like SAP Logon Ticket, Kerberos authentication, Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) assertions, SSL and X.509 client certificates, apart from basic authentication (User ID and Password) to guarantee stronger authentication and Single Sign-On methods across SAP technologies.[21]

Products

SAP's products focus on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). The company has no main product as different products serve to meet the different needs of businesses. Nowadays businesses are looking for a software product that handles all the companies needs, from inventory management, invoicing customers, sales and distribution and controlling the whole business planning in one module. This need from businesses lead to the development of SAP Enterprise Central Component [ECC] system. SAP ECC offers the opportunity to integrate all software data programs by all departments by using one single database. This has many benefits as there is no duplicated data in several independent systems that need attention. - See more at: http://sandboxtycoon.com/info/sandox-tycoon-concept/scope-2/#sthash.lYC7Mwq2.dpuf In the past SAP ERP was the leader in software applications and is currently at a version of 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. 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) software, Duet (joint offering with Microsoft), Performance Management software 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,[citation needed] SAP now actively targets small and medium sized enterprises (SME) with its SAP Business One and SAP Business All-in-One.
SAP's CRM solution now have over 8 million users on its platform.[22]

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) software, On Demand. SAP Business ByDesign was previously known under the code name "A1S".[23] In October 2007, SAP SE announced the friendly takeover of Business Objects. This acquisition expanded SAP's Product Suite of Business Intelligence (BI) software and increased the customer installed base to 89,000.[24]

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.[25]

In May 2010, SAP SE announced that it is buying the database software maker Sybase for US$5.8 billion in cash.[26] 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.[27]

In October 2010, SAP SE 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.[28] 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.[29]

SAP Press has published a book on SAP Enterprise Learning.[30]

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's Accounting Solution was ranked as one of the most popular solutions in Capterra's 2014 Top Accounting Software Infographic.[31]

SAP for Retail

SAP for Retail is an industry-specific application software from the software vendor SAP AG and is focused on the global retailing industry. SAP for Retail is a set of software solutions that supports demand management, merchandise management and planning, supply chain, store operations, and base financials and Human Resource Capital functions.

Software Usage

The solutions support most retailing processes, including:

  • Contracting: Contracting makes the basic procurement decisions and updates the relevant base data.
  • Demand Management/ Forecasting: group and analyze the demand from customers and replenish the stock accordingly.
  • Purchasing: Purchasing involves the placing of orders by determining supplier, article, quantity and time. It also includes subtasks as limit calculation, requirements calculation, purchase order quantity calculation, stock allocation, order transfer and order monitoring.
  • Goods receipt: Goods receipt is the quantity-related logistical equivalent to the purchasing order.
  • Invoice verification: The value equivalent to the goods receipt are the invoice arrival and the invoice verification with the subtasks: invoice acquisition, invoice checking, invoice release, subsequent invoice processing and processing of subsequent conditions.
  • Accounts payable: The major task of creditor accounting is handling payments, i.e. the payment for the open items resulting from the supplier’s invoice.
  • Marketing: Here operational marketing is meant like updating of customer master data, the assortment and merchandise policies (in particular: assortment planning, sales planning and turn-over planning, listing and delisting of articles).
  • Pricing: With pricing, the activities for business goals, product costs, competitive information, and business rules can be performed.
  • Sales: Sales includes the subtasks of customer query processing, customer offer processing, creation of order records, order processing, possibly customer complaints processing, and sales representative support.
  • Goods issue: Tasks of the goods issue involve the route planning, planning of the order picking, the actual order picking, the goods issue acquisition and adjusting of the inventory.
  • Billing: evaluation of the customer delivery note, the various forms of invoicing the customer and the calculation of subsequent reimbursements, together with the production of any required credit and debit notes.
  • Accounts receivable: The central task here is the administration of the debtor accounts and the monitoring of the payment.
  • Warehousing: warehousing performs the bridging function between procurement side and the sales or demand side. This involves the subtasks updating of the warehouse master data, stock transfers and posting transfers, cross-docking, the stocktaking in the warehouse, and the warehouse control.
  • Point-of-Sale: Place where the customer stops to purchase goods with the following tasks: process sales transactions and returns, process exchanges, with ability to declare sales transactions null and void and manage pending sales.
  • Business analytics: Examples include: Customer Analytics (e.g. customer frequency, loyalty analysis), Store Operations Analytics (e.g. promotional sales, actual labor versus scheduled), Merchandising Analytics (e.g. Sales by item, top selling items, vendor scorecarding, inventory analysis), Supply Chain Analytics (e.g. fulfillment rates, deliveries, stock overview)

