SAP SE, the German-based European multinational software corporation, announced the launch of a brand new suite of applications at the 2018 Sapphire conference this week. The move comes from the firm’s ambition to infiltrate the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) market, and unsettle the cloud-based market leader, Salesforce.
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Termed SAP C4HANA, the new suite enables businesses to serve and retain customers by shifting the system’s focal point. Traditional CRM systems are predominantly sales-oriented, but SAP want to disrupt the market by redirecting their focus onto the consumer.As Bill McDermott, SAP’s chief executive, claims “the legacy CRM systems are all about sales; SAP C/4HANA is all about the consumer. We recognise that every part of a business needs to be focused on a single view of the consumer. When you connect all SAP applications together in an intelligent cloud suite, the demand chain directly fuels the behaviours of the supply chain.” The firm also announced the SAP HANA Data Management Suite, which is designed to allow companies to view and control their highly-distributed, universal data. These products will be packaged into a CRM suite, with the intention of allowing businesses to provide consumer data protection, commerce, sales, marketing, and excellent customer service. McDermott expressed his confidence in his address to the audience in a keynote: “you know you are rooting for SAP in CRM”. This fresh approach is undoubtedly innovative, but time will tell whether the firm actually succeed in shaking up the market.