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ORLANDO—SAP AG announced here today new versions of its customer relationship management and supply chain management products both built on its NetWeaver integration platform and supporting new vertical industry business processes.
The latest version of mySAP CRM, 4.0, supports more than 280 industry-specific business processes as well as multichannel interaction processes via NetWeaver.
“Version 4.0 is a significant one for us,” said Henning Kagermann, chairman and CEO of SAP. “We feel very comfortable that with this release, well become the market leader in this space by the end of the year.”
In this version, mySAP CRM provides industry-specific solutions for the automotive, chemicals and pharmaceuticals; engineering, construction and operations; consumer goods; high tech; industrial machinery and components; leasing; media and entertainment; oil and gas; professional services; public sector; retail; telecommunications; and utilities verticals.
The new version of mySAP Supply Chain Management adds support for 20 new business processes and more than 30 process enhancements to customers in the discrete, process manufacturing and consumer products industries.
Business scenarios supported include vendor-managed inventory, supplier-managed inventory and trade promotion management, linking promotion planning between CRM and SCM.
MySAP SCM also includes SAPs Advanced Planning & Optimization, Event Management, and Inventory Collaboration Hub applications. The Inventory Collaboration Hub, allows manufacturers, particularly in the automotive, high tech and consumer products industries to share inventory information with suppliers, effectively allowing suppliers to manage their inventory and gain insight into future inventory demands.
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SAP Event Management provides preconfigured visibility patterns for procurement, fulfillment and manufacturing processes, giving customers better insights into those processes, SAP officials said.
“Our SCM focus is on lower total cost of ownership,” said Kagermann. “Weve listened to customer feedback and were very comfortable with this solution.”
In other news at the show:
SAP and IBM announced an extension of their strategic alliance to deliver SAP solutions for the small-to-medium business market on a global basis. The partnership previously only covered some European countries, Japan and Australia.
In another move geared to the SMB space, SAP joined with BearingPoint Inc. to offer a pre-packaged mySAP All-in-One solution for small and midsize electronic device businesses, designed to be implemented in as little as 10 weeks and support financial, sales, operations, materials and manufacturing needs of those companies.
SAP now has more than 270 specialized, vertical industry solutions based on mySAP All-in-One.
SAP also announced a relationship with eBay that will enable SAP customers to sell their idle assets—excess inventory and used capital equipment on eBay, but using sales, order fulfillment and financial processes from SAP R/3 and mySAP CRM.
Kagermann had little to say about the Oracle-PeopleSoft-J.D. Edwards affair, though he said SAP would not buy market share even if Oracles acquisition of PeopleSoft does go through.
“It would give us a clear No. 2 to compete against and make it easier for us to compete against them,” Kagermann said.
In the meantime, SAP is already trying to capitalize on the turmoil in the market, offering free migration assessments to PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards customers. Kagermann said SAP would continue to emphasize its trustworthiness as a technology provider compared to the embattled competition.
“I feel that in our industry, its more than about trust, its about your ability to deliver on your commitments and understand your constituencies,” he said.