SAP AG

The SAP Aktiengesellschaft, headquartered in Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg is the largest by revenue -European ( and non- American ) software manufacturer and the world's fourth largest. Activity focus is the development of software for the management of all business processes of a company such as accounting, controlling, sales, purchasing, production, inventory, and human resources.

The name was occasionally a synonym for the former central software product of the company, an integrated business management standard software package, also known as SAP ERP, Version SAP R / 2 mainframe and SAP R / 3 for client-server systems. Since 2005, SAP is involved in the financial sector ( SAP Bank Analyzer - SAP BA, SAP AFI and others), data warehousing ( SAP Enterprise Warehouse - SAP EDW ) and offers its own database solutions ( SAP DB, SAP ASE, SAP IQ, SAP HANA ).

• 5.1 SAP R / 3 and Business suite
• 5.2 NetWeaver platform
• 5.3 SME Solutions 5.3.1 Business One
• 5.3.2 Business All- in-One
• 5.3.3 Business ByDesign
• 5.3.4 Business Objects

History

The beginning | 1972-1981

Five former employees of IBM (Claus Wellenreuther, Hans -Werner Hector, Klaus Tschira, Dietmar Hopp and Hasso Plattner ) founded in 1972, the company system analysis and program development GbR in Weinheim.

They developed programs, payroll and accounting enabled by mainframe. Instead of storing the data on mechanical punch cards, like her ex- employer IBM, they sat on the touch of your screen. Therefore, they called their software as real-time (real-time ) system. For this reason, also found himself up in the late 1990s always an R in the name of the products. The first version of the software was doing in the computer center of the first customer, the nylon fiber of Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI ). The resulting there software was designed as a standard software and could be offered, other interested parties. SAP is therefore considered as a co-inventor of the standard software. From these real-time systems, a new type of data processing, which is now known as Online Transaction Processing (OLTP ) developed in the course of the 1970s.

Another advantage of the software was that now for many tasks ( such as order intake, material requirements planning and invoicing ) a common system could be used. This saved multiple data retention and the separate maintenance of the data. From a technical point of view, therefore, a database was necessary.

The first office of the company was in Mannheim. 1976, SAP GmbH Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing was founded, who moved a year later from Weinheim to Walldorf. Today SAP is represented worldwide. The first was built in Walldorf Building ( now called WDF08 ) housed from 1980 also has its own data center. Claus Wellenreuther retired at that time from the company. From the early 1980s, the software is also available in other languages ​​. The necessary adaptation of the software for the customer was acquired by partners. In 1981, the still existing GbR was dissolved and transferred its rights to the Founded in 1976, SAP GmbH.

The era of SAP R / 2 | 1982-1991

The company was converted into a public limited company in August 1988. On 4 November 1988, the SAP AG went public and was listed among others on the Frankfurt and Stuttgart stock exchange. It was not until 2005, by a resolution of the Annual General Meeting the abbreviation SAP on official company name and logo. The official name of the company has since SAP Aktiengesellschaft.

The computer week already wrote in the fall of 1990 on SAP: Almost unnoticed, SAP AG, Walldorf, with the modular standard software package R / 2, a quasi -monopoly position in the field of commercial standard software for S/370-Rechner in the Federal Republic created. The software package R / 2 then ran only on IBM - compatible hardware and Siemens computers.

The era of SAP R / 3 | 1992-2001

At CeBIT 1991 was R / 3 as a solution for the SME sector to market and R / 2 should be complementary. R / 3 was designed for the then newly announced AS/400 from IBM, but IBM hardware was unable to cope with the new system. SAP therefore had to UNIX workstations dodge with Oracle database and the client- server principle. However, the new solution evoked enthusiasm among the customers and the trade press. De facto started the new R / 3 to replace the previous standard software package R / 2. SAP could consequently its sales between 1991 and 1996 more than five times (1991: € 361.5 million, 1996: € 1903.19 million).