In 1994, SAP acquired Dacos Software GmbH, which was located in Saarbrücken, Germany and renamed it to "SAP Retail Solutions". Before the acquisition SAP used the R/3 components MM (Materials Management), SD (Sales and Distribution) and Warehousing also for the retail industry. One of the most visible changes after the acquisition was a top-down menu, where users could add additional functionality, data and additional organizational units to the standard components. Over time the materialmaster became the article master, more functionality and applications were added and more acquisitions completed the offer.

In 1999, SAP acquired Campbell Software Inc. in Chicago. Campbell itself was founded in 1989 and developed a software for workforce management and personal time recording. The workforce management solution was called Staffworks and Campbell Time and Attendance. At the time of the acquisition, Campbell Software had approximately 71 retail customers. SAP Campbell was created as a legal subsidiary after the acquisition. For those two years SAP Campbell continued to support their install base customers and also to attempt to expand the original install base. Around 2001–2002 SAP Campbell was integrated back into SAP. The original install base has dwindled to a few if any original customers and solution investment was reduced and eliminated over time. Thanks to the integration into SAP Human Capital Management (SAP HCM), it is possible to manage any time account reflecting the complex overtime and bonus rules defined in the various overall labor or company agreements.[32]

In 2006 SAP acquired Khimetrics (Scottsdale, AZ) and Triversity (Canada). Khimetrics developed demand management software, which supports retailers in the synchronization of their strategy and customer demands. The Khimetrics solutions included customer demand modeling and forecasting, base price optimization, promotion planning and optimization, and demand intelligence analytics. In 2006 Khimetrics had approximately 21 customers and slightly less than half of those customers were retail. Triversity developed a point-of-sale solution, which not only sums up the articles and prices, but allows also store inventory maintenance, customer relationship management and services for store and multi-channel processes.[33]

In 2009 SAP acquired SAF AG (Simulation, Analysis and Forecasting) -- they develop automatic order and forecasting software for retailers. SAF AG was founded in 1996 and is located in Tägerwilen, Switzerland with subsidiaries in the U.S. and Slovakia. Before SAP acquired SAF, both companies had a long history of cooperation using SAF's order and forecasting software as part of SAP Forecasting and Replenishment solution.[34]

Partnerships

SAP partners include Global Services Partners with cross-industry multinational consulting capabilities,[35] Global Software Partners providing integrated products that complement SAP Business Suite solutions,[36] 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.[37]

Extensions partners: this is a small number of companies which provide functionality that complements SAP product 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, Redwood Software, Vistex Inc.,Insync Techfin Solution Ltd, Knoa Software, Nakisa Inc, ICON-SCM, BackOffice Associates, Prometheus Group and SmartOps.[38][39]

SAP PartnerEdge

SAP products 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.[40] 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 products to a broad range of customers.[41]

Communities

SAP Community Network (SCN) is a community of SAP customers, partners, employees, and influencers – typically in roles such as: developers, consultants, integrators, and business analysts – who gain and share knowledge about ABAP, Java, .NET, SOA, and other technologies, plus analytics and dashboards, business process best practices, cloud, mobile, big data, and a range of other topics via expert blogs, discussion forums, exclusive downloads and code samples, training materials, and a technical library.[42] SAP Community Network has more than 2.5 million members, representing a wide range of roles and lines-of-business, from countries and territories all over the world, in 24 industries.

