In my last post on SAP in Transition Economies, I shared with you my observation, of organizations in and around the Caspian Sea region leaning more towards SAP adoption in the last few years. Let us now look at the probable reasons which might have led to this change of mindset and approach.
This is my first blog post ever. In this new journey, there are few things I plan to write about and hopefully they will prove insightful to the readers. However, to set the ball rolling, let me start with something on which I have been actually thinking for some time now i.e. SAP adoption around the Caspian Energy market. I had a chance of working on an SAP Projects in one of the countries adjacent to the Caspian Sea. Here to my utter surprise I found that for years international IT firms have seen this region less as a lucrative enterprise market. On the contrary I felt that this is just ripe for picking, and can turn out to be a priority segment.
The healthcare industry is one of the fast growing industries in the world. Some of the major segments of the Industry include:
• Hospital Management Services
• Clinical and Patient Management Services
• Biotechnology, Medical labs and Research
• Medical equipment and supplies
The healthcare industry on the present day faces many challenges. Some of them include: improving patient care, controlling costs, meeting government regulations and effective clinical services.
Continue reading "ERP adoption trends-A Healthy change for Healthcare Industry" »
In the previous blogs I have tried to explain what SAP means by Support and Maintenance, and the commercial importance of this function to SAP. Having set that context, I want to bring up a few issues which I think will determine the future of this business line for companies like SAP.
The first point is whether customers have options to sign Maintenance contracts with companies other than the product vendors?
No, they do not. In spite of what Riminy Street and other similar companies may come up with, I strongly believe there are reasons why customers will not, actually cannot, terminate their AMCs. In the current circumstances, doing otherwise (signing an AMC with another service vendor) would definitely be a massive risk – imagine putting your complete SAP landscape maintenance in the hands of a service provider who does not have access to SAP’s future roadmap, who will not have access to patches and security updates, and if I assume correctly will be violating copyright laws by attempting to change SAP code, etc.
(However this option maybe realistic if customers decide to let go of their current IT landscape and plan a complete revamp one or two years down the line.)
Continue reading "The SAP Support and Maintenance Series – Part 3 of 3 - What can customers do?" »
What exactly constitutes Software-related Services? [Sourced from the SAP Annual Report 2008 - On Form 20F - The SAP Portfolio]
SAP categorizes software-related services into four buckets; Custom development, Support services, On-demand software services and Managed services.
Custom development as the name suggests implies building new developments, extensions and enhancements on the SAP platform to address unique customer requirements which otherwise cannot be met by the standard offering.
Support services include support to the customer through the complete lifecycle of the implementation – before, during and after. This involves round-the-clock technical support, as well as proactive and preventive support services. It can vary from SAP Enterprise Support (involves holistic IT landscape support with the aim of optimizing operations, based on defined service level agreements), SAP Product Support (provides day-to-day support needs), SAP Safeguarding (aims to mitigate technical risks during implementation and upgrade) and SAP Max Attention (includes technical account management from SAP).
Since last year, SAP Support has been a major part of the news - first with SAP announcing Enterprise Support, the market’s reaction to a rise in support cost - from 17% to 22%, a critical reception from customers, the SAP response of rolling back the support price in DACH (Germany, Austria and Switzerland), the emergence of service partners who ‘supposedly’ offer AMC (Annual Maintenance Contract) equivalents to SAP customers, and more recently the erstwhile rumors in the market about Siemens planning to cancel their Annual Maintenance Contract with SAP and the trend which could begin if this had come true.
SAP is dealing with various challenges since HY2 2008. In the last few years, I have not seen a more difficult time for the company. The way I look at it, this can be the wake-up call the world’s largest ‘business software provider’ requires to maintain its leadership in the coming years.
There is a new management team at the helm; it was not the easiest time for them to take charge, but definitely it is the time which presents them with the best opportunity to prove their value. The economic slowdown has had its effect on SAP; starting with the announcement in the beginning of October 2008.http://www.sap.com/about/newsroom/news-releases/press.epx?pressid=10209
Continue reading "The SAP Support and Maintenance Series – Part 0 of 3 – Current Challenges" »
Are you an SAP Consultant? What is/are the module/s which you have worked on? How many implementation/roll out/support projects you have worked on? How are your configuration and technical skills? Which versions of SAP you have worked on? Do you have experience in handling client remotely and onsite?
The objective of this blog series is to give an overview of how SAP has evolved in the recent years and what were the drivers that compelled them to grow the way they did. The blog series also gives a flavor of various components in SAP landscape today and how they form pieces of a Jigsaw puzzle that needs to be arranged correctly to be of business relevance.
Continue reading "The ever evolving SAP landscape – Part 1 of 3" »
Global business houses, in their innovation journey for being competitive, leverage existing distribution channel network evolving with a multi-commerce platform. Internet sales continue to grow healthier even at the economy tried times. Businesses are keen to value add their existing channel assets to collaborate with customers to personalize experiences thereby driving the market demand to enable a customer driven growth.
Your existing dealer, reseller or channel assets need to take advantage of Internet and improve the sales and distribution channels. It will not only be a value add to your existing reseller network asset but also key to establish a customer driven growth.
Improve value chain of your existing channel assets
What if you could provide customers with a unified and guided selling experience across your sales channels with a seamless selling experience integrating the value-add of your reseller network? What if you could leverage the channel without additional investment of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) server? The answer could be to establish lean E-Commerce (focusing pre-sales and sales only) system that can meet such requirements.
E-Commerce solution leveraging your existing infrastructure
An e-Commerce system without additional investment of CRM server, where products, orders and promotions are properly configured to route the sales orders to the distributor. This brings in a truly collaborative commerce with distributor - you - customers with increased focus and participation in the sales cycle.
Distributor (vendor) managed inventory system while you still maintain with frequent updates from the distributor system. Replenishment of inventory could be planned, advised and executed reducing the touch points or improving the automation thereby helping increased focus more on the core activities. Additional core business areas of planning, availability and capability also receives improvised attention.
Collaborative platform
Collaboration with channel asset involving customer will allow active participation of all stakeholders in all aspects of your customer's sales and marketing experience, from shopping and product configuration to order fulfillment and feedback. It is a single platform offering from Infosys based on a composition environment that leverage SAP E-Commerce application. CSR, Customers and Vendor will have a single platform and a single view – bet it orders, products, promotions, status info etc.,
Return on investment (ROI)
Immediate returns are reduced cost of order processing and improved efficiencies. While on a steady state system, your returns include increased customer and partner loyalty and the ability to create strong sell-side partnerships that help differentiate products designed and created by you.
Web Based Channel Platform
Enable e-commerce with SAP ERP without the need for a full CRM implementation. Set up, manage, and extend your online presence to deliver best-in-class business experiences that are Web (2.0) enabled including:
Business benefits
