SAP has released the first of what it is pitching as a "new class of people-centric, on-demand solutions that combine the advantages of social, mobile and Cloud applications" in the shape of its Sales OnDemand offering.
The service, which was previewed at the Cebit 2011 show in Hannover in the Spring, is spearheading a new range of Business ByDesign Software-as-a-Service-based offerings and is now available in the UK and Ireland, North America, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
SAP Sales OnDemand is designed from the ground up with the input of sales professionals to specifically support the way they work and help them sell more effectively.
It is built on the SAP Business ByDesign platform, which SAP says allows for in-memory computing technology and support of mobile devices, and combines the advantages of social, mobile, and Cloud applications to provide users with:
- Built-in social collaboration tools that enable sales professionals to work with their sales networks to share best practices, manage accounts and close deals
- Real-time information updates relevant to current opportunities and accounts that allow sales professionals to manage their activities and analyze their performance
- The ability to update and manage account information in seconds from anywhere
- Support of mobile devices, including BlackBerry, iPhone and iPad, allowing sales professionals to work anytime, anywhere; and Integration with SAP Business Suite software that enables customers to adapt and improve business processes, specifically for their sales teams.
Sales on Demand also offers real-time analytics functionality and allows salespeople and their managers to track and update sales data, contacts, leads, proposals, account histories, etc., through an intuitive interface.
It is integrated with SAP Business Suite and is intended to enable sales professionals to access sales performance information in real-time as well as collaborate with colleagues on opportunities and share best practice. It is also meant to help them to manage customer information in a more effective way and communicate more easily with internal and external contacts. Sales OnDemand supports such mobile devices as RIM’s Blackberry and Apple’s iPhone and iPad.
New functionality will be added every six months, with the next lot due by the end of the year. Pricing ranges from $40 to $80 per user per month for SAP Sales OnDemand with Microsoft Outlook integration, SAP ERP integration add-in, mobile applications, and analytics. A free trial of the solution is available.
Rainer Zinow, SAP's product strategy chief for Business ByDesign and the On Demand family of enterprise cloud applications, told the EuroCloud Congress in Luxembourg last week that that SAP sees four components to its Cloud strategy:
- Cloud ops and infrastructure including 24/7 data centres and in-memory Cloud databases.
- On demand solutions in the form of Business ByDesign, analytics, collaboration and line of business applications.
- Co-innovation and ecosystem of resellers, developers and partners.
- New ways to sell or buy including an SAP Store for ecommerce.
