SAP America
In just three years, SAP (system, application, database handler is abbreviated) has grown from an inconspicuous small company as a miracle of computer world. By the mid-1990s, it is a company worth $ 1 billion, with a product created by $ 9 billion. Such a rapid growth has caused great pressure to the company's originally dispersed organizational architecture. In April 1996, the new president Jeremy Coote convened how the executive level meeting resolutions will reorganize the company's organizational architecture. One of the decisions is to carry out consultation as an independent business, Jeremy Coote, next to the new consultation Vice President Eileen Basho, two main tasks: formulate a professional service strategy, making the company from global to the middle-level market Transition; largely reduces the implementation cycle and cost. (Experience: We must start thinking about how to enhance our counsel? If you want to make your advisory partners make money, we must first taste the sweetness first.)
Company and industry background
SAP AG, SAP AMERICA's parent company is one of the world's five leading software companies, and is also the world's leading real-time integrated application software supplier. Its R / 3 products have quickly occupied C / S 's Eis market. The R / 3 system function is equivalent to a company's central nerve hub that allows multinational companies to seamlessly transmit and exchange data at any time.
SAP AG was established by four young software engineers in 1972 in Walldorf, Germany, when they wanted to make an idea of integrated packages was refused by the original boss IBM. So after seven years, they released their first main EIS product R / 2, which is designed for large machines. In 1989, their company was listed. After five years, SAP's market value has reached 15 billion US dollars, and 75% of the shares are still held by the founder. The three founders are still responsible for the company's operations and continue to maintain the duties of the directors. They are described as being approximately friends, spend money, and make the company's atmosphere. For a long time, their business is based on unqualified work relationships, and the turnover has been investigated by 20-25% to R & D, and does not perform capitalization operation, incompetence, and from not estimated income before publishing products. The 25% of the 7000 employees belong to the R & D department, and half of the service department (including consulting and training).
The AG's Executive Board is closely related to product R & D groups, which requires decision-making of a series of product strategies such as new product functions. In addition to the founder, board members also include two senior management from the R & D group, and Paul Wahl, in 1991, Joining SAP is responsible for the vice president of the global market, but most of the time spent on the technical team.
Strategic core
On the eve of the end of 1991, the AG board spent at least two months to discuss whether SAP should continue to be a product company, a centralized sales package, or should be expanded to the solution. At that time, I just joined the company's WAHL described this choice and the board of directors: A product has defined its feature, you want a lot of sale. So as a product company, you get revenue from product license fees. Companies with solutions to solutions are more from service, and provide as complete as possible implementation and extensive services.
But we know that if r / 3 is successful, we are a solution company, then we must hire thousands of consultants. The board of directors said, no, we are a product company, we want the product's market penetration, want R / 3 to become a commercial architecture and become a practical industry standard. So we need to do our best to sell software, cooperate with the partners. (Experience: Description, our current product leading strategy is feasible!) It is considered that such choices may put us in a state of crossfire, and have to patch partners' mistakes. At the same time, if we are a product company, I also hurt our own consultants' feelings. But this choice concentrates our strength, and even makes the R & D team more stress to develop a more excellent product. The board of directors will estimate how much R / 3 can produce how much value service market, and how much share should be left to partners. SAP finally decided to do only 20-30% of the R / 3 implementation of business, in the United States, even less. R / 3 was released in Europe in January 1992. After 3 months, the sales volume increased rapidly, and its peak was reached in 1994.
SAP AG began international expansion in the late 1980s, and the foreign branch was chosen as a conveying means. In 1988, SAP America was established. It is a molecule in the Americas, and other Canada, Mexico, and Australia. At that time, the US branch has experienced management in mid-1992. The two executives of the Board of Directors in Germany have been airborne, and Klaus Besier has become president. WAHL has joined the board of directors of the US branch, and the founder of SAP and CTO Hasso Plattner became The Chairman of the Americas, worked for four years, then Besier became COO, the beginning of 1994 is CEO, he is described as a "energetic leader, the same excellent businessman, straightforward, good luck, good luck The speech is strong, with Klaus, there is no correction, all the questions are to do work well, his purpose is to make this company a leader in the field. "
In order to clarify the US market demand, Besier gradually separated from German models, such as sales organization, target customer base, organizational architecture, etc.
Sales team
SAP America learned from R / 2, which is in the United States, product sales requires heavy fighting, and sales teams need stronger competitiveness. Alex Ott recalled by Vice President of Global Cooperation: "We have no customer base, no market share, only a small number of people, and new technologies. We must speed up the pace, run more roads than others."