Four of the founders of SAP - Dietmar Hopp, Hasso Plattner, Klaus E. Tschira and Hans -Werner Hector - initially formed the Board. 1991 Henning Kagermann was elected to the board in 1993 came Peter Zencke as an additional member to do so. Claus E. Heinrich and Gerhard Oswald since 1996, board members. 1998 took place the first change at the top of SAP. Dietmar Hopp and Klaus Tschira changed to the Supervisory Board, chaired by Dietmar Hopp took over. Kagermann was appointed Deputy CEO. Werner Brandt joined in 2001 as Chief Financial Officer ( Chief Financial Officer ) for SAP. Léo Apotheker was since 2002 a board member and president of Global Customer Solutions & Operations, before he left the company in early 2010. Since then, there are again two co-CEOs at SAP, Bill McDermott (sales, U.S. ) and Snabe ( Products / Solutions, EMEA).

Real-time and mobility | 2002 -present

2003 Henning Kagermann Chairman and CEO of SAP. In February 2007, his contract was extended at his own request only until 2009. Hasso Plattner took over from Dietmar Hopp chair the Supervisory Board. In early 2007 left a board member Shai Agassi, who was traded as a possible Kagermann successor, the company.

Board member Léo Apotheker became the second CEO of SAP AG, alongside Henning Kagermann, appointed in April 2008.

In 2006, a council was set up in Germany after initial resistance, the majority workforce and the management.

On 7 October 2007, SAP AG, Walldorf, Germany, has announced that it intends to acquire in the first quarter of 2008 for 4.8 billion euros as part of a friendly takeover, the French software company Business Objects. After obtaining the necessary regulatory approvals SAP published in December 2007 acquisition deals in France and USA. By the end of January 2008, 95% of Business Objects shareholders had accepted these offers and sells its Business Objects securities to SAP.

On February 11, 2008, SAP AG announced that they will acquire it does not already directly or indirectly associated with the Business Objects securities until February 18, 2008 by a squeeze -out procedure. On 18 February 2008, the listing of Business Objects shares and the ORNANEs at EURONEXT was canceled ( delisting ). The listing of the BusinessObjects American Depositary Shares ( ADS) at the U.S. NASDAQ stock exchange was lifted on 19 February 2008. As of March 1, 2008, John Schwarz, Chief Executive Officer ( CEO) of Business Objects, appointed to the Executive Board of SAP AG.

In the first quarter of 2008, the purchase of the French software company Business Objects SA completed for 4.8 billion euros.

On 2 April 2008, Hasso Plattner confirmed that the CEO Henning Kagermann in early 2009 is expected to enter the grounds of age to retire.

Because of since the summer of 2008, more and more aggravating, the global financial and economic crisis, which led to reduced customer demand and a declining stock price, is by giving Kagermann SAP also forced to make a hiring freeze. On 28 January 2009, the company announced at the preliminary annual balance sheet that because of the difficult economic situation in 3300 jobs would have to be reduced in order to reduce personnel costs.

In July 2009 it was announced that SAP AG wants to take over the SAF Simulation, Analysis and Forecasting AG, a voluntary public offer.

On 8 February 2010, the Company announced that Léo Apotheker resigns with immediate effect. Equal to the place of pharmacists were U.S. CEO Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe development chief. The former labor director Erwin Gunst also grew undisclosed reasons resigned his office. On 16 April 2010, the Company announced that Angelika Dammann Unilever will switch to SAP to the Board to direct the human resources. She was thus the third woman on the Board of a DAX company, according to Barbara Kux of Siemens. July 8th, 2011 Angelika Dammann resigned for personal reasons.

On 21 April 2010, SAP announced to want his partner TechniData from Mark Village, a specialist in environmental management, health and safety at work take over. On 30 July 2010 SAP acquired Sybase for 4.6 billion euros.

In September 2010 it was announced that from the end of 2012 in Potsdam, a research and development area is to be settled by SAP.

