Enterprise software maker SAP AG has announced that it’s shipping the U.S. version of its midmarket SAP Business One suite of applications.
The application set is different from the flagship mySAP Business Suite and will cater to companies that have from 10 to several hundred users.
The core technology was acquired a year ago when SAP purchased TopManage Financial Solutions Ltd. in Tel Aviv. According to SAP America Inc. President and CEO Bill McDermott, the Business One suite has been shipped during the past five months to companies in 12 countries. SAP had to make the software conform to local languages, currencies and regulations, but the core product remains the same in all cases, he said.
“We think of it as a suite of products that ranges from supply chain to core ERP [enterprise resource planning] and customer relationship management, in a lightweight size and priced for this market,” McDermott said.
The application can be installed in as little as two weeks, he said. That is in contrast to the multiyear, multimillion-dollar rollouts common for larger implementations of SAP software.
McDermott called the vendor landscape very fragmented. He added that although some of SAP’s rivals, such as Oracle Corp., are dabbling in the small-business market, no single company has yet established itself as the leader.
SAP also announced that New York-based American Express Co.’s tax and business services unit will be reselling and supporting the application. SAP plans to work with American Express to develop vertical applications to sell to its customers as well.
According to Duane Taylor, vice president of finance at NextiraOne LLC, a Houston-based enterprise networking solutions and services provider, the company was able to eliminate multiple software systems and consolidate functions around SAP Business One. In a statement, he claimed that NextiraOne got 15 users up and running after two weeks.
“As a growing company in a competitive environment, it was important to us to work with an industry leader that could help us leverage technology to achieve our business goals,” Taylor said.