Besier took offensive, giving all sales power (not just a leader), and also recruited a large number of professional sales staff (not engineers) to grow team.
Target customers
Besier owned this dare-to-offer sales team believed in the contract of big companies. Their first millions of orders come from Chevron, which is a milestone of SAP. The business is signed in December 1992 and firmly signed the belief of the big company. R / 3 not only meets the demand in system scalability, capacity, and speed, but in fact, its performance exceeds 3-8 times the competitor. The architecture of the product has been certified, and the signing of the big man is rolling. SAP has stared at a multinational company that is at least $ 2.5 billion in annual income. The total adviser Eric Rubino recalled: "The fact that the product is so excellence, so if we launch enough fast, we believe that it will definitely become an industry-effective standard, we believe that there will be no business opportunities that compete with us, but The window full of business opportunities is only for about two years for us. "Regional organization
In order to promote the product as quickly as possible, SAP America has established autonomous regional branches in San Francisco, Chicago, Atlanta, and Philadelphia in January 1993. Headquarters is still in Philadelphia. But responsible for the market business, public relations (PL), and advertising business are peeled off from Philadelphia, establish an independent PL department in each district, with respective pre-sales, sales, consultation, training, etc., and regularly return to regional vice presidents. jobs. WAHL explained: "Initially, we consider ordinary resources in all regions, then decide to make each region can sign a strategic order, we need to give them autonomy and tools related to sales services to support customer needs. "
In terms of signing, all areas have great flexibility. For example, on the issue of license negotiations, if the customer thinks the price is too high, they can provide free training, and even free consultations to achieve this agreement. In 1995, each region was divided into three regions, leading by regional director. Similar to the regional vice president, regional officer is the total person in charge of the various business. At that time, the regional director of Philadelphia, became a COOTE successor and became the Robert (Bob) Salvucci, the vice president of Northeast District, was described in this position: "If you don't like to be tangled by a large number of organizations, just want to do it quickly If you have a lot of things, this is a very interesting job. You must be energetic, indestructible, and have a quick decision-making ability. "But there is no separate PL department in each region, based on financial and salary, they are considered Part of the region. The salary system is fully utilized, that is, for each area, region, and other person in charge, there is a bottom salary that is hooked with the market, but there is no upper limit. The variable part of the salary system is mainly linked to software sales with individuals, regions, or regions. Because SAP is listed in Europe, SAP America has no option.
The first American Decision Conference was held in Bermuda in 1993 and is a milestone meeting. R / 3 has been fully affirmed in the market, demand is strong, and it is expected to grow rapidly. The Group gave SAP America's goal was to $ 1 billion at the end of 1997. In order to achieve such a rapid growth rate, management summarizes them must do three things: formulate industry strategies, penetrate into the market, lay the foundation, re-examine and widely expand their partners strategy, and vigorously strengthen their services and support.
Industry Strategy: iCoES
The management has developed a longitudinal industry strategy that is launched through the Industrial Professional Center (ICOE), ICoE is a bridge between R / 3 customers and communication between WallDorf's product R & D sectors. Each ICoE is closely linked to customers in a particular industry, defining and ordering the customer's needs, and then communicating with R & D personnel to boot the role of R & D directions and resource allocation. This method is quite anatched with the SAP's product philosophy. R / 3 products are not expected to provide a 100% complete solution that meets 80% of customers, and ICOES will meet the remaining 20% needs through custom software solutions and providing industry-featured consulting services. (Experience: Our current industry consultation department must become an industry professional center, to regularly provide research and development departments to customers' needs.) At the meeting of Bermuda, management set up ICoE in 6 manufacturing fields, including oil and gas , Processing industry, high-tech industries, etc. By 1995, these industries have accounted for 80% of SAP American income. From the organization, ICoE is a small autonomous department, including 2-6 pre-sales personnel and consultants, returning to the regional vice president. But in fact they are very independent, leading by Director, with entrepreneurial spirit and rich industry knowledge. Each ICoE director has independently exerts their powers, pre-sales support, market direction, and works with the three parts of the R & D department. For example, the ICOE of the High-tech Industry focuses on pre-sale customer support and SAP industry sales, while the ICOE of the processing industry is biased to help customers define more demand, and define different priorities for different user group requirements. In SAP, the customer base is highly organized, they have considerable power and the main source of information feedback. Most ICOE director takes a lot of time to establish a close relationship between Germany and R & D staff and SAP AG board. Just like one of them: "SAP is like a Senate, to make your proposed industry demand in the next product, lobby and influence is very necessary." Before 1996, the six ICoE director never Without collective, they are generally independent, and there are few links to each other.
