SAP

Founded in 1972 as a private partnership named Systemanalyse und Programmentwicklung (lit. 'System Analysis and Software Development'; SAP GbR), which in 1981 fully became Systeme, Anwendungen und Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung (SAP GmbH) after a five-year transition period beginning in 1976.[2]^:1972–1980 In 2005 it further restructured itself as SAP AG. Since 7 July 2014, its corporate structure is that of a pan-European societas Europaea (SE);[7][8] as such, its former German corporate identity is now a subsidiary, SAP Deutschland SE & Co. KG.[7]

SAP is headquartered in Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg, Germany with regional offices in 180 countries.[9][3] The company has over 425,000 customers in over 180 countries[10] and is a component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index.[11] A 2001 article said it was "the third-biggest software company in the world."[12]

For the fiscal year 2017, SAP reported earnings of €4 billion, with an annual revenue of €23.5 billion, an increase of 6.3% over the previous fiscal cycle.[37] SAP's shares traded at over US$105 per share, and its market capitalization was valued at US$128 billion in December 2018. This makes SAP the most valuable company in Germany.[38]

Acquisitions (1991–now):[40]

SAP CEO meeting with Azerbaijan's leader Ilham Aliyev

As of 2016, SAP is the world's third-largest software and programming company.[59] The corporation operates in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, North America, and South America.[60]

SAP focuses on 25 industries and six industry sectors: process industries, discrete industries, consumer industries, service industries, financial services and public services.[61] It offers integrated product sets for large enterprises,[62] mid-sized companies and small businesses.[63]

Service-oriented architecture has been incorporated into the SAP ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system and other products defined within the SAP Enterprise Services Architecture (Enterprise SOA).

SAP partners include Global Services Partners with cross-industry multinational consulting capabilities,[66] Global Software Partners providing integrated products that complement SAP Business Suite solutions,[67] and Global Technology Partners providing user companies with a wide range of products to support SAP technology, including vendors of hardware, database, storage systems, networks, and mobile computing technology.[68]

Extensions partners are companies which provide functionality that complements SAP product capabilities. Their products are certified, sold, and supported by SAP. These partner companies include Adobe, CA Technologies, GK Software,[69] Tricentis,[70] Hewlett-Packard, IDS Scheer, Mendix,[71] OpenText,[72] Knoa Software, and BackOffice Associates.[73]

SAP has also partnered with Apple to work on the mobile experience for SAP enterprise customers. As part of the partnership, a new SAP HANA Cloud Platform SDK would be delivered exclusively for iOS. As a result, developers can build applications based on the SAP HANA Cloud Platform for the iPhone and iPad devices. The partnership was announced in May 2016.[74]

In 2019, SAP announced a three-year partnership "Embrace" with Microsoft that should allow its clients to move their business process into the cloud. SAP teams up on cloud sales with Microsoft

In 2020 SAP announced that together with Wipro it will co-develop and market "solutions for the retail and fashion industry."[75]

SAP products for small businesses and midsize companies are delivered through its global partner network. The SAP PartnerEdge programme, SAP's partner programme, offers a set of business enablement resources and program benefits to help partners including value-added resellers (VARs) and independent software vendors (ISVs) be profitable and successful in implementing, selling, marketing, developing and delivering SAP products to a broad range of customers.[76]

SAP for Retailing is a comprehensive set of offerings for various retail processes including demand management/forecasting and supply chain at a high level, and specific areas such as contracting, purchasing, goods receipts, invoice verification, accounts payable, pricing, billing, Point-of-Sale and business analytics.

