SAP Satisfies the Need for Speed
By Sam Sliman, President, Optimal Solutions Integration

 

In a business climate characterized by heightened competition and economic doldrums, a software vendor’s success depends not only on the clear-cut business benefits its solutions deliver but also on how rapidly these solutions can be deployed and how quickly they deliver value. Understanding that its customers want to implement solutions faster than ever before and generate value from their SAP investments faster than ever before, SAP is satisfying the need for speed on several fronts.

 

New Rapid Deployment Solutions

 

Most recently, SAP launched SAP Rapid Deployment solutions for customer relationship management (CRM), supplier relationship management (SRM) and business communications management (BCM). Designed to deliver immediate value, these fixed-price solutions can be deployed in as few as 12 weeks. They combine predefined software, services and pre-configured content, are ready out-of-the box, and can be purchased through SAP partners via traditional, hosting and subscription licensing models. It is not incidental that the first offering of SAP Rapid Deployment solutions targets lines of business commonly in need of process improvements to drive efficiency gains, cost savings and revenue. Look for more SAP Rapid Deployment solutions focused on key functional areas in the months ahead.

 

Making businesses smarter faster

 

SAP also recently announced a new, faster approach for developing and delivering business analytics applications designed to provide knowledge workers across organizations with critical, industry-specific information wherever and however they want to use it. At DEMO Fall 2010, SAP launched 10 new analytic applications (dubbed SAP BusinessObjects analytic applications) that were co-created with SAP customers. These solutions can be deployed in as little as eight weeks and are designed to work with structured or unstructured data from any SAP or non-SAP system. The initial industries covered by SAP BusinessObjects analytic applications include healthcare, consumer products, public sector, financial services, retail and telecommunications. SAP is committed to working closely with its partner and customer ecosystems to deliver more rapidly deployable, industry-specific analytic applications.

 

Moving fast for SMEs

 

More than 75% of SAP’s 95,000 customers are SMEs, and SAP’s continued growth hinges heavily on further penetrating the SME market. To do this SAP is relying on its partner ecosystem to rapidly develop and bring to market a growing array of qualified, industry-specific SAP Business All-in-One partner solutions. SAP Business All-in-One solutions are comprehensive and flexible business management software solutions based on SAP ERP with built-in support for industry best practices. SAP Business All-in-One solutions can be implemented in as little as 12 weeks. Optimal Solutions delivers its SAP Business All-in-One solutions on-demand or on-premise, depending on the unique needs of the customer. SAP offers its fast-start program for smaller midsize companies to help them quickly evaluate, acquire, and find the right SAP partner to implement a fixed-cost, fixed-scope SAP Business All-in-One solution that addresses their most pressing business needs and lays the foundation for future growth.

 

Faster, more user-friendly upgrades

 

In late 2006 SAP did away with its long-standing practice of issuing comprehensive upgrades of its ERP system every few years. For all SAP customers who’ve made the leap to SAP 6.0, upgrades are no longer the monolithic, monstrous, time- and resource-consuming affairs of yesteryear. Now, thanks to the SOA-enabled NetWeaver business process platform, upgrades are handled much more quickly, efficiently and affordably via enhancement packages SAP issues several times a year. Enhancement packages contain UI simplifications, functional enhancements and enterprise services -- many of which are industry- and/or vertical market-specific -- from which customers can selectively choose. With enhancement packages, SAP customers can upgrade faster, more frequently and more strategically, but with less cost and disruption.