Cooperation
In order to achieve the company's expansion strategy, the scope of partners and their degree of investment in SAP must develop to an unprecedented level. OTT is committed to drafting external resources for SAP sales and implementation, and manages partnerships. Partners development is divided into four categories: alliances, platforms, technology, complementary business (Annex 3). Allen BRAULT, the head of the US Partner Project will be established partner network called "ecological chain".
When others succeed, everyone wants to form a job. When failure, everyone wants to detach from dry. Therefore, once failed, SAP always is finally crushed, because it means that we have not cooperated with others.
Get cooperation
SAP America left 80-90% of the implementation of the business to partners to give full play to our partner resources and professionalism. I concentrate on selling products and assisted the initial installation, and the rest of the implementation or application will be given to the partner. In order to obtain this business, the partners must increase the investment of SAP work. Three years later, the effect is obvious, just like OTT: "For those leading consulting companies, R / 3 is already a gold mine." BRAULT explains why SAP can succeed in this company to SAP Working: Our method is complementary, because we let go of a large number of new business, let our partners, we say "We have a very excellent product, if you are willing to invest, we will not be You compete. "Traditionally, these companies are unwilling to invest to external companies, because the product providers do usually have consultations, so it is difficult to compete with them. By changing business needs, this relationship has been improved. In the early 1990s, the reengineering and BPR concept and terminology were gradually popped up. OTT pointed out: "Consultants talk about reengineering and BPR, but there is no specific tool to make their conceptual image." R / 3 is such a tool, it can be embedded in an integrated information system Redesigned processes. (Experience: We now develop a preliminary KDP and other KDPs, etc., are actually a simple process design tool and modeling tool, but it is necessary to be fast and improved. This will be the new competitiveness!) R / 3 is even guided by redesign Role, such as COTE proposed: R / 3 is a package, but it involves a wide range, which can make the enterprises to run together. Only the software is required to be installed, and each part of the company follows the unified basic point: what is the customer? When do you do credit verification? What is the capacity limit of each of our branch? In addition, R / 3 includes at least 800 best cases, which can shorten the BPR process, reduce the risk associated with custom software installation and integration.
Not only to propose new process design but find that the design cannot be programmed, and designers can use the process templates for pre-configured R / 3, and then modify them with automatic modeling tools. OTT explanation: There is no need to pay for the paper on the paper that cannot be programmed. Our system is flexible and standard: you can configure according to customer needs, no need to change any bottom software and interface. Because of this, some big consulting companies have used R / 3 embedded in their BPR design, and there is R / 3 in the mind. The process is no longer the air building.
Capability center
The openness of R / 3 and the dependence of the C / S architecture make the customer have to make platforms and technological choices, which will not encounter. SAP must help them evaluate their choices while maintaining neutralizing their choices. This requires the functions and restrictions on changes in changes in changes and technologies, but also to understand how they support the support performance of R / 3, because R / 3 is also regularly upgraded. To solve their needs, SAP American has established an capability center with platforms and technical partners.
The center provides customers with a large number of pre-sales information, and is the center of information exchange between SAP and partners. They are usually located in SAP Philadelphia, and occasionally also have partners. In each center, partners provide a specialized, consisting of technicians and application consultants, and groups that are well-known to their own products and R / 3 with customers such as system size, system settings, and communication performance with other systems. Discussion on the aspects. The capabilities are also hosted about the test and evaluation of the R / 3 for authentication of hardware and technical partners, which is guided by WAHL, and is assessing the team of 50 technicians in WallDorf.
Relationship management
The complementary r / 3 and partner business is part of the relationship between SAP Alliance. OTT describes its main feature: SAP American and partners do not have any financial contacts, this partnership must be a win-win situation. The company also developed "Cooperation Rules" for this business. The most important three points are equal to equal levels, so that the highest level ("Signage Partners") becomes a winner, making a clear standard for promoting alliance partners to become a sign partner. Every year, SAP America will convene a global alliance partner to share to explore business planning and predict consulting needs. Forecasts are very accurate, because SAP masters market dynamics, understands the product channel, and is more confident. Next, each partner decides how many human resources (including R / 3 consultants) will be hired in the investment. Ott explanation: honest, trust communication is the basics of relationships, I put our numbers in the table, never highlight our forecast. Usually we have reached the target amount, in fact, often surpass the number. In addition, even if the demand is increasing, if the old partner can do it, I have never signed a new partner, I give them priority to the right. Of course, our signage partners can't sit together to make a plan, which will have conflicts. However, through some large-scale consulting companies, you can clearly understand where they will be willing to invest. I don't want to constrain these resources through legal means, because cooperation should be based on integrity. OTT has a separate Global Partner Manager for every multinational partner, with partner managers for every two or more small-scale alliance partners. Cooperation rules reduce conflicts, each partner manager is responsible for a partner in a certain field. To ensure the best solutions to customers, Ott adheres to his partner manager's performance does not measure with SAP-related income from partners. They are responsible for managing strategies, communication, training, and maintenance of all parties partnerships.
