SAP Marks ERP Milestone Amidst CRM Press

SAP's (News - Alert) been in the news for their CRM recently, but they don't want you to forget about their ERP. SAP AG has announced that more than 1,000 customers are live on mySAP ERP 2005, the latest release of SAP’s enterprise resource planning application.

The milestone marks "the fastest adoption rate of an ERP release in the history of the company," SAP officials claim. Organizations in diverse industries around the world --the company cites Higher Education Press, China; The Department of Water Resources, State of California; Technische Werke Ludwigshafen AG, Germany; and Palfinger AG, Austria -- are using what SAP calls "the industry’s first business process platform."

Generally available for customers since May of 2006, the latest version of mySAP ERP together with SAP NetWeaver serves as a business process platform customers may adopt at their own pace.

Recently SAP AG officials have announced that Bowe Bell & Howell, a manufacturer of document processing and postal products, will replace competing products with mySAP Customer Relationship Management to "help drive process efficiencies across its service organization and deliver a more intimate level of customer service."

As postal legislation and the dynamics of the global marketplace continue to challenge mass mailing customers, BB&H sells modularly designed document management products and services to help companies organize paper-based and digital mail communications.

The company will roll out mySAP CRM initially within its North American service organization, and later extend the implementation through parent company operations worldwide.

Earlier this month, at its annual conference to report full-year fiscal results, SAP AG revealed further details, but not many, about what they call "a next-generation product and an additional business model" that will, company officials promise, "reshape the way midsize companies purchase, adopt and finance software applications."

At the conference, SAP CEO Henning Kagermann outlined plans to introduce what company officials characterized as a new midmarket product offering "breakthrough innovations" in "faster, lower-risk implementation, continuous adaptability and easier user adoption."

Complementing SAP's existing portfolio for midsize companies, the product will use what's being described as a new "enterprise service-oriented architecture by design" platform and will be available to customers through on-demand and hosted delivery.

David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. For more articles please visit David Sims' columnist page.

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