SAP was started in the early 70’s by former IBM employees in Germany.  The name SAP is an acronym in German which still holds for the English language as well which is Systems, Applications, and Products.  The original vision behind the company was to provide a common company database that would be used in various departments and software applications throughout the company. 

Today, SAP is an ERP or enterprise resource management  vendor that provides a company-wide solution that links all major functions and departments of an organization regardless of industry type or whether it’s in the public or private sector.  It’s largest clients currently are Proctor and Gamble, Apple Computer and Audi Automotive.

In the beginning SAP had a strong presence internationally only.  However, in the early 90’s SAP soon became the premiere ERP solution globally for Fortune 500 companies as the popularity of enterprise resource planning solutions spread worldwide.  SAP continued to dominate the enterprise systems software space for the well into 2000 where it’s reign has been challenged by fierce competitors entering the market such as Microsoft, IBM and Oracle.

Given the increased popularity of software-as-a-service or SaaS companies such as customer relationship company (CRM) salesforce.com, SAP is now offering a Web interface called mySAP, which includes new applications such as CRM.

Because of the integration of multiple departments and compounded with the integration of one or more legacy systems within an organization, the implementation of an ERP system can be quite involved and is not something a company should take on without considerable preparation and business process analysis of where the company currently is and where to company wants to go both short term and long term.  This sentiment has made companies cautious about major software investments and upgrades in the current economic slump.  In the current economy companies are focusing on investments that not only make a positive return on investment, they want to know how much of a positive ROI a new upgrade or implementation will bring as well as a short term payback in terms of months rather than years..

However, in early February 2009, SAP announced the most extensive upgrade to its business software category in almost 3 years touting that it will lead to significant cost savings for companies that will be a key factor in battling the current recession.

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rich