Partners have responsible for adopting a reasonable business behavior to obtain and save information about SAP and their products, in line with certain standards, such as maintaining customer satisfaction over qualified levels, dedicated to a partner manager responsible for SAP alliance affairs. Alliance partners must have a software implementation method suitable for R / 3. They also need to attach a business plan to the agreement, promise that their resources, markets and geographic analysis of SAP consultation are. The cooperation agreement can be terminated by some reasons, the main reason is that the customer is not satisfied, SAP lists the top ten partners based on the annual customer survey provided by the third party. The average annual excellent prize is more than a certain standard, which is lower than the standard given warning needs to be improved. SAP has increased the standard year by year to eliminate those partners that express poor. There are two partners in the past two years, therefore. (Experience: We measure the advantages and disadvantages of partners, we need to measure our satisfaction with their satisfaction, we have to cancel their qualifications for our customers.
professional service
Professional services refer to the charges provided by customers or serve in the contract. Consulting is the core of professional services, is one of the sources of income, but it has always been just that the balance of payment is.
advisory
Some SAP consultants work directly for an ICoE, but most of them are employed and reported to the region. Their reporting process is direct to regional director or directories to the region. Because the company's rapid development, the team of consultants is also expanding rapidly (Annex 5). Although only 10 weeks of training, there is a lot of knowledge to learn. The specific number is not well estimated, but SAP believes that one consultant of them can probably resist 8-10 outside. BASHO, the regional director in the New York region, later was appointed by Besier as a Vice President, who compared to SAP's own consultants and partners in January 1996: Nothing work we can do, our partners can't do However, our consultant is relatively profound and their knowledge is relatively wide, our product is relatively thorough, and it is often slightly better than partners in product functions and demand. SAP consultants are mainly responsible for both work: infrastructure and application consultation. Basic consultation is to properly install the R / 3 and related support system installation configuration to ensure normal operation. They know what hardware configuration, how to import the data in the traditional system into R / 3, how to load software. The work of the infrastructure is very important, so its ability must be given to the full play. Every infrastructure works at least with three application consultants. The main responsibility of app consultants is to understand the needs of customers and then set up software according to requirements. (Experience: Similar to the information platform department in our product market department, we must strengthen as soon as possible, making it an infrastructure consultant for customers and partners. They will also become the capabilities of Kingdee and partners.) Due to development Too fast, SAP America urgently needs experienced managers, so you need to recruit consultants from the outside. Schwartz, Director (Bill), Director of Human Resources in 1996, said: "You are hired because you already know how to do work well, we also expect you to do it." For managers or consultants, each region Ding their management responsibilities. Since the cycle of learning training is very long, SAP spent two years to get returns from the consultant's investment. Unfortunately, the market is too large, and in 1995, a large number of consultants have left the SAP to go to the customer or partner, or the standing portal began to engage in R / 3 consultation business.
Train
During 1992-1993, SAP has developed a series of product performance modules. Northeast District has applied these modules to train SAP's ten-week training courses, which is rapidly used by other regions. At the same time, five-week training course is also developed to develop customized versions to the customer project implementation team. Despite the estimated $ 600 million in market in 1996, SAP still refused to charge the end users' profits. In order to create a large-scale operation and provide a large number of external resources for quality requirements, the US SAP creates a partner college in June 1994. It has established agencies in many regions. The school business is responsible for operation by OTT. OTT explanation: If our partner is ready to invest in R / 3, I don't want to get from it. The cost of entering the college is $ 1,000 per person, but the cost is not often collected. In mid 1996, 5,000 external consultants at least at least a training in the college. Software qualification certification can be obtained through training consultants.
Support and infrastructure
One manager compared the development of SAP1993-1995 as "rising rockets", during which other infrastructure construction was basically ignored in addition to more concerns about licenses and contracts.
