SAP Business ByDesign gets iPad and BlackBerry support

SAP has taken another step forward in its cloud computing strategy with the launch of feature pack 2.6 for Business ByDesign, adding improved usability and mobile support for the iPad and BlackBerry smartphones.

Despite a rocky start for the mid-market platform, which was criticised because its single tenancy architecture was unable to scale, SAP is optimistic that its troubles are behind it and that the product can pull in several hundred customers by the spring.

New in this version is the ability to personalise the offering for individual requirements by adjusting user interface and business processes, for example.

An SDK has also been released for the product to enable partners to create custom versions if necessary.

Gartner analyst Thomas Otter argued that the product is now far more stable technically than when it first launched, with the SDK a key addition.

"A strong SDK is essential if partners are to extend the capabilities of the solution to meet industry and customer specific needs," he added.

Business ByDesign's success depends on SAP building a strong ecosystem of implementers and developers. It can't afford to build all the functionality itself. That is why the SDK is key."

There is also improved integration with the SAP Business Suite, which could appeal to firms interested in running Business ByDesign in subsidiaries and the full Business Suite in their headquarters, said SAP.

Another feature likely to be well received by the hordes of mobile workers on SAP is support for the iPad and BlackBerry, while the in-memory capabilities which power the product's analytics functions have been extended to include sales and financial planning scenarios.

"Mobile capability is starting to move beyond being a nice to have and the iPad is accelerating this trend," said Otter.

"Given SAP's Sybase mobile play, it needed to show mobile's relevance to the ByD offeing."

Finally, a free dashboard app from the Apple App Store could further help iPhone and iPad SAP users on-the-go to arrange and organise reports, annotations, notes, email and voice notes for collaboration with colleagues.