2012 SAP took over the U.S. company SuccessFactors, which offers cloud applications, for 2.5 billion euros and the online trading platform, Ariba for 4.3 billion U.S. dollars.

On March 21, 2013, SAP announced to want to convert, subject to shareholder approval in 2014 of a joint stock company into a European Company (SE ).

Acquisitions

Indicators

SAP has about 65 667 employees worldwide (as of February 2013), of which about 15,800 people in software development, and in 2010 generated sales of 12.5 billion euros. The stock is one of the DAX and Dow Jones Euro Stoxx 50 and is traded on several of the Frankfurt (since 1988) and the New York Stock Exchange ( since 1998).

The SAP has a global presence through approximately 120 subsidiaries. The company operates in addition to the development center at its headquarters in Walldorf further development locations in the U.S., France, Canada, Israel, India, Australia, Japan, the People 's Republic of China, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland.

In 2005, SAP had, according to Gartner Dataquest in ERP software a global market share of 28.7%. 2006, SAP in Germany with a market share of 54.8 %.

SAP now has over 100,000 customers, including many large enterprises and DAX companies and is used here by about 12 million users.

Shareholder

Around 74 % of SAP bearer shares are in free float, 3% self-owned and 23 % owned by the three founding shareholders Hasso Plattner, Klaus Tschira and Dietmar Hopp. Thus, the founding shareholders are in a position to impede any hostile takeovers.

Products

SAP R / 3 and Business suite

A few years ago there was with SAP R / 3, which was developed in 1992 from the mainframe - oriented predecessor, SAP R / 2, as parts of a single monolithic ERP software manufacturer. It consists of modules which are functionally, but not architecturally separate. These are mainly: FI (Finance ) CO (Controlling), MM ( Materials Management ), SD (Sales and Distribution ), PP (Production Planning) and HR (Human Resources). These modules continue to form the core of the functionality using SAP users.

It is now complemented by a range of other products that are now collectively called SAP Business Suite. The acronyms ERP, CRM, SCM, SRM, etc., and the concepts behind it have not been developed by SAP and are also used by other IT suppliers. SAP uses the abbreviation but to describe its software packages:

• Enterprise Resource Planning ( SAP ERP) the earlier R / 3, independently occurred recently in version 4.7, partly ERP Central Component is called. Further details on engineering, architecture, the functional modules and the user interface, see main article SAP ERP.
• Customer Relationship Management ( SAP CRM) is an independent package that provides advanced functionality for customer care by means of a stand-alone software architecture and runs on a separate server; with the ERP possibly shared data is synchronized via replication.
• Supply Chain Management ( SAP SCM), Supplier Relationship Management ( SAP SRM) and Product Lifecycle Management ( SAP PLM) systems complement each other in a similar way to the base system across all industries use functions.
• Industry solutions (so-called IS - Industry Solutions ) also have their specific supplements to the normal functions of the R/3/ERP-Kerns. These include, for example, SAP for Banking for banks and other companies that want to conduct banking business, SAP for Retail for the Retail, IS- Mill for the paper, textile, steel and cable industry, SAP for Healthcare ( formerly IS called -H ) for the hospital sector ( Patientenmanangement and billing ); SAP for Media for the media industry, IS-Oil for the oil industry or SAP for Utilities for water, electricity and gas industries.

NetWeaver platform

SAP NetWeaver is a web based, open integration and application platform that serves as a basis for service - oriented architecture (SOA). NetWeaver provides the ability to connect third-party applications efficiently to the SAP solution, and this includes extensive interfaces at the level of the user interface, data and processes. SAP NetWeaver uses open standards and enables the integration of information and applications from a variety of sources and technologies.

Technically, this consists of an ABAP application server with a certain stock of basic functionality, as well as a Java EE application server. An SAP NetWeaver system can be operated either as a pure ABAP application server, as a pure Java EE application server or as a so-called double-stack system.

