Emre Tezcan MBA 631 AWA 4

SAP AG is German company which provides enterprise software applications and support to businesses. It delivers products and services that help speed business innovation up for its customers. SAP has 89.000 customers, some of those are Adobe Systems, Apple, Coca-Cola, Ford, Wal-Mart and Samsung. In addition, the company offers consulting, maintenance, and training services for its software solutions. SAP is now largest software company in Europe. It was founded in June 1972; and the name of SAP stands for Systemanalyse und Programmentwicklung ("System Analysis and Program development"). The company based on Walldorf, Germany, and it employs 48.471 people (SAP AG, 2010), it served 97.000 customers in over 120 countries. Also, it has many offices around the world; for example in Brazil, USA, Israel, Canada and China. The recorded revenue of the company during the financial year ended December 2009 is $14.883,5 million. There are so many SAP products which the company launched; such as SAP Business Suite, SAP ERP, SAP CRM (helps companies acquire and retain customers), SAP SCM (helps companies with the process of resourcing its manufacturing and service processes), SAP SRM (enables companies to procure from suppliers), SAP PLM (helps manufacturers with product-related information), SAP NetWeaver, SAP Sybase ASE, SAP Business One, SAP Business ByDesign, SAP Business All-In One and SAP Business Object Portfolio. SAP especially focuses on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). The primary product of the company is SAP ECC which is the part of SAP Business Suite. After the first SAP was launched in 1973, it brought a new solution to the business world. Nevertheless, SAP was improved between the years of 1985 and 1990. There are six industry sectors which SAP focuses on; Process Industries, Discrete
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Industries, Consumer Industries, Service Industries, Financial Services and Public Services. There are also 25 industry solution portfolios for bigger enterprises and more than 550 micro solutions for midsized and small companies. According to the industry sources, the company was number one in business intelligence, analytics, and performance management software market in 2009. SAPs vision is for companies of all sizes to become best-run businesses (Facts and Figures About SAP, 2009). By using SAP solutions companies from each size can reduce costs, optimize performance and gain the insight and agility needed to close the gap between strategy and execution. Implementation of SAP in the companies is really important step. Depending how to adhere instructions; it is more likely to achieve a successful implementation. (The Evolution of SAP Implementation Environments , 2005). There are three main points about SAP implementation which considered as a Value SAP: Discovery and evaluation Implementation (ASAP or Global ASAP). Operations and continuous business improvement (methodology used as CBI). Since 1997, recommended methodology for enterprises is Accelerated SAP (ASAP). This part is divided into phases which are: Project Preparation Business Blueprint Realization

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Final Preparation Go live, support and continuous change.

The company has a good brand image because of its famous market position. It has very important alliances and partnerships and also extensive geographic presence. However; fluctuating financial performance and lack of product diversification are some problems of SAP. There are significant R&D capabilities which is the SAP Company has been conducted R&D for several years and that enabled the company to remain competitive in the market. SAP has extensive geographic presence. It has spread more than 50 countries in the world. Extensive geographic presence decreases the business risk of the company and improves its financial position. SAP has also many important alliances and partnerships. As of FY2009, SAP has 21 global services partners, more than 1.200 service partners and 34 global technology partners. Some of the partners are Accenture, Origin, Deloitte and HCL Axon. This alliances and partnerships enable the company to further expand its offerings s and also enhance its revenues. On the other hand, financial performance of the company is fluctuating ever year. This makes the company unstable and also affects the investor confidence. The other disadvantage is; compared to its competitors, this company lacks product diversification. SAP concentrates on the business software segment; by the way competitors also address the other segments of the IT market such as database management applications, operating systems, desktop applications and servers. SAP has been made several acquisitions that will enhance the companys product portfolio and reach such as

Emre Tezcan MBA 631 AWA 4

acquiring one of the global forecasting and replenishment software leaders in the retail and wholesale industries, SAF. Also the company acquired TechniData; a provider of product safety. SAP tool can be used to assist in the management of cost, schedule, and resources for single projects. With this way, managers analyze group of projects, and make timely decisions. It is the same as for small companies which has small projects. One advantage of SAP is that it contains real time data; so there is no need to wait for the month-end reports from various departments. Details of each transaction can be easily accessed through the SAP (Poettcker, 2009). It is also an effective tool for managing schedules in a multiple small project environment. A set of activities provides the structure that facilitates schedule management. SAP is beneficial to pull together list of projects that in the same level in any time. That helps managers to understand the connections between these projects easily. For example; the construction manager might want to see a list of projects will be constructed in the next 6 months. Construction activity in each project identifies an estimated number of hours, and SAP can pull all these together up to be seen by manager. The main reason for SAP to be selected based on several important criteria. The most important reasons for selecting SAP are information management and anticipated cost savings (Zupsic, 2003). A part of the selection process is the decision as to which SAP modules to include. The inclusion of the project systems module identifies managements understanding as to the importance and value to be realized from the utilization of this tool in managing project costs. PS module must be implemented in
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such way as to ensure timely and complete information is available on the projects in a useful format that is accessible to the right audience. Finally, companies should determine which the ERP model they will use, which one fits their strategic plans etc. SAP is not to be only considered as side solution but also form modernizing of information and all daily operations.

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Bibliography
Facts and Figures About SAP. (2009, October). Fact Sheet . Poettcker. (2009, March 3). SAP - An Effective Tool for Managing Multiple Small Projects. Cost Engineering . SAP AG. (n.d.). Retrieved December 6, 2010, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_AG (2010). SAP AG. New York: DATAMONITOR. The Evolution of SAP Implementation Environments , 6 (Industrial Management & Data Systems 2005). Zupsic, J. (2003). Implementing the SAP Project Systems Module. AACE International Transactions , 4.