SAP launches software packages for economic downturn

Chris Hummel, executive vice president of Global Field Marketing at SAP, said that there were seven software packages in the first wave of products:

• Cash liquidity and financial risk;


• Managing workforce through rapid change;


• Accelerate savings and procurement;


• Business planning and consolidation;


• Energy data management;


• Business intelligence accelerator; and


• Implementation fast track.

These packages, some of which can be deployed in a matter of weeks, include software for managing cash, liquidity and financial risk, managing the workforce through rapid change, and business planning and consolidation.

“We started by focusing on business issues. Then we put together a set of packages, in some cases products from our partners or service offerings. Then we pulled it together in ways that could make it easy for our customers – existing and new – to fix issues and get quick return on investment right now,” said Hummel.

“For example, a big question for a business is, you want to know what resources you have available to you. So we wanted to make it easy to redistribute and move resources. So how can we package these up in ways that are immediately available and available for our customers?”

The packages come with special licensing arrangements, productivity tools, external products and flexibility to make them more attractive to customers.

Hummel said that the creation and deployment of these packages was very fast: in some cases, just a matter of weeks.

“We recognised all the various changes that are going on in the market. In Australia I know the markets went down 23 per cent in the last week or two.

“We first envisaged these products at a management meeting in the end of September, and we were able to get some packages to market in mid-October.”

While the packages haven’t had a significant impact on sales, Hummel said they had improved customer relations.

“The feedback from customers, user groups and even conversations we’ve had from industry analysts, is that there’s an excitement around packaging IT products in a way that addresses specific customer needs.”

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