SAP has delivered an update to its Business ByDesign on-demand ERP application set. But nearly two years after debuting the service, it remains available only to a limited number of SAP "charter client" customers.
Enhancements offered by the Feature Pack 2.0 for SAP Business ByDesign include integration with SAP's BusinessObjects business intelligence software, integration with Microsoft's Outlook and Office applications, and more business process templates.
SAP launched Business ByDesign in September 2007 targeting midsize businesses with 100 to 500 employees to compete against the growing number of rivals such as NetSuite offering Software-as-a-Service applications. At the time, CEO Henning Kagermann said the goal was to have 10,000 customers using the service by 2010, generating $1 billion in sales.
But the following spring, the company dramatically slowed its rollout schedule, saying it needed more time to develop how the company sells, delivers and runs the applications. Today only 90 customers in a "charter client program" currently have access to the software, a program that will continue through the end of the year, according to Jeff Stiles, senior vice president of SME marketing.
Stiles said SAP initially ran into problems with Business DyDesign's "lifecycle management," the way the company manages deployments and upgrades for the on-demand applications.
"This is a strategic product for SAP, no doubt about it, and we want to get it right," Stiles said. "We have to get the go-to-market right."
Stiles said the cautious approach also applies to developing its partner program for Business ByDesign. At the time of the debut, SAP executives said they would be aggressively recruiting channel partners to work with Business ByDesign. But so far SAP has been selling the service directly with select channel partners "shadowing" deployment projects for training.
Solution provider partners will begin actively selling the on-demand service next year, combining it with services and technology for migrating data and business processes from legacy applications, and services such as business architecture development.
Feature Pack 2.0, available now, provides support for 35 business processes such as order-to-cash with automated billing, time and expense reimbursement, and others with built-in variants for specific industries that can be configured when the applications are deployed.
On the business intelligence side, Business ByDesign is now linked with the SAP BusinessObjects portfolio, including Crystal Reports and the Xcelsius dashboard, the latter tied into a new key performance indicator framework.
