SAP's CRM Gem Upgraded At SAPPHIRE

SAP AG today made available what company executives dub the most comprehensive CRM upgrade in SAP's history. Garnished with a slew of other announcements, including an expanded small and mid-size customer- and partner-base and its latest version of mySAP Supply Chain Management, the mySAP CRM 4.0 upgrade was introduced at SAPPHIRE '03, SAP's annual international customer conference in Orlando, FL. The latest version of mySAP CRM is a "culmination of a large development effort that started one-and-a-half-years ago," which spans the enterprise to include upgrades in analytics, marketing, sales, and service functionality, says John Grozier, vice president of CRM product marketing at SAP. The upgrades to mySAP CRM are in line with the company's goal to be the leading CRM company, which company executives reaffirmed at the event. When asked to comment on upcoming investments in research and development, Henning Kagermann, cochairman and CEO at SAP said, "Once we are number one in CRM, then we can rethink our investments [in R&D]." How has that level of intensity made itself apparent in the latest round of upgrades? mySAP CRM incorporates additions to existing industry capabilities, enabling more than 280 end-to-end, industry-specific processes tailored to impact business objectives. mySAP CRM 4.0 addresses the specific needs of manufacturing and services companies in 23 industries. Examples of new industry-specific processes in mySAP CRM include trade promotion management, new processes for the automotive industry allowing automotive companies to track and monitor essential information about customers, business transactions, the configuration of vehicles, and the vehicle life cycle from the customers' perspective for the duration of customer ownership. By tracking an automobile's history across several owners, organizations can institute fraud protection, market to used car buyers, and manage spare part planning, creating new individualized sales, service, and marketing strategies, according to an SAP statement. SAP has engineered ways to optimize sales for pharmaceutical companies' representatives' limited time with physicians, as well as provided professional services firms service-process management capabilities, including opportunity management, project management, resource planning, and engagement management. mySAP CRM offers a channel management capability that enables organizations to optimize the supply chain with integration and visibility into the demand chain. "What we've done in terms of linking together [CRM and supply chain management functionality] allows companies to get suppliers to produce one more item that the company needs to sell. By gauging precisely what the demand can be, you can gauge what the supply should be. It also provides visibility into available-to-promise checks, allowing the whole organization to be much more adaptive to rapid changes both positive and negative," Grozier says. mySAP CRM provides solutions for diverse industries, including: automotive; chemicals and pharmaceuticals; engineering, construction, and operations; consumer goods; high-tech; industrial machinery and components; leasing; media and entertainment; oil and gas; professional services; public sector; retail; telecommunications; and utilities.

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