License and contract
Eric Rubino1991 was tired for the General Law, which found that the sales link at the time did not have a relevant legal system to constrain. He recalled "I can get a license, but I can not know where it is from." In order to standardize order, Rubino has developed standard license agreements and clear recommendations, and applies for intellectual property protection for the product. He believes that "contract management is a very practical job, for example, all areas must unify the diameter, discount system, and the preferential policies." (Experience: Kingdee's contract needs to be more scientifically, the management department, the Legal Department and the Finance Department should strengthen the management of the contract. The role of the Legal Department should be strengthened.) Rubino has developed a contract manager training tool and pointed out: " Since the company's business distribution is divided, you must authorize the contract managers - they are not necessarily a lawyer - let them make legitimate business decisions, train them to learn about the company's position. "Tools include standard pricing manuals (column Excellence and preferential rates), the contract manual (interpretation of the license agreement paragraph). The manual clearly describes what clauses can be changed, which can be used or added directly, which statements cannot be deleted. When the new contract manager is sent to the regions, senior contract managers guide them a month. At the same time, Rubino convened employee joint meetings in all regions to ensure that contract managers in each region were synchronized and followed by the contract management system.
management
From 1993 to 1995, there is basically no formal budget system or planning system. Results There was a lot of free space in the implementation of only several management systems at that time. I rarely meet, the office is often empty, because everyone is in the customer.
In view of this, each area will open the desktop on the empty table, and then give each employee with a laptop. Salvucci description At the time: "You have been busy for signing, recruiting, set up a branch office, providing support. There is no sufficient human resources around, often need to find resources, think about it, you have to give them a promise, Before the Bill Schwartz, HR transactions were outsourcing, new employees or new customers should solve some problems, they can not find the department for help, you have to arrange our office to arrange your office, arrange computers, install systems, coordinate training, etc.
Human Resources
Before Schwartz, SAP American HR transactions were just recruitment. The company knows what you can come back, but I don't know how to compare with other company's salary institutions, do not deport the percentage of basic salary. The salary level and job responsibilities are just a paper, in fact, the regions of their own policies. Schwartz found that many high-level high-level considerations have not carefully think about what impact on other areas. He commented: "If a person in charge wants to improve a consultant, team staff should be one of his indicators." But they did not carefully wear costs, or did not take income and cost. I want to refute: Although you add human cost, do you make money? Do you have a whole consideration when you want to keep or resign a certain employee? Have you talked with other business directors? Do you have considered your requirements for my work? For example, if I approve your request, what kind of precedent will this be made to other regions?
Establishing grassroots organizations from the spring of 1996, SAP is increasingly attaching importance to organization, system and grassroots. Schwartz has told one sentence on these changes. "Kevin" (Kevin McKay) was counted as a CFO, and at the mid-1995, the company was responsible for the company's internal construction and strategic adjustment. Mckay emphasized the software industry a referralization industry that needed to establish a company's internal organizational architecture that matches at different stages. Say, "At first, we need to find the foothold of our own, need to be introduced to the key customers. Our first priority is to establish our reputation and reasonable positioning. This is the hull of the ship that is about to be sailed." But he also emphasized : Once you have a product, you have to build a huge grassroots organization to make it effectively run. Inside the hull must also have fuel and driving force to turn the ship to the correct direction. Therefore, we need to set up 7/24 (ie, a week, 24 hours a day) hotline system, provide subsequent consulting services for our products, help customers build their R / 3 system, and establish performance standards with our hardware partners. . We need to open a course trainers to establish our consulting system to ensure the correct operation, this is the first step. Now let's talk about the second different stage, the maturity period. At this stage, our grassroots organization will take great responsibility. There are more than 5,000 customers in the world to invest millions of our products every year in our products. Therefore, we must establish more grassroots organizations to assist customers. McKay has a certain first job in the first year of the Human Resources: Establishing an accurate, appropriate position title, market survey of incentive mechanisms such as salary, allowance, and the establishment of a salary and allowance. Schwartz describes this communication program, "We tried to tell employees if they left will lose anything. We have a generous allowance and dividend. We used to be simply sent to employees, and employees did not communicate, so employees can only want to estimate Its revenue. We need more effective to let employees understand their. Schwartz spent a long time to build a long period of time, including three-year employee to retain pension rights and SAP's overall performance The performance unit plan of the hook, and he actively recruits new employees to establish a professional road, success and management and development plans.
Sales and implementation procedures
Preparation and sales of sales of sales R / 3 products are generally a part of the customer trying to change its company's operational strategy. Therefore, the cycle of sales is relatively long, especially for international customers. It is generally taken for one year or more from discovery that customers to build partnerships. Therefore, the preparation and sales of sales will take about 12-18 months. Financial supervisors need to receive different departments of the company, different regions and levels of levels. Paul Melchiore, a financial executive of a multinational company, has described this process: you have to drag a long time in the company. To live in the company, establish a variety of relationships, understand the complexity of the group, political, and the degree of preparations for changes, these add together constitute your unique sales process.
