SAP AG announced on Friday an expansion of its mySAP Customer Relationship Management (mySAP CRM) solution to include an on-demand option. The SAP CRM on-demand solution is designed for large and midsize organizations to manage sales, service and marketing in an easy-to-use solution delivered directly via the Internet, offered through a subscription-based licensing model.
SAP has created the first hybrid CRM solution that transcends on-demand and on-premise, while integrating with core enterprise solutions in both deployment models. To facilitate this unique hybrid approach, SAP has pioneered the “isolated-tenancy” model that combines the high availability and low risk of a single-tenancy approach with the efficiencies and deployment speed of a multi-tenancy architecture. As a result, companies can evolve their CRM solution to align with their unique business needs and customer strategies in ways that go beyond the limitations of today’s narrowly focused on-demand “pure plays.”
SAP also announced that SAP and IBM have extended their long and proven strategic alliance to provide on-demand application hosting services for the SAP CRM on-demand solution. IBM will also provide expertise in helping customers innovate, for example, in how they reap the benefits of their CRM deployments.
“The software-on-demand phenomenon has broken the purchase-and-usage paradigm broadly for enterprise software but especially in the CRM applications market,” said Mary Wardley, VP CRM Applications, IDC. “IDC believes hybrid CRM solutions and coexistence of delivery models are essential for meeting the varied needs of organizations. SAP’s entry into this market with SAP Sales on-demand is an important first step for SAP, in bringing this delivery option to its customers within the context of an integrated applications environment.”
In selecting IBM as its hosting services partner for the first offering of on-demand solutions, SAP extends a long and proven strategic alliance with IBM in helping enterprise-level customers meet their business challenges across many industries and on a global scale. IBM will provide safe, secure, reliable and highly-available hosting services-based on proven IBM eServers and also offered with DB2 database technology. The SAP solution will be powered by IBM’s Applications On Demand Platform, which automates application hosting and management to provide a scalable and efficient platform for running business applications. This agreement builds on IBM and SAP’s existing strategic alliance-with one of the largest SAP practices in the industry-to provide IBM consulting services to SAP to help customers gain the full value of their CRM deployments.
“Customers are the life blood of every business. Fully-integrated customer information allows businesses to serve and interact with customers in innovative ways,” said Marc Lautenbach, General Manager, IBM Americas. “IBM and SAP together are making it easier for companies to leverage customer information to support speedy decision-making, better responsiveness and the ability to pursue new business opportunities. For the first time, our shared clients can determine the pace of their CRM deployments while enjoying the benefits of fully integrated, enterprise-wide business processes that grow with their enterprises. In other words, they can make an affordable down-payment on their future growth.”
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John Stith is a staff writer for murdok covering technology and business.
