By Anne Widjaja
SAP AG has announced the launch of SAP Business One OnDemand solution, a new offering that aims to build upon the success of the SAP Business One application and addresses small business needs.
The launch was announced this week at CeBIT 2012 in Hannover, Germany, the world’s largest trade fair showcasing digital IT and telecommunications solutions.
SAP Business One OnDemand will provide customers with support for sales, purchasing, inventory and finance business processes. According to SAP, the solution will be best suited for customers seeking to implement their first holistic ERP software system, as well as for affiliates of large enterprises with industry functionality requirements.
Customers can choose between the cloud deployment model or combine it with on-premise deployment, which will mean that customers can keep operational and maintenance costs at a minimum. The on-demand option aims to provide customers with delivery flexibility so customers can adopt the solution on their own terms, based on their individual IT and financial preferences.
Planned for availability in 18 countries, including Canada, China, France, the United Kingdom and the United States, the Business One OnDemand solution will be offered by established SAP partners including Hungarian Telecom, itelligence, Seidor, Singtel, Version and Virtustream.
While the solution is planned for release in Australia, details about local availability and pricing are yet to be determined.
SAP said it had designed the Business One OnDemand solution so SAP partners can provide it to customers in a cost-efficient way, with a recommended pricing model of a monthly subscription fee per user. It is intended to complement SAP Business ByDesign, the company’s cloud offering for the mid-market.
“Small and midsize companies continue to be a relatively untapped market for SaaS/hosted solutions, especially small firms,” said Ray Boggs, vice president, IDC. However, Boggs believes that since small firms are increasingly adopting enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) systems, this market will continue to grow. Boggs also said that demand for cloud-based solutions amongst small businesses would subsequently rise. He said, “not everyone will move to the cloud, of course, but interest is clearly growing even among the smallest firms”.
Eric Duffaut, president, Ecosystem and Channels, SAP AG, agrees with Boggs. “Small companies with little infrastructure and outsourced IT are expecting cloud offerings, sometimes in easy combination with their existing software,” he said.