Sometimes you have to be a sales. If progress is progressing, you have developed some collaborators to get a certain reputation, and began to gradually show the prospects that SAP can bring to customers. You may have to meet 200-300 people during the sales process, and they are a potential customer base. You may take one year or more to show these prospects to executives, and when you reach this level, you may only give the product every time you have only one hour. Since the potential cost savings and benefits of application R / 3 are so huge, a formal, comprehensive demo is generally not required. However, multinational companies need to prove SAP as appropriate by testing. This usually requires participation of SAP partners. Savucci describes this process: you must develop potential customers in the initial premiere of the sales. At the same time, you need a pre-sales team, sales team, and consultation team to ensure the sales of software. Because you need a lot of time in the sales link, you need a sales cycle together in consulting partners, hardware partners, and database partners. Implement
Although there is no two sets of installations, some partners are in a leading position when they are managed and implemented using R / 3. Because they combine SAP's product knowledge and their specific implementation and methods. Partners' consultants and customer team members put a lot of time in the scheme. Compared with this, SAP's infrastructure and application consultants can handle multiple solutions simultaneously. Therefore, they can participate in meetings, assist in executing processes, providing professional comments and guiding products to customers and partners.
Application software consultants in each region have their own methods. Some customers don't want to rely on our partners, or they need more professional skills, such customers' SAP installation is done by them.
Challenges in a changing market
Although SAP is constantly growing, it has also encountered a lot of challenges and issues. By 1995, due to the rapid expansion of the company, competition has intensified, the emergence of new demand, the company is also facing and huge internal and external pressure.
Internal problem
The entire company has a large difference in promotion, overtime, training and other aspects. For example, the usage rate of the consultant can reach 80% -90%, while others are only half level. There is also a similar difference in the usage rate of the training center. COTE has a summary of this phenomenon: our management has not reached the level of the company, and we can't fully use our wisdom to solve problems in your hands. Everyone solves the same problem independently, so we are not solving a problem once, we are solved four times.
At the same time, the market's reflection of SAP is expensive and redundable. The report said that a 6-month project actually spent four times more time, while accompanied by an increase in cost. The actual situation is more complicated. As the center of the entire business, R / 3 may implement the project before. The project scope also becomes large when the redesign of the huge business process is performed. As a result, it is difficult to reduce financial and time cost when redesigned with R / 3 changes in major cultural and organizational changes.
Strategic transfer and business opportunities
In 1995, competitors have developed products with sufficient functions and have a certain alternative to R / 3. SAP's largest competitor Oracle has an excellent database that joins the EIS application software. One manager said: "They actually want to sell the database, so they reach the possession of the market in this way. They are ambitious and want to get everything." Other companies take the modular road, such as the developing software is a powerful Human resource module. Through this way they also sell other products. BAAN has imitated SAP in some ways, but it is said to obtain this customer of Boeing, and they have a large number of their bottom products, and this way to win orders is SAP that has been refused.
In 1996, SAP had 500 customers and 700 installations in North America, half of which is the "Wealth" 500 company. As McKay pointed out, the challenge we face is more fully excavated, "We have sold our software and modules to elite companies, but we have not fully excavated the potential of these accounts. We have discovered multinational big Corporate customers, now we need to have long-term cultivated them like farmers. "Coote pointed out another challenge:" We must increase our customers to make us the industry. " This means to increase our global order, improve our sales in the service industry market, and enter the middle industry market customers, these customers are considering using R / 3 software, their decision-making methods are completely different. The president of the SAP Canadian branch has a detailed description. Due to its complexity of their business and the letter of the best corporate culture, they usually develop their business activities themselves. So they need to find a subtle difference in R / 3 software, allowing them to make full use of their flexibility and all functions. They think that the best software, the best industry experts, the best implementors, always always do everything efforts to keep themselves leader. Sino-US companies pay more attention to effectiveness. They never think that they can do. They always understand what others do, and consider whether they are also suitable for themselves. They adapt to the ability and actively look for software that can guide your own. What they need is to serve their own services. The rapid growth of medium-sized companies also predicts huge business opportunities. Salvucci said: You need to pick up the phone, talk to the high-level level of the company, or talk to them. You got to mean the opportunity to get orders. You should shorten the sales cycle, make decisions, if there is a business opportunity, move right away.
