SAP

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For other uses, see SAP (disambiguation).

Coordinates: 49°17′38″N 8°38′22″E / 49.2938038°N 8.639581°E / 49.2938038; 8.639581

SAP SE
TypePublic (Societas Europaea)
FWB: SAP
NYSE: SAP
DAX Component
ISINDE0007164600
IndustryEnterprise software
FoundedWeinheim, Germany
(1972; 49 years ago (1972))
FounderDietmar Hopp
Hans-Werner Hector
Hasso Plattner
Klaus Tschira
Claus Wellenreuther
Headquarters
Dietmar-Hopp-Allee 16, Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg
,
Germany
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
ProductsSee list of SAP products
RevenueDecrease €27.33 billion (2020)[1]
Increase €6.62 billion (2020)[1]
Increase €5.28 billion (2020)[1]
Total assetsDecrease €58.47 billion (2020)[1]
Total equityDecrease €29.92 billion (2020)[1]
Number of employees
102,430 (2020)[1]
Websitewww.sap.com

SAP SE (/ˌɛs.eɪˈpiː/) is a German multinational software corporation based in Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg, that develops enterprise software to manage business operations and customer relations.[2][3] The company is especially known for its ERP software.[4][5] SAP is the largest non-American software company by revenue, the world's third-largest publicly-traded software company by revenue, and the largest German company by market capitalisation.[6][7]

Historical references include Systems, Applications, and Products in Data Processing,[2] SAP AG and SAP SE.

Company overview[]

Founded in 1972 as a private partnership named Systemanalyse und Programmentwicklung (lit. 'System Analysis and Software Development'; SAP GbR), which in 1981 fully became Systeme, Anwendungen und Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung (SAP GmbH) after a five-year transition period beginning in 1976.[2]:1972–1980 In 2005 it further restructured itself as SAP AG. Since 7 July 2014, its corporate structure is that of a pan-European societas Europaea (SE);[8][9] as such, its former German corporate identity is now a subsidiary, SAP Deutschland SE & Co. KG.[8]

SAP is headquartered in Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg, Germany with regional offices in 180 countries.[10][3] The company has over 425,000 customers in over 180 countries[11] and is a component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index.[12] A 2001 article said it was "the third-biggest software company in the world."[13]

History[]

Formation[]

When Xerox exited the computer hardware manufacturing industry in 1971,[14] it asked IBM to migrate its business systems to IBM technology. As part of IBM's compensation for the migration, IBM was given the rights to the Scientific Data Systems (SDS)/SAPE software, reportedly for a contract credit of $80,000.

Five IBM engineers from the AI department[15][16] (Dietmar Hopp, Klaus Tschira, Hans-Werner Hector, Hasso Plattner, and Claus Wellenreuther, all from Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg) were working on an enterprise-wide system based on this software, only to be told that it would no longer be necessary. Rather than abandoning the project, they decided to leave IBM Tech and start another company.[4][17]

In June 1972, they founded the SAP Systemanalyse und Programmentwicklung ("System Analysis and Program Development" / "SAPD") company, as a private partnership under the German Civil Code.[18]

Their first client was the German branch of Imperial Chemical Industries in Östringen,[19] where they developed mainframe programs for payroll and accounting. Instead of storing the data on punch cards mechanically, as IBM did, they stored it locally in the Electronic System while using a common Logical database for all activities of Organization.[clarification needed] Therefore, they called their software a real-time system, since there was no need to process the punch cards overnight (for this reason their flagship product carried an R in its name until the late 1990s). This first version was also a standalone software that could be offered to other interested parties.[20]

Enterprise Resource Planning[]

In 1973, the first commercial product was launched. SAP completes its first financial accounting system - RF. This system serves as the cornerstone in the ongoing development of other software modules of the system that will eventually bear the name SAP R/1.[18]

This offered a common system for multiple tasks. This permitted the use of a centralized data storage, improving the maintenance of data. From a technical point of view, therefore, a database was necessary.[21]

In 1976, SAP GmbH Systeme, Anwendungen und Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung ("Systems, Applications, and Products in Data Processing") was founded as a sales and support subsidiary. Five years later, the private partnership was dissolved and its rights were passed on to SAP GmbH.[18]