Under certain NetWeaver Java EE and ABAP applications are delivered, SAP calls these types of use (or usage types ). The uses of business intelligence, Mobile Infrastructure, Development Infrastructure, Enterprise Portal and Process Integration are part of NetWeaver and all that build products, that can be installed in an ERP system for example.

The Java EE application server based on the ProSyst Software GmbH ( which was bought in 2000 by SAP and renamed In -Q-My Technologies GmbH) developed InQMy Application Server. This is from SUN Microsystems full Java EE certified according to the J2EE 1.4 standard, or in the version 7.1 to Java EE 1.5.

In addition, SAP has enhanced the capabilities of the Java EE server, so that the user administration with the ABAP server can be coupled with Web Dynpro is a powerful GUI framework available and Java EE applications can use ABAP applications over special interfaces communicate.

SAP NetWeaver is the basis of the SAP Business Suite, SAP Business ByDesign and SAP NetWeaver Composition Environment (based on Eclipse 3.3). In addition, SAP NetWeaver is the basis of partner solutions and custom application development. The SAP Business Suite applications are based on the following versions of SAP NetWeaver:

• SAP SRM 2004
• SAP ERP 2004
• SAP CRM 2005
• SAP SCM 2004

Supported platforms for SAP NetWeaver are:

• Linux ( RHEL, SLES, RedFlag, zLinux ) on IA32, PPC, X86_64, IBM zSeries
• AIX
• HP -UX on PA - RISC and IA64
• Solaris on SPARC and X86_64
• Windows NT and its successor products, IA32, IA64, X86_64
• IBM OS/400
• IBM z / OS (OS/390 )

Supported databases include Microsoft SQL Server, IBM Informix Dynamic Server, SAP MaxDB, IBM DB2, SAP HANA, Sybase and Oracle. As a job scheduler SAP Cronacle offers in the package.

SME Solutions

The company provides SAP Business One, SAP Business All- in-One and the announced on 19 September 2007 SAP Business ByDesign, which was known under the working title " A1S " until then, now also software which ERP functions for small, medium and large companies covering.

Business One

SAP Business One is a solution for small to medium-sized enterprises (1 to 100 employees, which need not be all users ). Architecture and functionality have no connection to SAP Business Suite or R / 3 Business One has its own GUI technique is bound platform and currently runs only under Microsoft Windows.

Business One integrated ERP solution includes as standard modules for all major areas of business administration. In addition to sales and purchasing and production processes, financial accounting or the processing of incoming and outgoing payments can be mapped. This makes it suitable as a commercial and logistic software for many different companies and industries. Direct delivered by SAP AddOns example of SAP 's Print Layout Designer or the Advanced Layout Designer, which offers advanced layout and printing functions for queries and reports based on the reporting tool combit List & Label. An important reporting tool is also equipped with Microsoft Excel compatible XL Reporter, the precise compiles the key performance indicators of companies based on real-time information graphically presented in aggregated form. This module comes from the Norwegian company iLytix, which was acquired by SAP in 2005. Of importance are also supplied by SAP AddOns Payment (generation of database files ), Elster (transmission of tax - relevant data to the tax authorities ) and DATEV (Export of accounting data, for example, for transmission to the tax advisor ). With many more add-ons that are developed by various partners of SAP and extend the standard functionality, Business One is the industry solution. These partners are called by SAP as an ISV (Independent Software Vendors ). Their solutions are enabled with different certifications such as "SAP Certified Integration " or "Enabled by SAP Business One " and are usually in the Graphical User Interface ( GUI) SAP Business One integrated. These partners add-ons extend from the area of ​​production planning and control over the production of print layouts to detailed project management or WebShops. The integration platform integration framework that is provided by SAP, data exchange between Business One and other systems is possible. This allows a number of scenarios such as integration with a parent company that uses SAP ERP, or with an associated company or external business partners.

