Enterprise resource planning firm SAP picked up a deal with holding company Philadelphia Newspapers LLC to provide mySAP ERP for its print media companies.
SAP has proven popular with several other big-name publications, like The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and the International Herald Tribune. In Philadelphia, SAP said it would “streamline the company’s procurement and expense management systems across its 2,650 employees.”
Even better for SAP, the win comes at the expense of a hated rival. SAP will use its Safe Passage Program to assist Philadelphia Newspapers in migrating from its current Oracle products to mySAP ERP.
SAP also offered the Safe Passage Program to customers of Siebel in October 2005. That was when Oracle announced it had acquired Siebel. SAP noted at the time that “Siebel customers may face the same uncertainties and concerns experienced by the customers of PeopleSoft, JD Edwards and Retek solutions (among others) as they consider the impact of Oracle’s consolidation.”
SAP Americas president and CEO Bill McDermott noted that “media companies are embracing enterprise-centered approaches to business,” and said using SAP “leads to greater productivity, efficiency and profitability.”
The company also made its mySAP All-In-One ERP package available in Australia. This fast-track implementation of SAP services will be aimed at medium-sized businesses in the country.
“More than 50 per cent of SAP’s customers in the Asia Pacific region are small or mid-size companies,” Tim Cavill, channels director SAP Australia & New Zealand, said in IDM.net. “We recorded a 42 per cent increase in revenue from the SME segment in Australia during the first half of 2006, compared to the same period last year.”
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David Utter is a staff writer for murdok covering technology and business.
