SAP extended its cloud-based offerings Wednesday, unveiling Financials OnDemand and Customer OnDemand applications.
The new products, partly based on technologies from human resources company SuccessFactors, which SAP purchased in December 2011 for $3.4 billion, help SAP advance its One Cloud strategy of offering an alternative to its on-premise business applications.
The announcement was made at the SAP Sapphire Now and TechEd conference in Madrid.
[Related: Gilroy: SAP Now Has 'Channel DNA']
SAP Financials OnDemand targets midsize and enterprises and offers a real-time, financial management interface with business analytics and runs on SAP's HANA cloud platform.
SAP also said it has added collaboration rooms to its Customer OnDemand, a cloud-based application for sales, service and marketing organizations. It takes advantage of SAP's Jam social software platform to allow sales teams and others to communicate with customers in the context of deals.
The German software maker also said it has added in the last six months more than 800 features to Business ByDesign, its on-demand, integrated business management software for midsize companies or subsidiaries of large enterprise customers.
Also released was new SAP HANA Cloud Integration technology with pre-packaged integration content with SAP Customer OnDemand. SAP HANA Cloud Integration eventually will be the standard integration service of the company's HANA cloud platform.
Joshua Hurni, an account executive with SAP partner AMS Accounting Microsystems, in San Francisco, Calif., said Financials OnDemand will help round out SAP's cloud portfolio and will help with sales.
"We like the fact that SAP has a full suite of cloud offerings," Hurni said. "And if a customer doesn't want the full suite of Business ByDesign, maybe they just need Financials OnDemand."
"We think SAP is being forward-looking," he added. "For customers looking to access more services in the cloud, especially with the security SAP offers, HANA, and new analytics, it's a good time to be a SAP partner."
PUBLISHED NOV. 14, 2012
