SAP looks to dominate CRM space

SAP is setting up global organisations to focus on marketing and selling customer relationship management (CRM) and supply chain management (SCM) packages, which it sees as major growth engines for the future.

The move is the first fruit of a review that was started in the third quarter of last year to look at how the enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications vendor can make its global activities more effective.

It has also introduced global marketing, branding and advertising campaigns to standardise and reinforce its message.

Peter Robertshaw, SAP's UK marketing director, said: "These are key growth areas and we're now putting them in the shop window. We have the capabilities to develop 100 separate things, but we had to look at our priorities. So now we've said, each of the 100 things are important, but we'll focus on CRM and SCM because that's the way the market is going."

"CRM and SCM are the two big growth engines in the applications market, as well as for SAP. The aim of the global units is to set targets centrally, but execute locally. This means they set a global target, which is divided up between the regions to take account of local needs," he added.

SAP has already set up its US-based CRM unit, which is headed by Carol Burch, an eight-year veteran of SAP and former head of its Canadian operations. Burch is in the process of hiring a management team of between 10 and 15, which will be located throughout the world.

The company is also in the process of setting up a similar supply chain organisation. SAP's aim is to be the dominant supplier of CRM and SCM packages into its installed base by the end of this year, and to overtake leaders in the respective markets within two years.

Don Galles, senior manager of analyst relations at Siebel Systems, which is market leader in the CRM space, said: "This is deja vu. SAP's been saying it's going to beat us for three or four years now. But there's nothing in this announcement to make us change our strategy."

"Give credit where it's due. SAP is the leader in the ERP market, but it's different in the CRM space and we're continuing to increase our market share year on year," he added.