Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 5
SAP CRM Solution
In this chapter, and in the remaining part of the topic, we talk in detail about SAP AG's product
SAP CRM. We present the architecture and salient features of the system in sufficient detail to
highlight its overwhelming superiority. It will become evident by perusing this chapter and the
following ones that SAP CRM is indeed the best CRM system on the market today. With its
N-tiered distributed architecture, excellent repository-driven development environment, and com-
prehensive componentized business functionality covering all customer-facing functions across
several industries, SAP represents perhaps one of the best software development efforts in recent
times.
5.1 SAP the Company
SAP Systems, Inc. was founded in 1993 to address the growing need of organizations of all sizes
to acquire, retain, and better serve their customers. Today, SAP with sales revenue of $14 billion is
the world's leading provider of business application software. As reported by SAP, there are more
than 25,000 plus customers with more than 100,000 installations of SAP across the world, and
more than 15 million users work on SAP systems worldwide. By any standards, these are impres-
sive numbers coming from a company that has a great vision and is destined to play a significant
role in the Internet-driven markets of this century as well.
SAP CRM system is the world leader in Web-based front-office solutions for sales, marketing,
and customer service. The phenomenal success of SAP comes from the fact that SAP CRM sys-
tems are comprehensive but at the same time configurable to the specific needs of any company.
Companies prefer off-the-shelf packages like SAP because it is flexible and can be configured
to satisfy most requirements of any company in any industry. SAP can be deployed on various
hardware platforms providing the same comprehensive and integrated functionality, flexibility
for addressing individual company-specific requirements, as well as ensuring independence from
specific technologies deployed in the company. SAP implements a process-oriented view of the
extended enterprise.
SAP CRM ensures success in a number of ways. The closed-loop sales, marketing, and
customer service solution available from SAP is one of the most functionally complete solutions
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