Recombination
On February 1, 1996, Besier resigned from SAP Americana. After he left, the top of the three presidents were basically formed. WAHL was appointed as CEO, but he was half a time in Germany. In 1988, Joined the company's COTE, in 1990, it was appointed as CFO, but the position was the largest regional area - President of Northeast District, was appointed as the company president, responsible for the management of the company. McKay, which has been served as CFO, served as Chief Operation Officer (COO), while responsible for training, within office systems, hotlines and other affairs. McKay and Coote are responsible to WAHL.
New architecture
On April 13, 1996 (Saturday), Coote convened a senior manager meeting to discuss the company's best plan to bring a new round of growth. He believes that the two most important tasks is to achieve the company's consistency, better play its scale and technical advantage. The initial proposal of Coote is to establish a vertical organizational architecture, and this proposal is strongly recognized by BESier. Many expectations for this result, ICoE's supervisor expects them to be vice presidents. When implementing this proposal, Coote separates the existing manufacturing, financial industries, health career, and the government and other ICOE departments. He explained: "I want everyone to know where we are now and future profits. At present, the part of our income is from the manufacturing industry.
The business branch is fully discussed, and the management believes that although SAP should develop in the direction of vertical organizational architecture, it cannot be leaping. Because there is currently no sufficient staff to meet the needs of vertical positions, and managers are not very clear about part of this standard. For example, how many industry classifications should there be? What standard is divided? How many resources should you put in different markets? I have anxiety worried that SAP is divided into more than a dozen parts, which has increased the company's management cost. Therefore, the management believes that three major business branches will be formed in the next 18-20 months: sales, consultation, and training. In this week, a detailed organizational program is formed, as well as a new compensation plan. For the management of the Directors, a part of variable compensation will depend on its business branch performance, and a part will depend on the performance of the entire company SAP. Sales of each business branch will be subdivided according to their contract size, while coupled with the fourth business branch, mainly some emerging markets, mainly including some new service markets (Annex 6). Former Southern Region President, Peter Dunning, which was recently appointed as the Executive Vice President, describing his increasing agreement in global sales: As a president, I have 250 employees, of which 80% are responsible for consulting and supporting work. Now I am focused on obtaining license income from the big contract. We have removed distracted things - such as geographic disabilities and different size contracts, which are set in response to people who are good at global transactions.
Based on the expectation of reorganization again, Dunning is prioritized according to the organization of industry experts, and his sales team has gradually become expert in their respective fields.
ICoES
The most difficult thing in the reorganization is how to handle iCoes. Coote summarizes this status quo: the competents of ICoE are very qualified, but they are different. I hope they are more like a project manager or a trademark manager of the consumer product company, cross-departmental work. In fact, they make organizations more dispersed, no one is owed.
Therefore, they deviate from our overall direction. What we need to do is to integrate their work into the mainstream of the company.
After a lot of discussion, the six manufacturing iCoes became a member of the Jane Biddle industry market group and reported directly to the Coote. Coote and Wahl use Biddle before a few weeks, expect her to come to the leadership role in ICOES. Biddle has 25 years of software development, system maintenance and marketing experience, and knows all of ICOES, and has also been to Waldorf many times, because SAP has been the biggest customer of her strategic marketing company for many years.
Biddle has two main goals: to coordinate the activity of iCoes and standardize, including the unanimous action of customers, and the use of ICOE knowledge. One of her work is to standardize the business planning process, which requires the ICoE executives to formulate plans and demonstrate in a fixed format. Her next work is to help them transfer from the strategic plan to the operation plan and budget. In order to take advantage of ICoE industry knowledge, the first step is to form a "Solution Wizard" program. Each type of industrial market has a simple guidance to make the salesperson know how to talk to potential customers. These wizards are the foundation of sales training, and in SAP is also the first time.
Challenge in professional services
The recombination allows BASHO to have 850 consulting agencies, not the loose state since January. She sets the primary goal to: "Change those who think SAP software is expensive and overwhelming." Coote fully trusts her and expects her to implement a strategy to enter the mid- China market.
