SAP beats 10,000 milestone on latest ERP
1 min read
SAP ERP 6.0, the software giant’s latest release, is being or has been installed by more than 10,000 customers, according to the company.
The suite has been available since June 2006, and SAP says that makes it the fastest adopted ERP release in its history.
SAP board member Jim Hagemann Snabe says it also comes in the wake of the software’s third enhancement package, last February, which allows users to continuously add new features at no charge and without having to undergo complete upgrades.
“The industry continues to express their appreciation for the flexibility that SAP ERP 6.0 offers and the simplicity of enhancement packages,” he says. “By providing an innovative business process platform and flexible product release strategy, we continue to empower our customers to evolve in the face of challenging market conditions.”
The figures are fairly impressive: SAP’s third enhancement package delivers 150 new business functions, including 400 new capabilities, 183 industry enhancements, 45 enterprise service bundles and 556 enterprise services. And looking at business functions, they include new capabilities in everything from general ledger, to hedge management support, recruiting and unit maintenance for defence.
Analysts too remain broadly upbeat. “SAP has made a considerable investment in simplifying the upgrade process,” comments Ray Wang, principal analyst, Forrester Research. “New functionality, progression to service-orientated architecture and enhancement packages provide significant incentives to upgrade to SAP ERP 6.0.”
And analyst Gartner recently ranked SAP as the 2007 market share leader in the ERP category, with 27.5% of the market, with Oracle second at 13.9%.
Meanwhile, in the UK, newly installed COO Steffen Schlaberg – formerly vice president EMEA large enterprise sales – and managing director Steve Rogers also favour SAP’s other initiatives. “New products, including CRM 2007 and Business ByDesign present a range of exciting new opportunities for us to forge new partnerships and pursue new customer markets,” says Rogers.
