SAP CEO outlines his vision for the company’s growth

Buoyed by strong first quarter results and strong sales for all his company products, SAP co-CEO Hasso Plattner has outlined his vision for the company at the annual European SAPPHIRE user group conference held in Lisbon.

More details are expected at the North American SAPPHIRE conference in June in Orlando.

While SAP made its name as an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
vendor as e-business took root The market moved from ERP to Enterprise Commerce Management (ECM), putting Supply Chain Management (SCM),
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) at the center of business plans.

SAP followed suit to provide software solutions in these areas and now its plan is to attack with three separate fronts: portals, marketplaces, and applications, with portals and marketplaces acting as the collaborative pieces for the applications.

"With SAP Portals, SAP is emphasizing strongly the ideas of portals as the entry way and launching point for today’s business computing. Under SAP’s vision, portals become the means with which to define user roles by tying together all the pieces a particular user needs to carry out her job function," explains technology market analyst, AMR Research.

SAP Markets handles the trading exchange and marketplace needs of its clients. The Commerce One relationship falls under this wing.

And SAP also renewed emphasis on its erstwhile flagship ERP product R/3 today with the debut of SAP R/3 Enterprise. To be released the second quarter of 2002, SAP R/3 Enterprise brings R/3 into the Twenty-First Century. It is the mySAP version of R/3, but it also signals SAP’s plans to refocus efforts on R/3. AMR Research expects the HR, financials, and logistics systems making up R/3 to be in the news again.

"SAP now has the foundation in place for its ECM house. We expect more of a structure will be in place and ready for show by the Orlando conference in June," says Randy Weston of AMR Research.