SAP brings hosted ERP to Asia

SINGAPORE--SAP has brought its hosted ERP (enterprise resource planning) suite to the region.

Announced Tuesday, the company is releasing its Business ByDesign product to Singapore--the sixth country globally to receive it. The product is currently available in Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, France and China.

Hans-Peter Klaey, president of SAP's SME division, said at the launch event that Singapore was chosen because many regional offices are headquartered in the country.
SAP is targeting the suite at SMBs (small to medium sized businesses) employing between 100 to 500 staff.

Klaey said that a hosted solution "makes the most sense" for an SMB, because it takes the burden of building expensive infrastructure off the shoulders of the companies that may not have the capital freely available.

Historically, SAP has been in favor of on-premise installations. However, it launched a hosted CRM service in 2006, in a bid to capture the growing hosted CRM market.
Similarly, the company is eyeing the growing SMB SaaS market, which it estimates to be worth some US$15 billion.

According to Klaey, 74 percent of SAP's customers are SMBs, with this proportion expected to go up in the years to come. Having offered only on-premise ERP products till this, Klaey said that he expects this to fill the void in the market for a hosted ERP service that is "end-to-end".
Eric MacDonald, SAP Asia-Pacific and Japan president and CEO of South East Asia, said: "[Business ByDesign] addresses the 'testing out' market--the users who don't have the bandwidth to take on huge IT projects but are interested in trying out a product which gives them improved control."

Klaey did not comment on whether SAP's acquisition of Business Objects would see business intelligence functionality added to the product.

Presently, users' data on the system is hosted in Waldorf, Germany with prices beginning at US$149 per user, per month, for a minimum of 25 users.

Source: ZDNetAsia

What is the future of a SAP technical/ABAP programmer?

You're wise to "look before you leap" into ABAP right now. As I noted in a previous question, the classic role of the ABAP programmer is changing. The future SAP developer will be a hybrid of ABAP, EAI, and Web/Java-based expertise.

It's not bad to get yourself a foundation in ABAP programming, but I think you're right to ask some hard questions about how marketable ABAP skills will be down the line. The market is definitely going to get crowded for the general ABAP programmer. And you're right - automated tools like Report Painter are making it harder for the average ABAP programmer to find good projects. BW is becoming the standard reporting environment for SAP customers, and tools that automate presentation and reporting are getting more robust with each BW release. Even though there will always be the need for custom ABAP programming, object-oriented development tools like BADIs will definitely reduce the need for "grind it out" ABAP coding. For all those reasons, if I were moving into SAP development, I would pursue two different angles. First, I would try to obtain hardcore ABAP development skills (custom development, user exits, dialog programming - heavy hardcore development. Not so much using neat tools but doing the hardcore custom work that conversion and reporting tools just can't do).

Second, I would try to get development experience utilizing mySAP, EAI, and R/3 product extensions. This means mastering SAP's integration toolkit, including BAPIs, BADIs, the SAP Java Connector, and the Web Application Server (formerly the Internet Transaction Server). But I would take it further and get exposure to emerging web platforms, languages, and integration protocols including Java, J2EE, and the many flavors of XML. Exposure to competing web-based development platforms such as Microsoft's .NET solution would also give you an edge. And since you can't expect SAP's customers to rely only on SAP's EAI solutions, acquiring skills with third party EAI tools from vendors like webMethods, Tibco, and Vitria would be another key part of your skill set. In addition to all that, you want to build in as much business process and application integration know-how into your skills as you can. These "big picture" skills help to protect you against both offshore outsourcing and the competition amongst "core ABAP" programmers. Put all of these skills together, and you're truly "the ABAP programmer of the future." But at the same time, your skills will be transferable to other non-SAP environments, giving you real flexibility in the marketplace. So, the bottom line for you: yes, go into ABAP if you see a good opportunity, but continue to keep your eyes open and do your best to enhance your core ABAP know-how with all the Web-based development skills you can get your hands on.

