#Sapphire: SAP CIO predicts death of corporate laptop

SAP's chief information officer Oliver Bussmann has revealed the firm is embarking on an extensive rollout of mobile devices to staff as he believes companies will no longer be using laptops by 2017.

"I believe the traditional laptop will not exist soon, in the next three to five years," said Bussmann, speaking to some press members at SAP's annual customer and partner event, Sapphire, in Madrid.

Instead, the firm is focusing primarily on mobile device, with Bussmann explaining he lets SAP staff choose from over 10 corporate mobile devices when they join the organisation.

"We support RIM devices, Apple devices, Android and Windows 8 phones," he added.

Meanwhile Bussmann is also starting the roll out of a bring-your-own-device strategy in the organisation.

"The same corporate device management software we use to manage corporate devices, we will use to support employee's personal devices. We have rolled this out in Germany, and will be rolling it out in other SAP regions," said Bussmann.

"We have 4,000 users globally and our job is to figure out what devices they will want to use."

Bussmann added that Microsoft's release of Windows 8 has also confirmed his belief that the mobile device of the future will be touchscreen.

"Windows 8 confirms the future device is mobile. It's also touchscreen oriented. I believe the future front end of devices will be touchscreen," said Bussmann.

Bussmann was speaking the same day as SAP announced it would be delivering six new mobile applications for Windows 8.

The applications are focused a number of different enterprise functions: training, recruiting, sales, policy management, customer relationship management and human resources.

All six of the applications will soon be available for download in both the Windows Store and SAP Store, and there will be a trial mode to allow customers to evaluate them before purchasing.

SAP said the applications will aim to take advantage of the touch capability and features of the new Windows user interface, such as zoom, tiles and Snap mode, enabling users to easily interact with SAP data.

All SAP mobile apps for Windows 8 are planned to include a trial mode to allow customers to be able to download the apps from the Windows Store and evaluate them before purchasing.