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By Mel Duvall
After several years of delays, SAP announced this week that its Business ByDesign software-as-a-service application suite is now available. However, before leaping into the market, companies may want to consider that SAP says a more advanced version of the suite is slated to be released later this year.
The mixed messaging is just another example of the difficulties SAP has had in getting its on-demand product offering to market. The company has been developing and testing its Business ByDesign suite since 2007, but has repeatedly delayed the offering as it worked to get the product enterprise-ready.
There has also been a significant amount of speculation that SAP did not want to rush the product to market for fear it would bite into its highly lucrative core business.
At the company’s giant Sapphire conference in Orlando this week, SAP appeared to be walking a tightrope between saying the product was ready for market and noting that improvements were just around the corner. It said the product is currently being used by 100 charter customers and is available in the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, China and India.
At the same time, “with the upcoming innovations in SAP Business ByDesign, we aim to make a huge step forward in scalability and innovation while we enable our users to collaborate more effectively, make better decisions and improve their productivity,” said Peter Lorenz, SAP’s EVP for small and midsize enterprises, in a statement.
Specifically, the next release will include:
- Real-time analytics. Customers will be able to analyze corporate data in real time using built-in memory analytics.
- Support for mobile devices. With built-in support for mobile devices, customers will be able to access applications and data remotely.
- Enhanced user interface. SAP will incorporate Microsoft’s Silverlight in the client front-end, providing simplified navigation, interactive graphics and tight integration with Microsoft Office applications.
- Single and multi-tenancy support. Customers will have the option of running Business ByDesign under a single or multi-tenancy model. Essentially, this means users can assess the application as a single instance, or via the Web along with many other users at a wide range of locations. Multi-tenancy is typically the service offered by major on-demand rivals such as Salesforce.com and NetSuite.
In a separate announcement, SAP said it would create a “partner ecosystem” around its Business ByDesign strategy. The goal is to establish its suite as a foundation for software and service partners to build additional features and expertise.
“Partners have always played a key role in the success of SAP’s mainstay business, and we’re taking a page from our own playbook as we expand into the on-demand market,” said Doug Merritt, EVP for SAP on-demand solutions.
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