Pros and Cons of SAP Business One

Pros:
# The user-defined fields very suitable for a lot of companies. Most packages in this price range do not allow you to create additional fields, but SBO allows you to do so very easily within two minutes or so. I usually use these fields for analytical management reports like SalesByCustomerGroup, SalesByItemGroup. SBO already has a group that can be attached to individual item or customer but it is only one level so if a client wants a sub-grouping within a main group, you can create a user defined fields which allows you to further select which subgroups an item belongs to.Also, user defined fields are very good if there is additional information to be printed on documents like Invoices, Credit Notes and etc. which are not available by default from the software

# Great import feature in the form of Data Transfer Workbench. I actually use the Data Transfer Workbench to import Goods Receipt Note into a Material Issue document as well as from a Material Issues document sorted by projects into a Bill Of Material. But to do the exporting, I actually created a miniature program to export the information outside of SAP Business One.

# Great drill-down feature. You can actually determine if a Purchase Order is actually satisfied with which GoodReceiptNote.

# To clarify, Version 6.5 now has multiple vendors to an Item Code. It also allows multiple shipping addresses to one customer but it still has only one Billing address.

# SBO also allows you to copy all the items on an Invoice to a new Invoice and then just select the customer code. This is a great time saving feature.

# Their pricing feature should be more than satisfactory allowing for price breaks as well as different pricing for different range of calendar dates. It also allows you to create Price List books to be attached to individual customer.

# The DragAndRelate feature useful for salesman. Their data entry also serves as an inquiry screen as well. When it serves as an inquiry screen, whatever you fill in those fields will act as criteria for a search process. Initially, I had a little problem coming to terms with it but now I admit it is pretty cool because it does not just restrict you to searching by customer code or invoice number only.



Cons:

# The reports are quite terrible in my opinion. It is more of an on screen inquiry as it allows you to drill down basing on the report generated. I tend to design management reports outside of SBO using Borland Delphi with a royalty free component FastReport. I am not even using Crystal Report because I usually like to give end-users a menu to select which report they intend to run

# It is not an MRP solution because it does not do any scheduling. As far as job costing is concerned, check with your consultant. In my present company, I set up several warehouses to designate as WIP stores and so whatever is left in those warehouses are considered to be WIP.

# Two main weakness in my opinion is their Banking module and Document Editing feature. The Banking module can do the data entry job but the client has to do it in different areas depending on the situation whether in the GL as a journal or the Banking module.
Their Report Designer (known as Document Editing) is only good for designing Invoices, Purchase Orders (SBO terms these as a marketing document). But I would not use it for Management Reports - I still like to use Delphi/FastReport for that purpose.

SAP: Fourth quarter revenue up 10 percent

SAP provided another data point on the health of the tech economy, outlining that its fourth quarter is on track.

On Monday, SAP joined IBM in announcing that the fourth quarter was strong. SAP said fourth quarter revenue is expected to be about 3.25 billion euros (US$4.84 billion), up 10 percent from the same quarter in 2006.

If you factor out the currency impact (the euro is stronger than the U.S. dollar) SAP’s revenue growth was about 14 percent. Revenue for 2007 was 10.26 billion euros (US$15.28 billion), up 9 percent from 2006.

Those projections are in line with current estimates. A few key data points from SAP’s statement:
Fourth quarter software and software related service revenue is projected to be about 2.48 billion euro, up 13 percent from a year ago.

Software revenue is expected to be 1.41 billion euro, up 14 percent from a year ago.
SAP claims enterprise software market share of 28.5 percent for the last four quarters, up from 24.5 percent from a year ago.

Operating margin for 2007 is expected to be about 26.5 percent, down from 27.3 percent in 2006. SAP took a currency hit of 30 basis points. The company also took a hit from its investment in BusinessByDesign.

Software and software related services revenue for the fourth quarter is expected to 0.78 billion euro (US$1.16 billion) in the Americas, up 7 percent. In Europe and the Mideast region, software and software related services revenue in the fourth quarter is expected to be 1.4 billion euro (US$2.09 billion), up 13 percent. Asia Pacific software and software related services revenue is projected to be 0.96 billion euro (US$1.43 billion), up 19 percent.

Cowen analyst Peter Goldmacher in a research note that SAP’s statement indicates that the company will have an in line quarter. He maintained an underperform rating. “Despite growth in revenues, the estimated contraction in EPS indicates that earnings were pressured by the company’s investment in the mid market,” said Goldmacher in a research note.