Business One by SAP was introduced in 2002 and is based on the software TopManage the Israeli manufacturer TopManage Financial Solutions LTD. TopManage was one of the companies that the temporary SAP Executive Board member Shai Agassi had founded along with his father, Reuven Agassi in 1993 and was acquired in the first quarter of 2001 from SAP.

With Business One, SAP AG is also increasingly in competition with providers that specialize in small and medium-sized enterprises, such as Sage and Microsoft with Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

The decentralized sales organization of SAP licenses of SAP Business One are sold through partners. Currently in Germany there are about 90 SAP partners (as of July 2012), which deal with the implementation projects of SAP Business One.

On the websites of SAP Business One partners are partly Preiskalkulatoren to find out the approximate price for the project 's own industry free.

Business All- in-One

Unlike SAP Business All -in -One is designed - it provides a preconfigured, small ERP system for medium-sized or larger subsidiaries of large corporations, from the 50,000 euro the benefits of an ERP system, including industry-specific functionality with full compatibility to the "big " SAP ERP provides the parent company.

Business ByDesign

Business ByDesign is a completely newly developed on-demand solution for the middle class, the Software was officially launched on 19 September 2007 in New York and is available to customers in seven countries ( Germany, USA, UK, France, China, India and South Africa ) are available. The solution includes an ERP and a CRM solution, and a solution for Professional Service Provider ( PSP). The current version is 1302, published in February 2013. Shall be exclusively in the hosting, that is, in the data center operation by the SAP, operated. In contrast to SAP ERP no license is purchased, the software will instead hire. The amount of rent depends on the number of users. There is also no customizing in the strict sense. Instead, a feature selection by the user ( scoping ) and a subsequent parameterization of the system takes place. Any settings always produce a consistent system as opposed to SAP ERP. This is made possible by a rule-based business catalog ( business adaptation catalog), are passed through the decisions up to the configuration tables in the system. The introduction of the system can therefore in principle also be done directly by the customer and without consultants, but consultants are useful to set up business processes clean together with the customer. As a standard solution Business ByDesign is not modifizerbar to the extent such as SAP ERP. Partner can individually build with the provided by SAP (Software Development Kit) applications for a client or for multiple clients and deploy it on the SAP Store. SAP Business ByDesign customers can then buy the apps on the SAP Store. For subsidiaries whose parent company uses SAP ERP, SAP Business ByDesign integration scenarios have been defined by SAP, for example in the areas of purchase and sale, or the financial system.

Business Objects

Under Business Objects the purchased product families Outlook Soft, Cartesis and Business Objects are grouped and others. These products include primarily the areas of performance management ( planning, consolidation and budgeting with SAP BusinessObjects Planning & Consolidation and SAP BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation), Business Intelligence (SAP Business Objects XI 4.0) and data integration (SAP BusinessObjects Data Services and SAP BusinessObjects Financial Information Managmenet ).

Service

The SAP product support (most often in the context of a contract for software maintenance or rental ) and many other customer services widely accessible on the Internet systems are processed, summarized under the name SAP Service Marketplace ( operation via web browser). There SAP users can issue messages to SAP (and other manufacturers of components used in SAP systems) to send and follow up, as well as related documentation from there, installation media, patches, vertical solutions and training. The previous system for this purpose was the Online Service System (OSS ).

Partnerships

In the last 35 years, the SAP partner network has become one of the largest branch networks consisting of software vendors, distributors, technology and service partners. In the Co-Innovation Lab, which opened in June 2007 in Palo Alto, California, SAP is working with independent software vendors such as Novell, Questra and Wonderware, system integrators and technology partners on current and future technologies. Labs co-founder of Cisco, Hewlett -Packard, Intel and NetApp. It offers a practical working environment for Web-based and Internet / Intranet -enabled applications based on enterprise SOA.