"SAP for Retail" is the title of a book about the software.[77]

SAP Community Network (SCN) is a community of SAP customers, partners, employees, and influencers – typically in roles such as: developers, consultants, integrators, and business analysts – who gain and share knowledge about ABAP, Java, .NET, SOA, and other technologies, plus analytics and dashboards, business process best practices, cloud, mobile, big data, and a range of other topics via blogs, discussion forums, downloads and code samples, training materials, and a technical library.[78]

SAP uses a two-tier structure of boards, with an executive board and a supervisory board.[79][80] In October 2019, Jennifer Morgan and Christian Klein were appointed as co-CEOs of SAP.[81] In April 2020, it was announced that Jennifer Morgan will leave SAP and Christian Klein will continue to operate as the sole CEO, citing that the current environment of the Coronavirus recession requires "companies to take swift, determined action which is best supported by a very clear leadership structure".[82]

Headquarters is responsible for overall management as well as core engineering activities related to product development. Worldwide customer support is not provided by the field organizations but by a unified organization called Active Global Support (AGS).[83]

SAP Labs are R&D locations that develop and improve SAP core products. SAP Labs are strategically located in high-tech clusters around the globe.[12]

The four most prominent labs of SAP SE are located in Germany, Japan, Israel and the US. Labs Walldorf was founded in 1972 and became SAP's primary location. At the beginning, the focus of SAP's expansion was entering highly developed IT markets; in 1993 Palo Alto became a part of SAP Labs. Aiming to acquire talented employees, SAP opened another lab in Bangalore in 2003.[12]

Among the latest SAP Labs are labs in Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland. All three labs have been established in 2016. The lab in India as of 2016 is SAP's largest outside Germany.

In order to manage SAP Labs, SAP Labs Network (SLN) was created. SLN is a global unit that manages regional Labs and shares best business practices. It coordinates and distributes development projects among individual SAP Labs locations, accelerates product delivery, gives SAP full access to talent, and drives SAP corporate strategy regarding innovation and business growth.[84]

SAP User Groups are independent, nonprofit organizations of SAP customers and SAP partners. They serve as communications channel for their members towards SAP and for SAP towards the markets. The Americas' SAP Users' Group (ASUG)[85] is the company's largest user group, with 100,000 individuals at 3,800 companies. ASUG members are professionals who work in more than 17 industries. Many are technical and business process experts in the SAP ecosystem; they have varied levels of experience, and come from small businesses to global corporations, as well as universities. In 2007, the SAP User Group Executive Network (SUGEN) was established.

SAP provoked controversy and frustration among its users in 2008 by raising the cost of its maintenance contracts. The issue was the subject of intense discussion among user groups.[86]

SAP Cloud Platform is SAP's platform-as-a-service (PaaS)[87] that is used to deliver in-memory capabilities and microservices for building and extending, mobile-enabled cloud applications. The infrastructure is offered through a global network of SAP managed data centers. SAP Cloud Platform is an open platform-as-a-service, which includes the in-memory SAP HANA database management system, connects to both on premises and cloud-based systems running SAP or other third-party software and relies on open standards, like Java, JavaScript, Node.js and Cloud Foundry for integration options.

SAP Cloud Platform is promoted to build and extend business applications with rapid innovation cycles. SAP and Apple Inc. partnered to develop mobile applications on iOS using cloud-based software development kits (SDKs) for the SAP Cloud Platform. SAP founding development partners[88] for their Cloud Platform include Accenture, Celonis, EnterpriseAlumni, and Walmart.

SAP Cloud Platform is based on open source technology, developed and supported in partnership with SUSE. The company is also in partnership with Cloud Foundry for a beta offering of SAP Cloud Platform that enables customers to test out and give feedback for the functionalities coming with Cloud Foundry.

In 2015, the company launched S/4HANA, the newest generation of the SAP Business Suite. It was written natively for the SAP HANA platform. It offers cloud, on-premises and hybrid deployment options to customers, with its benefits including a smaller data footprint, higher throughput, faster analytics and faster access to data. It also allows existing SAP Business Suite customers to upgrade to this product from SAP Business Suite.[89]

In 2016, SAP introduced SAP HANA, Express Edition which is meant to run on personal computers or on cloud computing platforms for students and other small-scale developers.[90]

"The SAP Enterprise Learning solution is part of SAP ERP HCM" is a quote from a 2009-published book about the subject.[91] The acronym ERP refers to Enterprise Resource Management; HCM refers to Human Capital Management.[92]

There are other books on SAP ERP HCM including:

