Before it launched co-founder Hasso Plattner’s landmark in-memory HANA (High-Performance Analytic Appliance) database in December 2010, SAP’s business was all about mostly anonymous but important middleware and apps that only saw the light of day inside enterprise systems.
Not anymore, however. SAP (which, by the way, stands unremarkably for Systems, Applications and Products) has branched out in impressive fashion to the enterprise and consumer cloud services world since its released HANA, a system that enables real-time computing and analytics so businesses can search and act on big data.
At the annual CeBIT conference March 15 in Hannover, Germany, SAP demonstrated another example of its growing businesses based on on-demand computing backboned by HANA: The company said it will extend live credit-card transactions for buying its wares globally from 32 countries now to more than 100 countries by the end of 2016.
SAP Digital, launched in May 2015, enables anyone to buy and use SAP and third-party software and services through a single-click credit-card purchase.
More than 10,000 Orders in Nine Months
SAP said its Digital division, as the company’s first online retail software business, and SAP partners have experienced high demand in nine months, with more than 1.3 million unique visitors to SAPStore.com last year, resulting in more than 10,000 orders.
SAP Digital allows customers across the globe, using in-app capabilities, to purchase, upgrade or enable new features without the need to step outside of the product, visit a Website or contact a sales rep.
For example, key updates on solutions available for purchase through SAP Digital include SAP Digital CRM, the company’s first digitally native solution. SAP Digital CRM (previously called SAP Digital for Customer Engagement) has reached nearly 4,500 orders since it was launched in May 2015. It is available at SAPStore.com for purchase for €23 ($29) per user per month or as a free, fully functional 30-day trial.
Another now available is SAP Learning Hub, a cloud-based, enterprise-learning-management solution that enhances digital-learning experiences for users. Since launching the platform in February 2014, SAP has reached 330,000 customers, partners and others who need to understand the company’s innovations.
SAP HANA Cloud Platform user-based packages are now available on SAPStore.com. This provides an easy way to extend existing SAP apps to the cloud or build entirely new apps; pricing starts at €20/$22 per user/per month.
SAP Partners Also in the SAP Store
Products and services from SAP partners also are available for purchase via PayPal. The latest partner to offer a solution on SAPStore.com is Centigon Solutions, with its CMaps Plugin solution. This is integrated with SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards software and incorporates plug-and-play map visualizations and enterprise location analytics, allowing customers to analyze territories, assets and events inside of dashboard apps.
Other established partners offer business analytics, mobile apps, cloud solutions and other personal productivity apps. Business-process offerings include Approyo, In Mind Computing, Liquid Analytics, Minola Technology, SearchYourCloud, Semos and Warwick Analytics.