SAP is rolling out a hosted service it hopes will appeal
to midsized customers that can rent the software for as little as
$325 (£178) per user a month while avoiding the complexity of
in-house installations.
SAP unveiled the managed offering, which officials said delivers
prepackaged bundles of software aimed at specific vertical markets
such as consumer goods and high-tech device manufacturers.
The programme calls for using server and storage hardware in the
datacentres of SAP partner Hewlett-Packard, which will also provide
security and other technical support and services.
Previously, SAP primarily offered hosted applications only to
very large companies with specific requirements that were
consistent with their scale, said Bill McDermott, chief executive
officer and president of SAP America.
Under the new plan, each customer gets a dedicated server in an
HP datacentre.
"A lot of customers in small- to medium-sized businesses told me
they don't like the one-to-many [hosting] model where their data is
managed in an open environment," McDermott said. "They want a
one-to-one relationship."
Gary Walden, SAP project manager at refiner C&H Sugar, said
that if a single monthly pricing scheme had been available a year
ago when his company was negotiating with SAP for a hosted service,
"we would have looked at it very hard" as a way to save money.
C&H has used a full suite of hosted SAP applications since
March, after it shut down a mainframe-based system.
The C&H hosted systems contract separately priced out
implementation and consulting fees, among other things, Walden
said. Nevertheless, the hosting service has helped boost C&H's
operational efficiency without having to add extra IT support staff
around the clock.
On the other hand, for a large company such as Halliburton, the
new SAP offering sparks no interest at all, said IT vice-president
Mike Perroni. The energy and construction services provider
currently runs SAP R/3 hosted by an HP datacentre and technical
staff.
"We fall into the large market," he said. "We only have one
instance of SAP, and it's big."
While SAP is hardly alone among application providers in
hosting, Amy Konary, an analyst at IDC, said the company separates
itself from the pack by bundling the applications to service
specific industries.
The managed offering will most likely appeal to large SAP shops
interested in extending the software to subsidiaries or regional
offices, she said.
Marc L.
Songini writes for Computerworld