SAP Adds to Hosted Offerings With CRM Module

Business software maker SAP will unveil a module for its hosted CRM offering at its Sapphire customer event next week.

SAP Marketing on-demand will be the second of three core CRM modules that the German company plans to offer this year, SAP spokesman Bill Wohl said Wednesday.

SAP launched the first module, SAP Sales on-demand, in February and made its long-awaited dive into the hosted, subscription-based CRM on-demand market where rival Salesforce.com has a strong presence. The third module, SAP Service on-demand, is expected next quarter.

With the hosted products, SAP has responded to business demand for quicker and lower-risk options. Traditional ERP software, SAP’s lucrative strength, generally involves high up-front licensing costs and complex deployments.

The new marketing on-demand offering, which can be purchased separately, offers business managers enhanced search capabilities to target new customers more effectively, as well as to track and pursue leads.

The module’s campaign management and customer segmentation functionality, for instance, is designed to help marketers analyze customer data easily using advanced queries and then create target groups based on search results. The lead management functionality enables them to track key lead information on one overview page, making it easier to update account data, create tasks for follow-up and report on lead status, and assign sales teams.

SAP is targeting its CRM on-demand offering at work groups of a minimum 100 users, although Wohl noted the company won’t necessarily turn away smaller user groups. “Put it this way, we’ll make calls to larger work groups,” he said. “Our target is not individual credit card sales.”

The Sapphire customer event runs from May 16-18 in Orlando.

-John Blau, IDG News Service

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