Database Reference
In-Depth Information
SCM, or CRM that cannot be afforded by them. ASPs meet the needs of MME companies that
cannot afford the substantial up-front investments in establishing the infrastructure, knowledge-
able and experienced staff, ongoing administration and monitoring services, better backup and
recovery methods, and so forth. The top reasons that are cited by companies for renting applica-
tions are guaranteed performance levels, high availability, responsive service, and support. The
cost of ownership of hosted applications can be 25% cheaper than managing the applications
internally. Other criteria for companies to contract ASPs are lower up-front costs, faster implemen-
tations, higher redundancy, larger scalability of hardware and bandwidth, automatic upgrades,
quicker distribution and deployment, and data storage, backup, and recovery capabilities.
Using application service providers (ASPs) has many advantages, such as
◾
Enabling a company to concentrate on enhancing the competitiveness of its core functions
◾
Enabling a company to outsource the enhancing competitiveness of its noncore but
still-critical functions like implementing Call Center operations
◾
Re-engineering critical but noncore functions and processes quickly
◾
Comprehensive industry-specific and company-specific evaluations
◾
Rapid prototyping of company-specific implementations
◾
Lower up-front investments in hardware and software, technical manpower resources, and
training
◾
Reduced risks of initial erroneous decisions in pricing, reliability, scalability, bandwidth,
and security
◾
Flexibility of options like hosting, cohosting, and colocation
◾
Time to implement at a lower cost
◾
Time to go live at a lower cost
◾
Time to benefit at a lower cost
◾
Time to full ownership at a lower cost
◾
Time to deploy at other sites at a lower cost
◾
Higher service-level guarantees
◾
Better customer service
◾
Reduced administration, management, maintenance, and support costs
14.7.2 SAP Business ByDesign (BBD)
The newest of SAP's SME offerings, SAP Business ByDesign (BBD), includes preconfigured best
practices for managing financials, customer relationships, human resources, projects, procure-
ment, and the supply chain. BBD allows customers to focus on their business, leaving SAP to
worry about maintaining hardware and software, running database backups, addressing perfor-
mance and capacity planning, implementing updates and fixes, and so on. SAP takes care of
system installation, maintenance, and upgrades so that you can focus on your business rather than
IT. BBD targets to address the market of customers seeking to avoid investing in business software
and all the necessary infrastructure and support personnel associated with such an investment.
SAP Business ByDesign solution provides the following advantages:
1.
Hosted solution
: SAP hosts your Business ByDesign system in an enterprise class data center
designed to provide high availability and reliability.
2.
Lower efforts and costs
: A company deploying BBD does not necessarily require SAP partners
or consultants for implementation.
