SAP Advances mySAP.com

New York -- SAP today unveiled a handful of new modules for its mySAP.com customer relationship management (CRM) platform, and trumpeted early successes in moving users onto its new e-business platforms.

The six new CRM components include Internet sales, customer self-service, service interaction center, field sales, field service and business partner collaboration. All are delivered through the mySAP.com portal.

SAP also announced new mySAP.com functionality for its buy-side and sell-side e-commerce applications, including improved support for non-SAP back-end apps.

SAP's new CRM and e-commerce applications complement its mainstay back-office R/3 platform--and especially that system's deep focus in 20 specific vertical industries--to provide users with a true end-to-end e-business solution, said Chris Larsen, president of SAP America, during a press conference at E-Business Expo here.

Without such end-to-end integration "when you go out on the Internet, all you are doing is basically advertising how bad your back-office systems are," Larsen said, referring to many sites that field an e-commerce Web site that cannot provide customers with any view at all into inventory availability.

Larsen also stressed SAP's deep roots in serving specific vertical industries with ERP solutions, and said that vertical focus would be crucial for e-business applications such as e-procurement as well. "You can't be a generalist in b-to-b procurement," he said, taking a shot at upstart rivals like Commerce One and Ariba, which had simply handled "the low-hanging fruit" of the purchasing of indirect goods like office supplies.

SAP will be moving its vertical focus in coming weeks to the emerging world of net markets, with a planned announcement of 10 vertical marketplaces serving key industries likely to include manufacturing, consumer packaged goods and more. SAP's approach to net markets would not be to align with specific users--such as Oracle has done with Ford, or Commerce One with General Motors--but would rather be "more collaborative" in nature and include multiple trading partners, Larsen said.

SAP executives also described another upcoming development, aimed at dotcom companies, that would bundle key R/3 applications and integrate them with SAP's Online Store e-commerce solution--all as an ASP-hosted, outsourced solution. A formal announcement of that new product is expected within a few weeks.

One company that is already moving forward with such an integrated solution--though not as a hosted solution but rather installed in-house--is Streamline.com, an e-commerce site providing scheduled delivery to consumers of a wide variety of goods including groceries, stamps, home videos and more. Streamline.com is live today in several cities and expects to reach 20 cities by next year.

The company has deployed a range of SAP back-end systems supporting financials, inventory management, forecasting and replenishment and more, and is in the process of turning its e-commerce front-end over to an SAP platform as well, including Online Store and SAP's Business Information Warehouse data warehouse product.

"We asked ourselves what to do with our front-end, and we needed something that would grow and scale with the business," said Streamline.com's vice president of information technology, John Cagno.

By tightly integrated its back-end and e-commerce front-end, Streamline.com is not only able to provide customers with real-time access to its inventory availability, but via data warehousing will be able to turn its analysis of its customers' buying behavior into a service it can sell to consumer packaged goods companies, said Cagno.

Overall, SAP reported it now has 6,200 users--from more than 30 companies--using application hosting as part of its mySAP.com initiative.

In other E-Business Expo news today:

• Delano Technology unveiled the Delano Campaign Server, a platform for outbound email campaign management.

• SpaceWorks launched BusinessManager Suite, which extends its flagship OrderManager e-commerce products with new b-to-b functionality, including personalized marketing, interactive guided selling, auctions, bill presentment and online customer support.

• Bridges For Islands Inc. announced the availability of its XML-based Brahms B2Bengine, a tool for connecting online trading partners.