SAP to try again with SaaS

(By Philip Carnelley – Wednesday 10th June 2009 10:45pm). SAP has unveiled a new initiative for software-as-a-service (SaaS). The announcement was fairly low-key: there was no press release, but the news was revealed through press interviews by John Wookey, SAP’s VP in charge of on-demand services, and in a keynote speech at a Dutch conference earlier today.

Unlike SAP’s earlier SaaS initiatives aimed at winning new customers (which have not been very successful), this time the approach is largely aimed at new revenue from existing customers. There will be new functionality, additional to that in the ERP suite – strategic sourcing, expense management and CRM – compatible and interoperable with an in-house ERP system. Wookey reportedly said that “It is absolutely essential from SAP’s perspective that we embrace this [on demand]”.

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