The headquarters moved the following year to Walldorf, Germany. Three years later, in 1979, SAP launched SAP R/2, expanding the capabilities of the system to other areas, such as material management and production planning. In 1981, SAP brought a re-designed product to market. However, SAP R/2 did not improve until the period between 1985 and 1990. SAP released the new SAP R/3 in 1992. SAP developed and released several versions of R/3 through 1995. By the mid-1990s, SAP followed the trend from mainframe computing to client–server architectures. The development of SAP's internet strategy with mySAP.com redesigned the concept of business processes (integration via Internet).[17] As a result, R/3 was replaced with the introduction of SAP ERP Central Component (ECC) 5.0 in 2004.[22] Architectural changes were also made to support an enterprise service architecture to transition customers to a services-oriented architecture. The latest version, SAP ERP 6.0, was released in 2006. SAP ERP 6.0 has since then been updated through SAP enhancement packs, the most recent: SAP enhancement package 8 for SAP ERP 6.0 in 2016.[23]

Corporate restructuring[]

In August 1988, SAP GmbH became SAP AG, and public trading started on 4 November 1988. Shares were listed on the Frankfurt and Stuttgart stock exchanges.[17] In 1995, SAP was included in the German stock index DAX and, on 22 September 2003, SAP was included in the STOXX Europe 50.[24]

SAP AG era[]

The company's official name became SAP AG (a public limited company) after the 2005 annual general meeting.

On 21 May 2014, SAP AG announced during the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders held on the same day, 99% of the shareholder votes approved the conversion of legal form to a European stock corporation (Societas Europaea, SE) and at the same time, elected the first Supervisory Board of SAP SE. The conversion of the company's legal form would take place upon entry in the commercial register, expected to be in July 2014.[25][26]

SAP SE era[]

On 7 July 2014, SAP announced it had changed its legal form to a European Company (Societas Europaea, SE). As a result, its German subsidiary was renamed to SAP Deutschland SE & Co. KG.[8][27] the conversion cost the company approximately €4 million.[28]

Focus on cloud[]

Since 2012, SAP has acquired several companies that sell cloud-based products, with several multibillion-dollar acquisitions seen by analysts as an attempt to challenge competitor Oracle.[29] In 2014 SAP bought Concur Technologies, a provider of cloud-based travel and expense management software, for $8.3 billion, SAP's most expensive purchase to that date.[30] Analysts' reactions to the purchase were mixed, with Thomas Becker of Commerzbank questioning whether Concur was the right choice for SAP, while Credit Suisse called the acquisition an "aggressive" move.[31]

In 2014, IBM and SAP began a partnership to sell cloud-based services.[32] Likewise, in 2015, SAP also partnered with HPE to provide secure hybrid cloud-based services running the SAP platform.[33] Both HPE and IBM provide infrastructure services to SAP, and SAP runs its SAP HANA cloud solution on top. SAP has announced additional partnerships with Microsoft in order to give customers tools for data visualization, as well as improved mobile applications.[34]

SAP exceeded its revenue projections due to the expansion in its cloud business and the success of SAP HANA. The growth can also be partially attributed to the acquisitions of Concur and Fieldglass.[35] Since 2017, SAP is a founding member of the .[36] Since May 2021 SAP has listed selected Cloud Service adherent to the as one of the first Cloud Service Providers.[37]

The company announced plans in 2016 to invest heavily into technology relating to Internet of Things (IoT) as part of a strategy to capitalize on the growth in that market. For that purpose, €2 billion is planned for investment in relevant sectors by the end of 2020.[38] SAP will also launch a new product line called SAP IoT, which "will combine large amounts of data from things connected to the Internet with machine learning and SAP's real-time database S/4 HANA."[38]

On 29 January 2019, SAP announced plans to cut approximately 4,000 positions at the company in a strategic plan to shift to more modern cloud-based technologies such as blockchain, quantum computing, machine learning, Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence.[39]

Finances[]

For the fiscal year 2017, SAP reported earnings of €4 billion, with an annual revenue of €23.5 billion, an increase of 6.3% over the previous fiscal cycle.[40] SAP's shares traded at over US$105 per share, and its market capitalization was valued at US$128 billion in December 2018. This makes SAP the most valuable company in Germany.[41]

Year Revenue
in bn EUR 		Net income
in bn EUR 		Total Assets
in bn EUR 		Employees
2013 16.815 3.326 27.094 66,572
2014 17.560 3.280 38.507 74,406
2015 20.793 3.064 41.390 76,986
2016 22.062 3.646 44.277 84,183
2017 23.461 4.018 42.497 88,543
2018 24.708 4.088 51.502 96.498
2019[42] 27.553 3.370 60.215 100,330
2020[43] 27.338 5.145 58.472 103,876

Acquisitions[]

Acquisitions (1991–now):[44]

Acquisition number Acquired company Acquisition date Specialty Country of origin Acquisition costs
72 Signavio (Announced January 2021) Collaborative Business Process Design, Management and Analysis Germany $1b est.
71 Emarsys Oct 2020[45] Omnichannel marketing Austria
70 Qualtrics Nov 2018[46][47] Collect, Manage, act on Experience data USA $8.0b
69 Contextor Nov 2018[48] Robotic Process Automation France
68 Coresystems Jun 2018[49] Platform for field service management Switzerland
67 CallidusCloud Jan 2018[50] Sales Performance Management Tool USA $2.4 b
66 Recast.ai Jan 2018[51] Conversational User Experience Technology (chatbot) France
65 Gigya Sep 2017[52] Customer Identity Management Israel $350m
64 Abakus Dec 2016[53] Marketing attribution USA
63 Plat.One Oct 2016[54][55] IoT USA
62 Altiscale Aug 2016[56] big data and Hadoop Hosting USA $125m+
61 Fedem Technology Jun 2016[57] IoT Norway
60 MeLLmo Inc. (Roambi) Feb 2016[58] Mobile Business Intelligence USA
59 Concur Technologies Sep 2014[59] Travel and Expense Management USA $8.3b
58 SeeWhy May 2014 Behavioural target marketing USA $1.1b
57 Fieldglass Mar 2014 Contingent labour and services USA
56 KXEN Oct 2013 Predictive analytics France
55 hybris May 2013 E-Commerce Solutions Switzerland $1.5b
54 Camilion Mar 2013 Insurance solutions Canada
53 SmartOps Feb 2013 Inventory optimization USA
52 Ticket-Web Feb 2013[60] Ticket systems and special CRM solutions for sports and entertainment Germany
51 Ariba Oct 2012 Supplier network USA $4.3b
50 Syclo Jun 2012 Mobile asset management USA
49 datango Jan 2012 Electronic performance support technologies Germany
48 SuccessFactors Dec 2011 Human Capital Management USA $3.4b
47 Right Hemisphere Sep 2011 3D visualization USA
46 Crossgate Sep 2011 B2B eCommerce Germany
45 Secude Mar 2011 Security software (Not the whole company, only some assets were acquired) Germany
44 Cundus Dec 2010 Disclosure Management Germany
43 Sybase May 2010 Database, middleware, mobile software USA $5.8b
42 TechniData May 2010 Environmental, Health and Safety Germany
41 SAF Sep 2009 Inventory Management Switzerland $91m
40 Highdeal May 2009 High-volume billing France
39 Visiprise Jul 2008 Manufacturing Execution USA
38 Saicon INC Oct 2014 US Recruitment India
37 BusinessObjects Oct 2007 Business Intelligence France $6.78b
36 Yasu Technologies Pvt. Ltd. Oct 2007 Business Rules Management Software India
35 Wicom Communications May 2007 Internet Communication software Finland
34 MaXware May 2007 Identity software Norway
33 Outlooksoft May 2007[61] Planning & consolidation USA
32 Pilot Software Feb 2007 Strategy Management software USA ~$200m
31 Factory Logic Dec 2006 Lean scheduling and supply synchronisation USA
30 Praxis Software Solutions Jul 2006 Web-based CRM and eCommerce USA
29 Frictionless Commerce May 2006 SRM software USA
28 Virsa Systems Apr 2006 Compliance solutions USA
27 SAP Systems Integration Dec 2005 Consulting services Germany
26 Callixa Nov 2005 Enterprise Integration Information software USA
25 Khimetrics Nov 2005 retail software USA
24 Triversity Sep 2005 POS software Canada
23 Lighthammer Jun 2005[62] Manufacturing Intelligence and Collaborative Manufacturing USA
22 DCS Quantum Feb 2005 Automotive Dealer Management United Kingdom
21 TomorrowNow Jan 2005 Grey market support USA
20 ilytix Jan 2005 SAP BusinessOne Business Intelligence Norway
19 A2i Jul 2004[63] Master Data Management USA
18 SPM Technologies Dec 2003[64] IT architecture consulting Germany
17 DCW Software Jul 2003 OS/400 Applications Germany
16 Guimachine Dec 2002 NetWeaver Visual Composer toolkit USA
15 IMHC May 2001 Integrated managed health care from IDS USA
14 Expression May 2002 real-time file sharing ?
13 Topmanage Feb 2002 SAP BusinessOne Suite Israel
12 Paynet International AG Dec 2001 Invoice Processing Germany
11 COPA GmbH Nov 2001 Beverage industry consulting Germany
10 Infinite Data Structures May 2001 Trade Management / CRM USA
9 Toptier Mar 2001 Enterprise Information Portal and Integration Infrastructure USA ~$400m
8 Prescient Consulting Feb 2000 Consulting services USA
7 In-Q-My Technologies GmbH 2000 J2EE Server Bulgaria
6 Campbell Software 1999[65] Workforce Management USA
5 AMC Development 1998 Call Center telephony integration software USA
4 OFEK-Tech 1998 Warehousing and distribution centre software Israel
3 Kiefer & Veittinger 1997 Sales force Applications Germany
2 Dacos 1994 Retail solution Germany
1 Steeb 1991[66] Software and Consulting Services Germany

Business and markets[]

SAP CEO meeting with Azerbaijan's leader Ilham Aliyev

As of 2016, SAP is the world's third-largest software and programming company.[67] The corporation operates in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, North America, and South America.[68]

SAP focuses on 25 industries and six industry sectors: process industries, discrete industries, consumer industries, service industries, financial services and public services.[69] It offers integrated product sets for large enterprises,[70] mid-sized companies and small businesses.[71]

Enterprise service-oriented architecture[]

Service-oriented architecture has been incorporated into the SAP ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system and other products defined within the SAP Enterprise Services Architecture (Enterprise SOA).

Enterprise SOA[]

SAP Enterprise Service Oriented Architecture (or Enterprise SOA) is SAP SE's service-oriented architecture implementation.[72] Enterprise SOA is enabled by the SAP NetWeaver platform and builds on the benefits of Web services. SAP has positioned Enterprise SOA to deliver the benefits offered by service-oriented architecture, including enabling both flexibility and business efficiency. SAP markets Enterprise SOA (service-oriented architecture) as a cost-effective way of adding new applications to existing infrastructure.[73] SAP Solutions that currently use Enterprise SOA are mySAP CRM, mySAP ERP, and mySAP SRM.

Partnerships[]

SAP partners include Global Services Partners with cross-industry multinational consulting capabilities,[74] SAP University Alliances,[75] Global Software Partners providing integrated products that complement SAP Business Suite solutions,[76] and Global Technology Partners providing user companies with a wide range of products to support SAP technology, including vendors of hardware, database, storage systems, networks, and mobile computing technology.[77]

Extensions partners are companies which provide functionality that complements SAP product capabilities. Their products are certified, sold, and supported by SAP. These partner companies include Adobe, CA Technologies, GK Software,[78] Tricentis,[79] Hewlett-Packard, IDS Scheer, Mendix,[80] OpenText,[81] Knoa Software, and BackOffice Associates.[82]

SAP has also partnered with Apple to work on the mobile experience for SAP enterprise customers. As part of the partnership, a new SAP HANA Cloud Platform SDK would be delivered exclusively for iOS. As a result, developers can build applications based on the SAP HANA Cloud Platform for the iPhone and iPad devices. The partnership was announced in May 2016.[83]

In 2019, SAP announced a three-year partnership "Embrace" with Microsoft that should allow its clients to move their business process into the cloud. SAP teams up on cloud sales with Microsoft

In 2020 SAP announced that together with Wipro it will co-develop and market "solutions for the retail and fashion industry."[84]

SAP PartnerEdge[]

SAP products for small businesses and midsize companies are delivered through its global partner network. The SAP PartnerEdge programme, SAP's partner programme, offers a set of business enablement resources and program benefits to help partners including value-added resellers (VARs) and independent software vendors (ISVs) be profitable and successful in implementing, selling, marketing, developing and delivering SAP products to a broad range of customers.[85]

SAP for Retailing[]

SAP for Retailing is a comprehensive set of offerings for various retail processes including demand management/forecasting and supply chain at a high level, and specific areas such as contracting, purchasing, goods receipts, invoice verification, accounts payable, pricing, billing, Point-of-Sale and business analytics.

"SAP for Retail" is the title of a book about the software.[86]

Communities[]

SAP Community Network (SCN) is a community of SAP customers, partners, employees, and influencers – typically in roles such as: developers, consultants, integrators, and business analysts – who gain and share knowledge about ABAP, Java, .NET, SOA, and other technologies, plus analytics and dashboards, business process best practices, cloud, mobile, big data, and a range of other topics via blogs, discussion forums, downloads and code samples, training materials, and a technical library.[87]

Organization[]

SAP uses a two-tier structure of boards, with an executive board and a supervisory board.[88][89] In October 2019, Jennifer Morgan and Christian Klein were appointed as co-CEOs of SAP.[90] In April 2020, it was announced that Jennifer Morgan will leave SAP and Christian Klein will continue to operate as the sole CEO, citing that the current environment of the COVID-19 recession requires "companies to take swift, determined action which is best supported by a very clear leadership structure".[91]

The largest concentration of Employees are in Germany and United States. About 20,000 employees are based in Germany[92]and about 19,311 employees are based in the United States.[93] [94]

Headquarters is responsible for overall management as well as core engineering activities related to product development. Worldwide customer support is not provided by the field organizations but by a unified organization called Active Global Support (AGS).[95]

SAP Labs[]

SAP Labs are R&D locations that develop and improve SAP core products. SAP Labs are strategically located in high-tech clusters around the globe.[13]

Locations of SAP Labs
Country Main location(s)
Germany Walldorf/Rot, Markdorf, Berlin
United States Silicon Valley
India Bangalore
China Shanghai
Brazil São Leopoldo
Bulgaria Sofia
Canada Vancouver, Montreal, Waterloo
South Korea Seoul
Vietnam Ho Chi Minh City
Israel Ra'anana
Russia Moscow
France Paris, Sophia Antipolis
Ireland Dublin
Hungary Budapest
Slovakia Bratislava
Czech Republic Brno
Poland Gliwice

The four most prominent labs of SAP SE are located in Germany, Japan, Israel and the US. Labs Walldorf was founded in 1972 and became SAP's primary location. At the beginning, the focus of SAP's expansion was entering highly developed IT markets; in 1993 Palo Alto became a part of SAP Labs. Aiming to acquire talented employees, SAP opened another lab in Bangalore in 2003.[13]

Among the latest SAP Labs are labs in Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland. All three labs have been established in 2016. The lab in India as of 2016 is SAP's largest outside Germany.

In order to manage SAP Labs, SAP Labs Network (SLN) was created. SLN is a global unit that manages regional Labs and shares best business practices. It coordinates and distributes development projects among individual SAP Labs locations, accelerates product delivery, gives SAP full access to talent, and drives SAP corporate strategy regarding innovation and business growth.[96]

SAP User Groups[]

SAP User Groups are independent, nonprofit organizations of SAP customers and SAP partners. They serve as communications channel for their members towards SAP and for SAP towards the markets. The Americas' SAP Users' Group (ASUG)[97] is the company's largest user group, with 100,000 individuals at 3,800 companies. ASUG members are professionals who work in more than 17 industries. Many are technical and business process experts in the SAP ecosystem; they have varied levels of experience, and come from small businesses to global corporations, as well as universities. In 2007, the SAP User Group Executive Network (SUGEN) was established.

SAP provoked controversy and frustration among its users in 2008 by raising the cost of its maintenance contracts. The issue was the subject of intense discussion among user groups.[98]

SAP Business Technology Platform[]

SAP Business Technology Platform, formerly known as SAP Cloud Platform (SCP) is SAP's platform-as-a-service (PaaS)[99] that is used to deliver in-memory capabilities and microservices for building and extending, mobile-enabled cloud applications. The infrastructure is offered through a global network of SAP managed data centers. SAP Cloud Platform is an open platform-as-a-service, which includes the in-memory SAP HANA database management system, connects to both on premises and cloud-based systems running SAP or other third-party software and relies on open standards, like Java, JavaScript, Node.js and Cloud Foundry for integration options.

SAP Cloud Platform is promoted to build and extend business applications with rapid innovation cycles. SAP and Apple Inc. partnered to develop mobile applications on iOS using cloud-based software development kits (SDKs) for the SAP Cloud Platform. SAP founding development partners[100] for their Cloud Platform include Accenture, Celonis, EnterpriseAlumni, and Walmart.

SAP Cloud Platform is based on open source technology, developed and supported in partnership with SUSE. The company is also in partnership with Cloud Foundry for a beta offering of SAP Cloud Platform that enables customers to test out and give feedback for the functionalities coming with Cloud Foundry.

As part of the "RISE with SAP" program, the SCP was renamed as SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP).

SAP S/4HANA[]

Main article: SAP S/4HANA

In 2015, the company launched S/4HANA, the newest generation of the SAP Business Suite. It was written natively for the SAP HANA platform. It offers cloud, on-premises and hybrid deployment options to customers, with its benefits including a smaller data footprint, higher throughput, faster analytics, faster access to data and better user experience. It also allows existing SAP Business Suite customers to upgrade to this product from SAP Business Suite.[101]

In 2016, SAP introduced SAP HANA, Express Edition which is meant to run on personal computers or on cloud computing platforms for students and other small-scale developers.[102]

SAP Enterprise Learning[]

"The SAP Enterprise Learning solution is part of SAP ERP HCM" is a quote from a 2009-published book about the subject.[103] The acronym ERP refers to Enterprise Resource Management; HCM refers to Human Capital Management.[104]

There are other books on SAP ERP HCM including:

  • Mastering HR Management with SAP ERP HCM[105]
  • Talent Management with SAP ERP HCM[106]

SAP Enterprise Learning is a learning management system, for large and medium-sized enterprises, from SAP, and it contains a virtual learning room feature powered by Adobe Connect.[107] A sample can be experienced in the SAP Learning on Demand Portal. SAP uses this for delivering online training[108] as a Learning on Demand offering; some of this content is freely available[109] as e-books or simulations. The company has a book on this subject, available since June 2009.[110]

SAP Store[]

SAP launched the SAP store in March 2015 as its principal e-commerce property to allow customers to buy its products directly on the Web rather than through traditional sales channels. Customers can purchase free trials or starter editions and can pay by credit card or PayPal.

SAP App Center[]

Launched in 2016, the SAP App Center is an online application marketplace for third-party applications that integrate with and extend SAP products. While some applications are available for free, others[111][112] involve a monthly or yearly subscription fee. Applications available range from integrations with content management software to mobile approval management and payment platforms. As of July 2018, it features over 1,500 applications. Major vendors and service providers, such as Accenture,[113] are part of it.

Conferences[]

SAP has two annual conferences:

  • SAPPHIRE is SAP's customer-facing event, where it generally announces major product changes and strategic direction. It is typically held in the spring in North America.[114][115]
  • SAP TechEd is the company's more technical conference, aimed at SAP's ecosystem of consultants and software development partners.[116][117] SAP TechEd has been held annually since 1995.

