The Best-Run Businesses Run SAP

SAP’s stellar success in building its blue-chip large enterprise business has often overshadowed its considerable but quieter achievements in small and medium business (SMBs) markets. But SAP is not a household name in the SMB community (more…)

HANA, SAP’s in-memory computing engine has factored into SAP conversations for a couple of years now. Often HANA and in-memory computing are associated with “big data”, and hence associated with big companies. So the introduction of a HANA product for SAP Business One (more…)

In a previous blog post, guest contributor Cindy Jutras, president of Mint Jutras, outlined the advantages of taking a platform approach, combining applications with database and technology. But in taking such approach Cindy cautioned against sacrificing functionality or performance. In that post Cindy set the stage (more…)

Reporting live from TechEd/Sapphire Beijing: Jennifer Schulze

 As a first time visitor to China, I had no idea what to expect from SAP SAPPHIRE/TechEd Beijing. I arrived and quickly became part of the crowd wave at the China National Convention Center – at least 10,000 strong — all ready to hear about what SAP is doing and eager to learn.  Everything here is big, the show venue, the crowd and the level of energy.  Even if I was lost in translation much of the time, my time here confirmed this audience is serious, has done their research and is ready to talk real business. (more…)

A lot has been written lately about moving from transactional systems to engagement systems, including one of my own blog posts. There is something to be said for better engagement with customers, but I don’t see this as a “from-to” transition. Recording transactions isn’t optional. Whatever tool you use to create your system of record (whether it is ERP or accounting applications or something else) is a necessary foundational tool and some Small to Midsize Enterprises (SMEs) struggle to provide that solid foundation. (more…)

As mentioned by Manju Bansal in a previous blog post, SAP Business One has historically been tagged as the small company ERP solution (i.e. those outgrowing their QuickBooks or Microsoft Excel-based accounting and tracking.) Even though it has over 32,000 customers worldwide and is SAP’s best-selling solution in terms of number of customers, it rarely generates the buzz or attention of some of SAP’s other offerings. (more…)

HANA is effectively bringing companies into the 21^st century, where business is conducted in real-time.  Small and midsized businesses are turning to HANA to free themselves from their archaic 20^th century business processes, which are no longer capable of maintaining a competitive advantage in today’s market. They are also leveraging HANA to put information into the hands of the business users, giving them the freedom from having to rely on IT.  Given that most  (more…)

This year’s SAP TechEd was the first to feature an SME (Small to Midsize Enterprise) track. As we wrap up Las Vegas (next stop Madrid), it is time to reflect on the real relevance to SME of the themes and messages presented at TechEd. Much of the event was an excellent presentation of technology, followed by some ideas and examples of how you might use that technology.  That is the way IT departments in large enterprises might approach their IT strategy and budget. And, after all the intended audience for the event was IT in general and developers in particular. But typically there aren’t any developers in small companies and most SMEs have very limited IT staffs. So really the SME audience at TechEd was the partners that service those SMEs. (more…)

As the name implies, SAP TechEd offers technical education, such as hands-on workshops, deep-dive lectures and sessions with SAP technical experts about all things SAP. That said, TechEd isn’t for everyone, and it’s no wonder that most of the 6,500+ attendees at SAP TechEd 2011, held the week of September 12 in Las Vegas, were SAP partners and technology specialists from the vendor’s large enterprise accounts. (more…)