SAP rolled out Business ByDesign on Tuesday in Singapore, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering catered exclusively for the small and midsize enterprise (SME) market.
Built on the NetWeaver platform and utilizing an enterprise service-oriented architecture (SOA), the SAP Business ByDesign solution is an addition to the existing SAP product portfolio for SMEs which includes Business All-in-One and Business One.
“The introduction of SAP Business ByDesign is a valuable extension of our already established solution portfolio for small businesses and midsize enterprises,” said Eric MacDonald, President & CEO, South East Asia, SAP in a prepared statement.
The solution, which first came into the market last September, is targeted at midmarket companies ranging from 100 to 500 employees.
It promises to deliver a “complete” built-in service and support solution, eradicating the need to work in an environment characterized by siloed and disconnected departments, business processes, data and applications thus, delivering business value, ongoing support and enabling customers to quickly and cost-effectively adapt their IT solution to changing needs.
Business ByDesign offers a range of business operations including compliance management, customer relationship management, executive management support, financials, human capital management, project management, supplier relationship management and supply chain management.
Hans-Peter Klaey told journalists at the Singapore launch this week that SMEs account for over 70% (approximately 28,000) of SAP’s customers and has predicted that this market will represent 80% of the 100,000 customers it has pledged to sign up by 2010. SMEs contribute over 1 billion Euros, more than 30%, of SAP’s yearly software orders.
Klaey expects Business ByDesign to do especially well with SMEs in the South East Asian market which is seeing a 50-60% annual growth.
SAP considers Business ByDesign to be a 15 billion dollar market and says its value proposition lays in its ability to offer a full suite instead of only certain slices, which is what competitors such as Salesforce.com are currently doing.
Already available in Germany, the United States, UK, France and China, SAP picked Singapore to be the next location to unveil this offering citing its attractive infrastructure, lighthouse appeal and its appreciation towards end-to-end, future proof technologies as the pull factors.
The product is planned for expansion to additional markets this year such as Australia, India, Italy, Netherlands, the Nordic region, South Africa, Spain, Canada and Mexico.
In order to deliver SAP Business ByDesign to the Singapore market, the German software colossus said it is engaging with existing partners to offer the new solution and will continue expanding its partner ecosystem strategy.
It currently has some 40 partners built into its ecosystem from Germany, US and the UK.
“By working through our local partner channel and directly with customers, SAP will empower companies in Singapore to achieve improved control over their full range of operations and be responsive to changing business needs,” added MacDonald.
Klaey declined to give SDA Asia a rough estimate of how many Business ByDesign customers it expects in Asia moving forward, but did say that SAP is working towards securing some 10,000 customers globally by 2010.
Prices in Singapore will start at a price of USD149 per user, per month (including software, infrastructure, services and support), with a minimum of 25 users to be licensed per customer. |
