SAP CRM: A Passionate Journey

SAP CRM has undergone paradigm shift from where it started. My association is from 5.0 versions onwards. Having worked on Development, Implementation & support of it, I thought of sharing a insight on this Product which I am very deeply passionate about.

Past

Everyone used to associate SAP to ERP and to the general public ERP and SAP are synonyms. Some still do it till today. ERP was SAP’s bread and butter and was a break-out success in the software industry. SAP competitors grudgingly acknowledged this success.

Transformation

Somewhere down the line it must have been thought that apart from ERP, SAP should venture into other Product lines as well in the Enterprise arena, CRM being one of them. By the time SAP thought about it, Siebel was running all over the places. Just like what SAP is to ERP, Siebel was to CRM; a synonym. It still commands large portion of market share as an Oracle product.

Slowly but surely SAP decided that they are going to be in the CRM space as well. They turned their attention towards it and after ERP; CRM became the number one product line, with a clear vision in perspective and a remarkable leadership to support the vision.

CRM 2007 Phenomenon

People were still passionate about CRM.  After the 5.0 release which was the “fulcrum” of many changes in CRM, the Enterprise world saw a new product from SAP. Simple And Powerful: SAP CRM 2007

CRM 2007 broke many records (“CRM 2007 went into GA two months earlier“). Most experienced SAP CRM professionals would agree that there is no comparison between the user experience of the older SAP CRM release and the newer SAP CRM releases. The UI (Web UI) is fantastic, the framework is stable. One such early Eclipse Aviation goes live with SAP CRM 2007, Eclipse Aviation, is also available on SCN to prove my point.

Latest Edition

With CRM 7.0 as the latest release, SAP has gone one more step forward, with the Enhancement pack strategy in place for CRM as well.

• It has AET (Application Enhancement tool), which gives consultants flexibility to create New attributes.
• One can create ERP Quotation and Sales Order in CRM.
• TPM (Trade Promotion Management with SAP: CRM 2007 makes the difference (#2))  – Catering Largely to CPG Industry
• MDF (SAP CRM: Market Development Fund) – For Channel Partners
• SAP CRM 7.0 – Loyalty Management in Interaction Center – Initially it was developed keeping Airline Industry in focus but a lot of heat has been generated by the retail segment which will ultimately make major use of it.
• Adding more punch to reporting, BusinessObjects is well integrated with CRM – Business Object was good acquisition and in near future all SAP application will be integrated with BOBJ (A new Name for BusinessObjects)
• To add to CTI & Telephony, catering specially to the Call centre business BPM (Communication Enabled Business Processes with SAP CRM 7.0) has been integrated.
• To run on your Mobile, close integration of CRM with SAP CRM 7.0 and Blackberry has been achieved.

With all the passion that has been put into place by the Developers of SAP CRM, community members of SDN & BPX, and the enthusiasm of the customers that has been shown, it seems that the future of CRM is now. It’s no more only ERP. As Stephen Johannes mentioned sometime back , The specified item was not found.. I will add more to it, We do more than just exist. The competition in CRM space is fierce and SAP CRM has taken its competitor head – on!

Good wishes to Worldwide CRM community for future ahead.