• Mastering HR Management with SAP ERP HCM[93]
• Talent Management with SAP ERP HCM[94]

SAP Enterprise Learning is a learning management system, for large and medium-sized enterprises, from SAP, and it contains a virtual learning room feature powered by Adobe Connect.[95] A sample can be experienced in the SAP Learning on Demand Portal. SAP uses this for delivering online training[96] as a Learning on Demand offering; some of this content is freely available[97] as e-books or simulations. The company has a book on this subject, available since June 2009.[98]

SAP launched the SAP store in March 2015 as its principal e-commerce property to allow customers to buy its products directly on the Web rather than through traditional sales channels. Customers can purchase free trials or starter editions and can pay by credit card or PayPal.

Launched in 2016, the SAP App Center is an online application marketplace for third-party applications that integrate with and extend SAP products. While some applications are available for free, others[99][100] involve a monthly or yearly subscription fee. Applications available range from integrations with content management software to mobile approval management and payment platforms. As of July 2018, it features over 1,500 applications. Major vendors and service providers, such as Accenture,[101] are part of it.

SAP has two annual conferences:

• SAPPHIRE is SAP's customer-facing event, where it generally announces major product changes and strategic direction. It is typically held in the spring in North America.[102][103]
• SAP TechEd is the company's more technical conference, aimed at SAP's ecosystem of consultants and software development partners.[104][105] SAP TechEd has been held annually since 1995.

SAP competitors are primarily in the enterprise resource planning software industry. In this field, Oracle Corporation is SAP's major competitor. SAP also competes in the customer relationship management, marketing & sales software, manufacturing, warehousing & industrial software, and supply chain management & logistics software sectors.[106]

Oracle Corporation filed a lawsuit against SAP for malpractice and unfair competition in the California courts in 2007. SAP lost the case in 2010 and was ordered to pay $1.3 billion, which was cited as the largest copyright infringement judgment in history.[107] The verdict was overturned in 2011,[108] and the lawsuit was finally settled in 2014 for $356.7 million.[109]

The resulting pressure saw SAP and SUGEN (SAP User Group Executive Network) agree to a major benchmarking exercise to prove the value of the new support pricing policy to customers. In December 2009, SAP delayed its Enterprise Support price rises until agreement had been reached on the benchmarks and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).[110]

In January 2010, SAP reversed its direction on Enterprise Support and reintroduced its standard support package for customers. The move to reinstate standard support – at 18 percent of annual license fees, "will enable all customers to choose the option that best meets their requirements", the company said.[111]

In August 2013, SAP acquired German software company Hybris for eCommerce capabilities.[112][113]

SAP has donated several millions of dollars to a variety of global health causes including the Product Red campaign and the Global Fund.[114][115] In addition, SAP has distributed free software in South Africa as part of an effort towards developing future markets there.[116] The company also encourages employees to volunteer through social sabbaticals, sending teams of people to different countries to aid non-profits. SAP employees have volunteered in China, India, Brazil, and South Africa.[117]

The SAP Arena opened in Mannheim in 2005, and is the home of the Adler Mannheim ice hockey team and Rhein-Neckar Löwen handball team. Since 2013, the company is name sponsor of the SAP Center at San Jose, California. The team also sponsors the Formula One racing team McLaren, the Formula E team Mercedes Benz EQ, German football team TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, NFL teams the New York Giants and New York Jets, the City Football Group, and eSports squad Team Liquid. It was the title sponsor of the Formula One United States Grand Prix from 2000 to 2002.

SAP ambassadors include German tennis player Angelique Kerber, German eventing rider Ingrid Klimke, and South African golfers Ernie Els, Gary Player and Branden Grace.

SAP also engages in outreach activities within its company. In 2013, the company launched an initiative to hire employees with autism and Asperger syndrome, citing their undervalued ability to contribute to its workforce. SAP aims to compose 1% of its workforce with individuals with autism by the year 2020.[118]

• List of ERP software packages
• List of SAP products
• SAP implementation

Wikimedia Commons has media related to SAP.

• Official website
• Meaning and Modules of SAP.

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