Manufacturing mid-market gets a whole new All-in-One system from SAP

Due to go on general release world-wide during this year, it’s aimed at manufacturers in the £100—700m revenue range across industry sectors. Essentially, it’s the same 80% out-of-the-box, rapid implementation, ultra-scaleable offering, but now built on SAP’s enterprise service-oriented architecture (SOA) and its acclaimed mySAP ERP 2005 foundation. The latter consigns the requirement for users to buy regular upgrades – if they want latest advances – to history, at least until 2010. Instead, manufacturers can evolve their systems, as per the promise of SOA, minimising costs and disruption and stopping software getting in the way of business development. It’s also the first to bring SAP’s new, more intuitive, PC-like, role-based GUI (graphical user interface) to this level of market, and boasts integrated CRM (customer relationship management) and BI (business intelligence), with very usable analytics and ad hoc reporting. Couple all that with its Netweaver platform, and you’re looking at an animal that should be able to adapt to, and integrate with, most environments. And there are useful enhancements to the software development and deployment tools and methodologies, training and support for SAP’s partners, which remain essential to delivering not just SAP’s technology and Best Practices preconfigured (industry and cross-industry business scenarios and documentation), but their own IP (intellectual property) and adaptations for the specific industries each serves. SAP clearly feels it’s got a winner. Ciaran Rafferty, who runs SAP’s UK business in the SME sector, says: “All-in-One already has a great track record. This evolution is a perfect match for the challenges of the mid-market that wants an easier interface, very rich functionally, rapid implementation and something they won’t grow out of. It’s a very safe bet. “In the UK there are 16,500 target customers that potentially have a need for All-in-One. We’ve had fantastic growth already: significant, double digit growth. For me this is a major step showing our commitment to mid range customers.”