Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Eventually in 1998, Prime stopped most of its manufacturing and shut down
many operations. The remaining pieces were renamed Computervision and were
acquired by Parametric Technology.
Systems Applications Programs (SAP)
An important kind of software application and an important company emerged
circa 1972. This was the German company
Systemsanalyse und Program-
mentwicklung
, or Systems Applications Programs (SAP), which was a pioneer in
ERP applications. The original name meant systems analysis and program devel-
opment.
SAP was founded in Mannheim, Germany. Later, the company kept the same
SAP acronym but changed the legal name of the company to
Systeme, Anwendun-
gen, und Produkte in der Datenverabeitung
. This newer name meant Systems,
Applications, and Products in Data Processing. The five founders were Detmar
Hopp, Klaus Tschira, Hans-Werner Hector, Hasso Plattner, and Claus Wellenreuth-
er. (These founders were all former IBMers. For about 100 years, IBM has been a
fruitful source of entrepreneurs who form their own companies.)
The technology used by SAP had a convoluted path. Some of the software and
ideas were originated by Xerox. When Xerox decided to leave the computer busi-
ness, it hired IBM to transition some of its software onto IBM platforms. One
of the packages was called SDS/SAPE and was used in SAP. But there is more
to the story. IBM gave the software to the five founders of SAP in exchange for
founders' stock in the company in the amount of about 8%.
SAP was also interested in vertical marketing. As SAP grew and prospered,
it was able to enter quite a few vertical markets at the same time. Among these
were manufacturing, process control, finance, government operations, consumer
products, and services.
SAP grew to become the world's third-largest software company, and en route
to this rank it also acquired other companies such as Sybase and SuccessFactors.
SAP also started an interesting academic program that allows university pro-
fessors and students full access to SAP. The SAP University Alliance Program
now includes around 1,200 universities and about 250,000 students. The idea
of a strong university program pays off with future customers who learn to use
products as students and want to continue after graduation.
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