SAP Enjoys Small and Mid-market Success

The New Zealand arm of global software giant SAP has been nailing between 10 and 15 small and medium size business (SMB) deals each quarter, according to its Managing Director, Ian Black. And the company, which is targeting the SMB space with its SAP Business One product, believes there’s plenty of room for more growth.

Black says the company has traditionally been known as an enterprise-level vendor, but its packaged applications serve small and medium businesses equally as well. In the SMB space it’s seeing yearly revenue growth of 150%, he says.

SAP Business One performs a variety of core business functions including ERP and CRM. Black believes its timing is right as more small businesses in New Zealand look to install ERP functionality. “The market for SAP Business One SMB is small companies with the sweet spot being those with between five and 10 users. Globally and locally it’s doing very well.”

SAP sells direct to larger customers but SAP Business One is sold to SMBs via a six-strong reseller network. The company is in the process of appointing a new SAP Business One reseller.

Eralis Software (formerly Enprise Software) has developed a job costing module for SAP Business One and is leveraging SAPs international reseller network to “sell thousands of these”.

In the top end of town, Black says the company has recently finished some large-scale J.D. Edwards/Oracle system replacement projects. In addition, Foodstuffs South Island is transitioning to SAP software from its existing J.D. Edwards legacy applications. Foodstuffs General Manager of IT, Phil Wright, says this project is still in its early stages.

Black says from an application point of view, many of its larger customers are pondering service-oriented architecture (SoA). He believes increasing levels of restructuring in the corporate economy is driving SoA adoption and SAP is “right in the thick of it”.

To date, none of SAPs New Zealand customers have shifted to such architecture, but “it’s a hot topic and one they’re planning for”.

SAP has 45 staff in New Zealand. It works with partners including IBM, SolNet, Oxygen and IntelliGroup.

Campbell Gardiner, M-net