Seeking to contemporize its All-in-One ERP product for mid-market manufacturers, SAP said it will migrate the software to its MySAP ERP 2005 code base and include new features such as an improved user interface and integrated CRM and reporting features.
SAP, which unveiled the new version of All-in-One to its 1,500 reseller partners this week, said it and its partners will roll out process-, country-, and industry-specific versions of the product through 2007, but did not provide dates on when the roll out would begin. No new industry- or country-specific versions of All-in-One were identified as part of SAP's launch announcement.
Given SAP's lofty ambitions for building its mid-market business, All-in-One is a critically positioned product. CEO Henning Kagermann has said that it is SAP's goal to grow its total customer base to 100,000 by 2010 from the current count of 36,200. Much of that growth is expected to come from SAP's All-in-One product for mid-market companies and its Business One product for small businesses. SAP recently formed a new global business unit to oversee its mid-market business.
Mid-market manufacturers are rapidly increasing their technology investments in order to improve customer service and cope with increasing global competition. Fifty-eight percent of mid-market companies recently told AMR Research, for example, that they plan to increase IT spending this year. And, for many, ERP spending is a high priority, as are CRM and manufacturing systems.
At the same time, SAP faces stiff competition in the mid-market from vendors such as Microsoft, Epicor, and Oracle.
Current versions of All-in-One are based on older versions of SAP's ERP platform, including R/3 and earlier offerings of MySAP ERP, the company's applications suites for larger enterprises. Working with reseller partners, SAP adorns those horizontal ERP packages with extensions that make them suitable as out-of-the-box, integrated applications for mid-tier companies in specific vertical industries. SAP also offers documentation that helps All-in-One users implement industry-specific best practices as well as tools that help customers and resellers implement All-in-One quickly.
The new version of All-in-One will include 70 best practices that will be rolled out throughout the year. The company said the product also will include new tools to support faster implementation.
The new release also inherits other features from mySAP ERP 2005, which is the first version of SAP's ERP applications that relies significantly on service-oriented architecture technologies. The new version of All-in-One, for example, includes a new, simplified user interface that makes use of SAP's NetWeaver Business Client technology. The new interface is described as easier to navigate and organized around specific user roles. Initially, interfaces for 14 different user roles will be supported by the product, a spokesman said.
The updated All-in-One also will include integrated CRM and reporting features. Previously, said a spokesman, All-in-One customers had to license separate products to get advanced CRM and reporting functionality. The CRM module integrated with the new version of All-in-One will support opportunity management, sales force automation, contact management, activity management, service ticket management, and campaign management.
The new reporting module will allow customers to generate standard or ad hoc reports and will support integration with Microsoft Excel.
With the new release of All-in-One, SAP reseller partners will also get new tools and documentation to support faster deployments.
Analysts today called the new release of All-in-One a positive step for SAP and its mid-market customers, particularly the new interface and deployment tools.
"It's a big step forward for them in terms of ease of use," said Judy Sweeney, a senior vice president for research operations at AMR. "You can't expect mid-market users to take six clicks to get to the information they want, which was what the previous interface asked them to do."
But, Sweeney said, the new All-in-One release does not address another outstanding issue for many mid-market customers: the need to easily change an ERP configuration when business issues change. Since All-in-One is based on a large, complex ERP platform, Sweeney said, many customers still struggle with the need to change the system.
The new All-in-One also does not touch on the issue of on-demand as a deployment option. CEO Kagermann last year told financial analysts that SAP was working on an on-demand version of All-in-One and expected to deliver it by the end of 2006. That did not happen, nor is it part of the new release.
AMR's Sweeney, however, said she expects an on-demand version of All-in-One from SAP soon.
"We have encouraged them to have an on-demand version of All-in-One, and I think it is safe to say that they will do something," Sweeney offered. The company declined to offer any specifics on a timetable.
Despite stiff competition in the mid-market, however, SAP's All-in-One offering appears to be holding its own, Sweeney noted. The company last year said the number of All-in-One customers grew by 25% in the third quarter to about 9,000 compared to the year-earlier period.
"That's faster than the growth of the market overall," Sweeney said.