SAP Business ByDesign unveiled

SAP AG has unveiled SAP Business ByDesign, saying it is the most complete on-demand business software solution specifically addressing a new market of midsize customers.

Designed around four key principles — completeness, ease of use, adaptability and significantly cutting total cost of ownership (TCO) — SAP Business ByDesign delivers an on-demand software solution with built-in service and support.

The service is offered at a competitive pricing of US$149 per month per user, with lower price points for users who need less modules.

SAP Business ByDesign complements the existing SAP Business One, SAP Business All-in-One and SAP Business Suite solutions, allowing SAP to address the business requirements of companies from the smallest businesses, through all types of midsize companies and larger enterprises.

The new SAP Business ByDesign is an on-demand business software solution targeted exclusively toward new midmarket prospects in the size range of 100 to 500 employees — growing companies that typically have not invested in these types of integrated business solutions. SAP estimates that there are more than 60,000 such companies in Germany and the United States alone and sees a worldwide market potential of more than US$15 billion.

SAP Business One is designed for the small business segment, while SAP Business All-in-One is built specifically for midsize companies that need deep industry-specific functionality and extensibility to meet their precise requirements. In making today’s announcement, SAP said it had aligned the product names of its solution portfolio, adjusting the name of its existing midmarket solution to SAP Business All-in-One.

John Goldrick, SAP Australia, says the combined New Zealand and Australian market can reach up to 4,000 companies. It took four years for SAP to develop the new service.

SAP Business ByDesign drives faster time to value, drives easier consumption and helps minimise customers’ overall IT costs by reducing the need for user training, hardware investments, service, support and IT staffing. Fully leveraging enterprise service-oriented architecture (enterprise SOA), the solution was built from the ground up on SAP NetWeaver, providing a platform for business that provides for a high degree of flexibility to adapt business processes in order to address evolving market demands.

Prices in the United States will start at a price of US$149 per user, per month (including software, infrastructure, services and support), with a minimum of 25 users licensed per customer. Group pricing for efficiency users, those needing limited access to the software (such as for self-service entering of time and expenses, and purchase confirmations), will be at US$54 per month for a set of five users.