In February
2006, SAP announced the expansion of
its market-leading mySAP Customer Relationship
Management (mySAP CRM) solution to
include on-demand options. SAP CRM
on-demand solutions are designed for
large and mid-size organizations to
manage sales, service, and marketing
directly via the Internet through an
easy-to-use interface. The solutions
are offered through a subscription-based
licensing model. In this interview, SAP's
Bob Stutz and IBM's Adam Klaber
offer their take on SAP's on-demand
offerings and the strategic partnership
with IBM.
Bob Stutz is
Senior Vice President, CRM Global Strategy
and Product at SAP AG. Adam Klaber
is Partner — Global
and Americas CRM Leader at IBM Business
Consulting Services. |
Q SAP
has been a leading player in the CRM market
for quite some time. Why did SAP decide to introduce
an on-demand solution now?
Stutz: Without question, 2005 was an interesting
year for CRM. Oracle's acquisition of Siebel
validated that the era of best-of-breed applications
and information silos is over, and that the future
lies with "connected CRM" — CRM
that seamlessly integrates with existing systems
so customers don't have to bear the costs
of a disconnected IT environment. We also
saw the on-demand model grab the attention of
some of our largest customers. Several times,
we heard customers say,
"We know SAP is the right long-term solution
for us, but today we need a quick-fix CRM solution
for a few of our
divisions. Can SAP help?" Our customers
faced a dilemma — an on-demand deployment
would allow them to deliver
immediate results to the business, but in turn,
they would
have to sacrifice their long-term vision and
IT strategy.
So we responded. With SAP CRM on-demand solutions,
we are delivering the best of both worlds — hybrid
CRM solutions that give customers the ability to start
immediately with on-demand, but that also allow them
to transition and grow strategically to the fully integrated,
on-premise mySAP CRM solution at their own pace, without
the disruption of switching vendors.
Q What are the benefits to customers?
How do SAP CRM on-demand solutions compare
to other pure-play offerings currently on the
market?
Stutz: One of the first things
you'll notice
about SAP CRM
on-demand solutions is that they are easy to use.
We've
completely redesigned the user interface, based
on customer feedback, so that it mirrors the way
sales and marketing
users work. Users can start right away with intuitive
Web features and tools they already know how to
use — no
training required (see Figure 1).
We've built Outlook and Lotus Notes integration
into our first version because we realize the importance
of being able to synch up with these frequently
used tools. It's clear to us that getting
started with CRM needs to be simple, and adoption
is the name of the game. Usability is a key focus
for SAP, so you'll
continue to hear about improvements in this area.
 |
Figure
1 |
SAP CRM
On-Demand Solutions Provide One-Click Access
to Intuitive Features and Tools
click
here for
a larger version of this image |
As I mentioned, we spent a lot of time talking
to customers and found that our mid-size and
large enterprise customers want quick CRM, without
having to sacrifice reliability
and security or incur additional costs to integrate
or
maintain disconnected systems — which is
often the case
with pure-play, software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions.
They also want solutions that meet their needs,
both today
and in the future.
So SAP has focused its efforts not only around
usability, but also on reliability and continuity,
which I believe are key differentiators for
our on-demand solutions. For example, we have
partnered with IBM to pioneer a new on-demand
model that we call "isolated
tenancy." This model combines the high availability
and low risk of a single-tenancy approach with
the efficiencies and deployment speed of a multi-tenancy
architecture.1 Enterprise customers can now have
the confidence that their system's performance
and continuous operations do not depend on the
overall usage of the system by other customers.
And of course, when our customers are ready
to transition to a strategic CRM solution,
SAP has the answer. SAP CRM on-demand solutions
are based on the same architecture,
data model, and user interface as mySAP CRM, so
when a company's business needs evolve, it
can migrate seamlessly from on-demand to on-premise,
without the disruption of losing data, interrupting
processes, or incurring change-management costs.
This ensures customers that SAP's
on-demand offerings are more than a quick fix — they're
a strategic investment that provides lifetime value.
Q What does
SAP's partnership
with IBM bring to the table?
Stutz: In selecting IBM as our hosting services
partner,
we're building on a long and proven joint
commitment to
help enterprise-level customers meet their business
challenges on a global scale, across many industries.
The SAP solutions will be powered by IBM's
Applications on Demand Platform, which automates
application hosting and management to provide a
scalable and efficient platform for running business
applications. IBM has one of the largest SAP practices
in the industry, and will also be providing consulting
services to help customers maximize the value of
their CRM deployments.
Klaber: IBM is thrilled to be
partnering with SAP in this
important area. We see a very significant market
opportunity for our clients who want to enhance
their overall sales, marketing, and service functions.
By bringing together the flexibility of IBM's
Applications on Demand model with SAP's leading
CRM products, organizations implementing CRM will
be able to get a fast, easy, and affordable start,
as well as the opportunity to develop their strategy
and expand their solution in line with their growing
business needs.
Q Where
is on-demand CRM headed? What can customers
expect to see in the coming year?
Stutz: The SAP Sales on-demand
solution is the first on-demand product to
be released by SAP, and it is available globally
today. SAP will continue to build out the
SAP Sales on-demand solution, and additional
on-demand CRM offerings will be released
this year, including marketing and service
products. The initial language options are
English and German. New language-specific
versions — including
French, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, and
Chinese — will
be rolled out during the first half of 2006.
1
In a multi-tenancy model, each customer shares
the same hardware, application, and database
infrastructure with all other customers or "tenants" using
the system. In the isolated tenancy model,
every customer runs a separate copy of the
application and database, providing them with
greater performance, reliability, and security
than in the traditional multi-tenant model.
|
|