The SAP partners include global consulting firms, which have a cross-industry knowledge, including Accenture, IDS Scheer, Atos, T-Systems, itelligence or IBM Global Business Services. Globally operating software partners such as IBM extend their products with the SAP Business Suite. Global Technology partners like AMD, Hewlett -Packard, IBM, Oracle, Nokia, Sun and Novell provide users with products that support SAP technology, such as hardware, databases, storage systems, network equipment, servers, operating systems and mobile technologies. Hosting partners such as Accenture, Atos Origin, or ask the SAP business applications through service platforms. Certified Solution Extensions of a small number of partners (such as Adobe SmartOps, IDS Scheer, Open Text, CA Technologies, ICON-SCM or GK software) are directly marketed by SAP and supported by the SAP support.

With the goal of promoting innovative information and communication technologies in Europe, SAP is a Premium Member of a public- private partnership, the House of IT.

Communities

The SAP Developers Network (SDN ) is a forum where developers, consultants, system integrators and analysts knowledge and experience on topics such as ABAP, Java,. NET, SOA can exchange and other technology topics. It offers blogs, discussion forums, exclusive downloads, programming examples, training materials and a technical library. In addition, a number of additional, vendor-independent online communities for developers, consultants and users have developed that deal with SAP products. The Business Process Expert ( BPX ) community is a platform for business process experts to exchange information and experiences and share best practices to achieve greater IT flexibility and benefits with the aim of enterprise SOA. The SAP Enterprise Services Community is a member forum for customers, industry experts and partners to the common definition of Enterprise (Web) services. In various Industry Value Networks ( IVN ) customers, partners and SAP to develop joint solutions for industry specific requirements. Currently, there are eleven active IVNs, such as for banking, chemicals, consumer goods, high tech, government and retail.

User Group

User groups are independent, non -profit organizations from customers, partners, analysts, opinion leaders and SAP development teams, which serve both to education and training of members, as well as insights offer in the market and customer needs, and so influence the product development of the SAP can. The American SAP User Group ( ASUG ), the German -speaking SAP User Group (DSAG ), the Australian SAP User Group ( SUCTION ), the SAP UK & Ireland User Group or the Defense Interest Group ( Deig ) are just a few examples.

Certification

Both individual software modules of software partners, as well as SAP consultant can be certified by SAP. The aim is to establish a certain cachet and quality in the SAP ecosystem. The software to be certified gets a label such as "Powered by NetWeaver " to document that has been tested for a certain version of SAP. This seal or certificate entitles the partner company with this logo to advertise. Similarly, it turns out in the certification for consultants who can then justify their hourly rate with a documented prior knowledge.

Licensing policy

The price and licensing policy of the SAP is relatively complex, so that only a very coarse representation is sought.

Rather clearly are the license terms of small ERP solution Business One. Here are the prices per Professional User license are estimated at approximately € 2,500.00, with application of discounts available. As maintenance and update fee average of 18 % of the list price demanded by the partners. (As of March 2007)

The license cost of significantly larger R/3-, ERP or SAP Business Suite systems depend on the number of users and their activities mentioned by name in the system. There are also additional free modules (eg HCM Human Capital Management ), additional functions, paid support and further rules for the different product lines, etc. The minimum payments of the license price is dependent on the used solution, ie there is a minimum order value.

The license cost for a user (in terms of the license agreement ) depend on:

• User rating as developers, standard user ( a Production System ), read-only access ( with decreasing price)
• Product breadth of the contract: SAP Business Suite, SAP ERP, Netweaver ( decreasing price)
• Use of optional features in the ERP (eg the Enterprise Extensions or Industry Solution )

Within a contract, there may be multiple "installations" give (one per system type, such as R / 3, ECC, Web AS ), which can contain multiple "systems" in each case, but only a productive system. These in turn may be several clients. Users are mostly " be consolidated ," that is, they are counted only once for all reclaimable systems, with the highest rating. Some user accounts, such as in a test system are not calculated. Again, there is less support for non-productive SAP systems. Indirect uses of the SAP system, such as an interactive user of another manufacturer that performs transactions in SAP system are, according to the contract to include as well as direct uses.

