SAP gives CRM a makeover
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New look and Web 2.0 functionality to boost user adoption, says SAP....
SAP, the German applications vendor, has announced a new version of its CRM software designed to rectify user acceptance issues by introducing a more aesthetically pleasing interface and “Web 2.0 funtionality.”
SAP CRM 2007, unveiled at the company’s SAP Influencer Summit yesterday, will be available as both on-premise and hosted software.
Bob Stutz, general manager of SAP’s CRM unit, implied that end users had found previous versions of its CRM offering ugly and uninviting. "The feedback I got was pretty brutal,” Stutz told the summit. “They said it’s just too hard to use. It's got good, deep functionality, but it's difficult to get up and running."
The new product will allows user to heavily customise the interface in a way more akin to Web 2.0 sites than traditional enterprise software, the company said. Arch-rival Oracle made similar claims about its forthcoming Fusion range of applications at its recent user conference.
SAP boasts the lead in worldwide CRM market share. However, some competitors claim that this is a result of the fact that its CRM product is bundled in with the popular mySAP apps suite, and is not necessarily used by all the companies that own it. This makes user acceptance an especially important issue for SAP’s CRM strategy.
Further reading
SAP rethinks software SAP’s on-demand applications offering, Business ByDesign, may turn the company into a mass market vendor.Cultivating CRM The customer relationship management market is the testbed for new application paradigms.
Find more stories in the Business Applications and CRM & Marketing Briefing Rooms.
