SAP targets SMEs

SAP released its Business All-in-One Fast-Start Program at Gallagher Estate, in Midrand.

The SAP SME World Tour, which covered over 50 cities in 10 countries, visited Johannesburg as one of its key cities in the emerging markets.

According to SAP, the content management solution aims to deliver rapid business results and lower total cost of ownership.

Hans-Peter Klaye, president of SAP SME Business, says in the past, SAP was thought of as a solutions provider that only caters for large corporates. This, he says, is not the case.

“SAP's partners play a huge role in our SME strategy. SMEs in Africa are critical for the growth of SAP. One of our best-kept secrets is actually a mathematical paradox. SAP currently has 151 000 customers and of these, 40 000 are in the SME market. Seventy-five percent of SAP's customer base are SMEs and 32 000 out of the 40 000 [SME] customers are served by our partners. Thirty percent of our global revenue comes from our SME customer licences. This attributes roughly to a billion euros per year.”

Klaye says SAP is growing exponentially on a global scale, with an average of 30 new customers every working day. The latest All-in-One solution was developed to expand best practices and to bring transparency and quick-time to benefit companies, he says.

“I think SMEs are the backbone of the economy and are driving innovation and opportunities in emerging markets like SA, and other global businesses are recognising this as we've seen a huge demand in African investment,” says Klaye. “Our go-to-market approach is that we are currently looking at Asia and Latin America, and are looking at going into other emerging regions. We have local partners in these regions and create strategies that are specific to that country.”

Klaye says the world is now one large network and businesses cannot operate in isolation anymore. Rather, businesses need to work in collaboration and have the right partners in place. A survey from the Economist Intelligence Unit, sponsored by SAP, reveals 69% of companies believe that collaboration and the adoption of new technologies has benefited their business relationships.

Pfungwa Serima, MD of SAP SA, says any business, irrespective of its size, starts with an idea and needs effective business application solutions. “The days of commodity solutions are over. We want to bring a business solution that fits with the respective requirements and changes that a company and country are facing.”

Derek Kudsee, SAP director of SME and channel SA, says: “How does an SME justify paying for software now when they are struggling to pay salaries in the current global economy crisis? It's important for businesses to be able to quantify where their spend is going.

“SAP's Fast Start offering is a pre-configured CRM solution that comes with hardware, integrated financials, CRM software, as well as SAP services, for just under R1.5 million. This is best suited for the R2 billion organisation and can be fully implemented within eight weeks. Whereas our Kick Start and Go solution costs R20 000 and can be installed in two days; companies can start with 20 users and scale it to more users as the company grows.”

Related stories:
Open Text buys Captaris
SMEs win AltX listing