Organization

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 whereas the field organizations spread across each country are responsible for field activities such Sales, Marketing, Consulting etc. Head office located in SAP SE 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 locations

Main article: SAP Research
SAP Labs Latin America
Werner Brandt, Stefan Wagner, Luis César Verdi and Gerhard Oswald celebrating the expansion of SAP Labs Latin America
SAP Labs Israel

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, Ireland, Bulgaria and Hungary in Europe; Palo Alto, USA; La Crosse, USA;Bangalore, Pune and Gurgaon, India; São Leopoldo, Brazil; Ra'anana, Israel; Montreal, Vancouver, Toronto and Waterloo 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 Sophia Antipolis, France 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 520 people.[47] 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. 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

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),[48] the German speaking SAP User Group (DSAG),[49] the Vnsg Dutch SAP User Group (VNSG),[50] the SAP Australian User Group (SAUG),[51] User Community of SAP Customers in the Indian Subcontinent [52] and the SAP UK & Ireland User Group.[53][54] 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.[55]

SAP also has a large collaboration with developers, partners, customers online via SAP Community Network.

Conferences

SAP has two annual conferences: SAPPHIRE and SAP d-code (formerly TechEd). SAPPHIRE is SAP's customer-facing event.[56][57] It is generally where SAP has announced major product changes and strategic direction. It is typically held annually in the spring, in both North America and Europe.

SAP TechEd is the more technical conference, aimed at SAP's ecosystem of consultants and software development partners.[58][59] SAP TechEd has been held since 1995, usually held in four locations in the fall each year. 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), now referred to as SAP Community Network (SCN). In 2008 a Community Day program was added to address the Business Process Expert (BPX) community, which has begun to evolve into new events like InnoJAM, CodeJAM. SAP Inside Tracks are also a popular grassroots level un-conferences locally held in various global locations. In 2014 the event was renamed to SAP d-code.

Competitive landscape

SAP competitors are primarily in the Enterprise Resource Planning Software industry. In this field, Oracle Corporation is SAP's major competitor. SAP also competes in the Customer Relationship Management, Marketing & Sales Software, Manufacturing, Warehousing & Industrial Software, and Supply Chain Management & Logistics Software sectors.[60]

Oracle Corporation 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.[61][62] Later SAP admitted wrongdoing 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.[63]

SAP increased its annual profits by 370% since 2002.[citation needed]

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.[64]

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).[65]

In January 2010, SAP reversed its direction on Enterprise Support and reintroduced its standard support package for customers. 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.[66]

In August 2013, SAP acquired Hybris publicly for eCommerce capabilities after failing in a bid for Neolane. The rationale for the acquisition of Hybris was really for product catalog and product information management [67]

SAP Endorsed Business Solutions (EBS)

One of SAP's highest partnership levels leads to a product being designated an "Endorsed Business Solution" (EBS) and it is an invitation-only arrangement. As of December 2013, only 44 SAP EBS providers exist globally:[citation needed]

AlertEnterprise
Arch[68]
Aris Global[69]
BlackLine Systems[70]
CA Technologies
Capgemini
Conformia Development
eGain
Emergys Software
Epic Data
ESRI
FRS Global
Greenlight
HCL
Implico
Infosys
Insync Techfin Solution Limited
Invensys Wonderware
Financial Management Consulting
KSS Fuels
LinguaNext
Mediaspectrum
Meridium
NRX Global
Open Text
Oracle Corporation
OR Soft Jänicke GmbH
Oversight Systems
Prologa
Questra
Quorom
RIB Software
SIGGA[71]
Softproviding AG
SPSS
StreamServe (Open Text)
Skipper Electricals (India) Limited
TechniData cFP
Triple Point Technology
TCS
Verint Systems
Vision Chain
Visiprise
Werum Software Systems
Wipro
zetVisions

Causes

In 2012, SAP is listed as a partner of the (RED) campaign, together with other brands such as Nike Inc., Girl, American Express and Converse. The campaign's mission is to prevent the transmission of the HIV virus from mother to child by 2015 (the campaign's byline is "Fighting for an AIDS Free Generation").[72]

SAP is funding a project[73] to assess and educate Autistic Children.[74] It has also launched an initiative to hire employees with autism and Asperger syndrome, citing their intelligence in the IT field and attention to detail; they aim to compose 1% of its 65,000 workforce with autistic people by the year 2020.[75]

See also

References

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