Certain engines, optional components and stand-alone products or purchased modules are based on other models, such as a flat rate, according to data throughput or amount of scaffolding (eg jobs per unit of time or number of articles or customer contracts ).

Frequently SAP also provides the DBMS for SAP systems concerned with, then the purchase price and maintenance of DBMS are not calculated by the rates of the database vendor, but according to the standardized SAP contract volume, but depending on the DBMS type very different percentages be opened.

For certain sales channels ( systems integrators, hosting customers ) or customer groups (SAP Partner ) have their own types of contract. Depending on the country in which the system is operating, there may be a significant price premium (up to 100 %), among others, due to additional costs for translation and foreign language personnel.

If it is a new purchase software, so fall during standard maintenance time from the current five years, about 22 % maintenance fee on the purchase price ( up to January 2008: 17% ), plus a premium depending on the DBMS. After the end of the standard maintenance maintenance fee increases. The maintenance contract entitled to any version of the relevant product, which is in its standard maintenance time to select, at its discretion and make upgrades after their own needs. The change from R / 3 to the new ERP licenses means a new purchase with partial capital of the predecessor contract.

SAP can be in the license agreements the right to regularly check for proper licensing of the user grant (so-called " system audit " English License Audit).

Privacy and Legal

Since the integrated products of the company today to intervene in the central areas of companies and authorities, the application is subject to specific criteria of data security and privacy (such as Directive 95/46 EC)

In Germany the introduction of ERP systems such as SAP ECC in company requires the approval of workers ahead ( § 87 Paragraph 1 No. 6 WCA, § 75 Section 3 No. 17 BPersVG, § 91 WCA). The German Army, for example, developed the implementation under SASPF.

In Austrian authorities applications of SAP AG are also increasingly used. The data safety monitoring follows notification of data applications on a central register, which is run by an independent organization ( data processing register under the Data Protection Act 2000 ). In companies specially trained Privacy Officer for the operation of an SAP system is required.

Measuring

In 1981 at the IT fair Systems in Munich, the first trade fair of the SAP. In 1986, SAP unveiled at the largest computer show in the world, the CeBIT in Hanover. Since 1989, the SAP annually on a self-organized international customers fair to the traditionally a big party heard their latest products and strategic product plans before. In 1996 she was first held on three continents and had in Vienna 4300, USA 8000 and Japan 5000 visitors. In 1998, the trade fair for the first time in the USA, in Los Angeles, 15,000 visitors. 2003, the fair fell out because of the impact of the stock market crash of 2002/2003. It takes place since 2004 usually takes place on two different continents usually different dates. In 2008, the exhibition places Orlando ( Florida) and Berlin, 2009 only Orlando. 2010, the exhibition - the first time at the same time on two continents - from 17 to 19 May, about 16,000 visitors in Orlando and Frankfurt under the name SAPphire Now 2010.

Competition

The SAP competitors are recruited mainly from the ERP environment as well as in the areas of customer relationship management, supply chain management and logistics software.

Oracle Corporation, SAP's largest competitor, brought an action on March 22, 2007 complaint against SAP for unfair competition and unfair business practices. The accusations were directed against the Texas SAP subsidiary TomorrowNow, which provides support for older Oracle products. After that TomorrowNow used accounts from Oracle customers for service Downloads from the Oracle support site. SAP admitted to inappropriate downloads, however, denied the theft of intellectual property. On 23 November 2010 the Federal District Court for Northern California in Oakland decided that SAP must pay Oracle 1.3 billion U.S. dollars in damages for copyright infringement. SAP appealed against the verdict. On appeal the sentence was reduced to 272 million dollars.

The SAP strategy focused initially on organic growth. However, it has departed from this strategy with the acquisition of Business Objects in 2008.

Sales, employee and earnings of SAP

Source, unless stated otherwise: