SAP AG has announced the SAP Business One OnDemand solution, a new SaaS offering that aims to build upon and extend the market for their SME-focused SAP Business One application.
The SaaS offering is to be sold by a monthly subscription fee per user, and to be sold entirely through channel partners. Initially, the solution is planned for availability in 18 countries, including Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.
SAP believes that this will significantly broaden the market for this offering.
“When we talk to companies in the SME space, we see not only active demand for ERP software in the cloud, but even pent up demand,” said Kevin Gilroy, Senior Vice President, Global Indirect Channels, SAP. ” SAP Business One OnDemand takes only weeks, in some cases days, to be running live. It’s not the scary ERP of years ago, “It’s very powerful but very friendly.”
Gilroy said they expect this solution will be welcomed by many small companies who have a need for a robust ERP solution.
“I think this will work for companies with as few as 10 users, I think it will go down that far in the market,” Gilroy said. “Of course it depends on the industries, but there are many use cases here, like an industry with outsourced manufacturing offshore.”
Gilroy said they have been seeing increased demand for this kind of offering in the cloud.
“In part, it is because we are seeing some generational shifts in SMEs,” he said. “Baby boomers are turning the companies over to the next generation, which is more likely to embrace technology. And of course all this is much more affordable, especially from a cash flow perspective, leveling the playing field with much bigger competitors.”
SAP has a very specific go-to-market model in mind for this solution. It will actually be delivered by SAP certified hosting partners, of which Hungarian Telecom, itelligence, Seidor, Singtel, Versino and Virtustream have been specifically named. Reselling partners or VARs without SAP hosting certification will become involved by subcontracting to a certified SAP hosting partner.
Pricing is still being finalized, but Gilory said it will be extremely attractive. Partners also can set their own price. During a cloud roundtable discussion at CeBIT in Germany this week, Werner Hoelzl, CEO, Versino (a DACH SAP Business One partner) noted that he was planning to charge 99 Euros per user/month with no minimum of users required.
“With this, partners will now be able to offer customers the choice of a cloud or an on-prem offering,” Gilroy said. “My opinion is every partner will need to have a cloud and on-prem choice to offer going forward.”