Competitive landscape[]

SAP competitors are primarily in the enterprise resource planning software industry. In this field, Oracle Corporation is SAP's major competitor. SAP also competes in the customer relationship management, marketing & sales software, manufacturing, warehousing & industrial software, and supply chain management & logistics software sectors.[118]

Oracle Corporation filed a lawsuit against SAP for malpractice and unfair competition in the California courts in 2007. SAP lost the case in 2010 and was ordered to pay $1.3 billion, which was cited as the largest copyright infringement judgment in history.[119] The verdict was overturned in 2011,[120] and the lawsuit was finally settled in 2014 for $356.7 million.[121]

The resulting pressure saw SAP and SUGEN (SAP User Group Executive Network) agree to a major benchmarking exercise to prove the value of the new support pricing policy to customers. In December 2009, SAP delayed its Enterprise Support price rises until agreement had been reached on the benchmarks and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).[122]

In January 2010, SAP reversed its direction on Enterprise Support and reintroduced its standard support package for customers. The move to reinstate standard support – at 18 percent of annual license fees, "will enable all customers to choose the option that best meets their requirements", the company said.[123]

In August 2013, SAP acquired German software company Hybris for eCommerce capabilities.[124][125]

Philanthropic efforts[]

SAP has donated several millions of dollars to a variety of global health causes including the Product Red campaign and the Global Fund.[126][127] In addition, SAP has distributed free software in South Africa as part of an effort towards developing future markets there.[128] The company also encourages employees to volunteer through social sabbaticals, sending teams of people to different countries to aid non-profits. SAP employees have volunteered in China, India, Brazil, and South Africa.[129]

Sponsorships[]

The SAP Arena opened in Mannheim in 2005, and is the home of the Adler Mannheim ice hockey team and Rhein-Neckar Löwen handball team. Since 2013, the company is name sponsor of the SAP Center at San Jose, California. The team also sponsors the Formula One racing team McLaren, the Formula E team Mercedes Benz EQ, German football team TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, NFL teams the New York Giants and New York Jets, the City Football Group, and eSports squad Team Liquid. It was the title sponsor of the Formula One United States Grand Prix from 2000 to 2002.

SAP ambassadors include German tennis player Angelique Kerber, German eventing rider Ingrid Klimke, and South African golfers Ernie Els, Gary Player and Branden Grace.

Autism hiring[]

SAP also engages in outreach activities within its company. In 2013, the company launched an initiative to hire employees with autism and Asperger syndrome, citing their undervalued ability to contribute to its workforce. SAP aims to compose 1% of its workforce with individuals with autism by the year 2020.[130]

Bribery and corruption[]

US-Iran Sanctions[]

In 2021, SAP admitted in a United States court that it exported software to firms in Iran, contrary to US sanctions against Iran, which led to a fine of $8 million.[131][132][133]

East African allegations[]

In February 2019, SAP was accused of ‘improper conduct’ linked to state contracts in Kenya and Tanzania. An anonymous whistle-blower claims, through a firm of attorneys, that SAP used Twenty Third Century Systems (TTCS) to bribe officials at the Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) to win a US$6.6 million enterprise resource planning software tender that involved the provision of software licenses and services.[134]

South African allegations[]

In July 2017, allegations were made that SAP had been involved in business transactions with the controversial and politically influential Gupta family in South Africa. SAP was accused of paying CAD House, a Gupta-controlled company, R100 million in order to secure a Transnet deal. SAP denied the allegations, claiming that the money was paid as "an extension of the sales force", despite CAD House having no prior SAP experience.[135][136]

The Guptas' dealings with SAP were revealed in a widely publicized e-mail leak.[137][138]

As a consequence of the allegations, SAP launched an investigation that led to four of its South African managers being placed on administrative leave along with the seizure of their mobile phones and computers.[139] Claas Kuehnemann was named as acting managing director for Africa while the investigation continued.[140]

On 26 October 2017, SAP announced that it had voluntarily reported itself to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a possible violation of US law, including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), related to the South African bribery allegations. SAP's own investigation, conducted by law firm Baker McKenzie, revealed that SAP had paid $7.7 million in commissions to third-parties linked to the Gupta family while securing contracts worth $48 million with Transnet and Eskom.[141][142][143]

Panamanian bribery[]

Since May 2015, the company has dealt with a series of high-profile bribery investigations,[144][135][134] including one that led to them paying $3.9 million to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission civil charges over a former executive's scheme to bribe Panama government officials in order to win lucrative technology contracts.[144][145]

See also[]

References[]

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