| Chapter 2: SAP |
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History
SAP was founded in 1972 as Systemanalyse und Programmentwicklung by five
former IBM engineers in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg (Dietmar Hopp, Hans-Werner
Hector, Hasso Plattner, Klaus Tschira, and Claus Wellenreuther). The acronym was
later changed to stand for Systeme, Anwendungen und Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung
("Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing").
In 1976 "SAP GmbH" was founded and the following year it moved headquarters
to Walldorf. SAP AG became the company's official name after the 2005 annual
general meeting (AG is short for Aktiengesellschaft).
The founding members Dietmar Hopp, Hasso Plattner, Klaus E. Tschira and Hans-Werner
Hector form the executive board. In 1995, SAP was included in the German stock index
DAX. On September 22, 2003, SAP was included in the Dow Jones STOXX 50. In 1991,
Prof. Dr. Henning Kagermann joined the board; Dr. Peter Zencke became a board member
in 1993. Claus Heinrich, and Gerhard Oswald have been members of the SAP Executive
Board since 1996. Two years later, in 1998 the first change at the helm takes place.
Dietmar Hopp and Klaus Tschira move to the supervisory board, Dietmar Hopp is appointed
Chairman of the supervisory board. Henning Kagermann is appointed as Co-Chairman
and CEO of SAP next to Hasso Plattner. Werner Brandt joined SAP in 2001 as member
of the SAP Executive Board and Chief Financial Officer since 2001. Léo Apotheker
has been a member of the SAP Executive Board and president of Global Customer Solutions
& Operations since 2002, was appointed Deputy CEO in 2007, then became co-CEO
alongside Kagermann in 2008. Henning Kagermann became the sole CEO of SAP in 2003 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.
Milestones Technical SolutionsThe first version of SAP's flagship enterprise software was a financial Accounting system named R/1. (The "R" was for "Realtime data processing"). This was replaced by R/2 at the end of the 1970s. SAP R/2 was a mainframe based business application software suite that was very successful in the 1980s and early 1990s. It was particularly popular with large multinational European companies who required soft-real-time business applications, with multi-currency and multi-language capabilities built in. With the advent of distributed client-server computing SAP AG brought out a client-server version of the software called SAP R/3 that was manageable on multiple platforms and operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows or UNIX since 1999, which opened up SAP to a whole new customer base. SAP R/3 was officially launched on 6 July 1992. SAP came to dominate the large business applications market over the next 10 years. In 2003 launched its technology platform SAP NetWeaver, followed by the announcement in 2005 of the development of a Business Process Platform. Business and marketsSAP is the world's largest business software company and the third-largest independent software provider in terms of revenues. It operates in three geographic regions – EMEA, which represents Europe, Middle East and Africa; the Americas (SAP America, headquartered in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania), which represents both North America and Latin America; and Asia Pacific Japan (APJ), which represents Japan, Australia and parts of Asia. In addition, SAP operates a network of 115 subsidiaries, and has R&D facilities around the globe in Germany, North America, Canada, China, Hungary, India, Israel and Bulgaria.
Products
SAP's products focus on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), which it helped to pioneer.
The company's main product is SAP ERP. The name of its predecessor SAP R/3 hints
at its functionality: the "R" stands for realtime (even though it is not
a realtime solution), the number 3 relates to a 3-tier architecture: database, application
server and client (SAPgui). R/2, which ran on a Mainframe architecture, was the
first SAP version.
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 a systematic approach to enterprise SOA, which is the technical standard that enables various enterprise software applications to exchange data effectively. Through enterprise SOA, SAP is focusing on enabling more flexible business processes as well as creating technical connections between IT systems and building a common language for business.
PartnershipsPartnerships are core to SAP’s strategy and in its 35 years of history the network of software solution providers, value-added resellers, distributors, technology and services partners has developed into a broad ecosystem that is among the industry's largest Opened in June 2007, the SAP Co-Innovation Lab in Palo Alto, Calif. provides an efficient work environment for joint projects with independent software vendors (ISVs), such as Novell, Questra and Wonderware, system integrators (SIs) and technology partners to work together with SAP around current and future technologies. Co-founded by Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Intel and NetApp, the lab offers a hands-on environment and real-world performance for Web-enabled and Internet/intranet-accessible business applications based on Enterprise SOA.
SAP PartnerEdgeSAP solutions for small businesses and midsize companies are delivered through its global partner network. In 2008, SAP signed SAP Global Service partnership with HCL Technologies, a $4.7 b technology service provider, located in India. 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.
CommunitiesSAP 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. The Business Process Expert (BPX) Community is a collaborative environment for business process experts to share information, experiences and best practices to leverage enterprise SOA in order to increase business agility and IT value. The SAP Enterprise Services Community serves as a platform for members from customers, industry experts and partners working collaboratively to define enterprise services. 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). OrganizationFunctional 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
SAP Labs are the research and development organizations of the parent company. SAP
has its labs spread across the globe.
User GroupsUser groups are independent, not-for-profit organizations of SAP customer companies, partners, analysts, thought leaders, and SAP development teams that provide insight into market demand and are educating members, thus influencing SAP product releases and direction. Examples of user groups are Americas' SAP Users' Group ASUG, the German SAP User Group (DSAG), the SAP Australian User Group (SAUG) and the SAP UK & Ireland User Group.
Competitive LandscapeSAP 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.
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