specialization
Even before the reorganization, Basho has begun to advance the professional process of the consulting agency. She first examined every area. She has prepared a 7-page outline for each area, and sent them a few weeks in advance. She recalled: "These areas have been very vibrant. The reasons are two. They have seen some things that form text. Second, I will send them in advance." At the same time, Basho also emphasized the area. Productivity and coordinated consistency. She asked to establish a consultation target and counseling information system before the end of 1996. In addition, she assigned a cross-regional team to study the execution plan of the mid-end market, and appointed another group to completely define the consultation task. Their work is a resetting of Basho's development of professionalized service institutions and diversified occupational paths. Vocational post and responsibilities
Basho subdivided her consultation team into four groups: technical services, off-site consultation, major consultation and global support managers. The technical service team is classified according to different functions, they include 200 SAP infrastructure and experts to solve technical problems. The off-site consultation team refers to the national sales system, divided into 4 professional positions: application software consultation, consulting team leader, consult manager and service supervisor. BASHO puts each off-site supervisor with the ICoE supervisor, allowing them to inject ICoE's knowledge into professional services. The consulting team is a new position, which is determined by a senior consultant who is determined to be an excellent consultant rather than the management personnel. This position is quite prestigious, the first consulting team leader called this position as: "Platinum Consultant" and creates its own logo. Basho emphasizes the importance of this position: "They have some people who have to leave SAP from their own business, but in two or three weeks, many people contact us to express them." Basho separates the role of the global support manager and puts the global support manager in the forefront of "six major" companies. There are a total of 30-40 global support managers. Each is focused on a separate contract. The Global Support Manager is responsible for the comprehensive implementation plan of the new R / 3 system and is responsible for adjusting the company's resource portfolio during the sales process.
Prospect and behavior
BASHO and SCHWARTZ are jointly responsible for setting up positions, processes, and positions in new organizations. In May, Basho convened her supervisor and manager to convene a two-day meeting. She and Schwartz have participated in the meeting. He recalls: We are all in a room, then Eileen said: "When you want to improve someone, I want to approval first, and I want to know your reason. Bill is the last ring in the process, so don't bypass me. He will resolutely support me and dismiss the request. "I just nodded. "Yes it is". Schwartz then explains how the consulting department works in combination with the Human Resources Department. At this time, it is BASHO to say next to it. After this meeting, many people acknowledged that they understand their expectations in these two days, and even for two years before they did not make them so.
Customer selection and participation
Now, the main task posing in front of you is to enter the mid-range market (in SAP we call "domestic contract") and control sales time and cost. Basho said: For domestic contracts, we began to assist customers in the pre-sales period to determine their project size. With some evaluation tools, we can estimate time, financial and other resource costs. Then we will then explore optional project solutions and increase customer choices. If they choose to cooperate with our global partners, we will designate them. If they choose to accelerate SAP (SAP's fast implementation of domestic contract development), we can recommend small partners with a small partner. Start, I will put these contracts to smaller partners. Although they have excellent talents, they have no reputation of successful cases. To save time, Coote believes should be accelerated. He believes that different strategies should be taken in the mid- market. Salvucci, responsible for domestic contract sales, said: Our sales strategy for the mid-end market should be involved in the early stages of the sales cycle, and lay a solid foundation for customers: If you want to use our SAP method installation, then This is what you expect in time and financial resources. If our partners are not willing to cater to this goal, we do it yourself. This doesn't mean that we have to go out to do all the consultation work, we are not like this. What we have to do is put the foundation in this process to strengthen our control over the entire sales process. In the global market, Basho also tries to reduce implementation time and cost. She explained: I am also actively promoting the signing of the global contract. From now on, the Global Support Manager will contact the customer's management, telling customers how to use our partners' resources more effectively. Global Support Manager develop specific strategies to choose the right person to follow up. Although there is no prediction of possible changes, Basho knows that this new approach will have an impact on partnerships. She said: "Our partners' strategy has been, now it is still valid. The problem is that we have given up too much control." Coote agrees with its view, and added SAP's strategy to the global contract will continue. He said: We must participate more than the past, which means we will re-determine our partner mode. In addition, our products have been continuously improved, we have more tools for some framework work. Partners should understand their role changes, and therefore, partnership will also change.
EXHIBIT 1 Annual Revenues (In Millions) *
91 92 93 94 95 AS OF
9/30/96
(9 MONTHS)
SAP-GLOBAL
(DM)
707
831
1102
1831
2696
2372
American **
(DM)
81
98
232
636
1010
921
American ($)
49
63
146
394
711
614
Exchange
Rate as of
December 31
1.664
1.562
1.654
1.616
1.421
1.5
Americas% of Total
Market
12%
12%
twenty one%
35%
37%
39%
In Germany and the Americas, the SAP revenue structure is probably the same, and it is relatively stable:
70% from software license charges and maintenance charges
20% consulting charges from SAP consultants
10% come from training for partners and project teams (experience: our consulting and training functions!)
Americas include: Canada, United States, Mexico, Latin America, and Australia. Among them, the United States accounted for 80-90%.
Exhibit 2 R / 3
R / 3 is a standard software that helps customer process reorganization rather than functional reorganization. It contains 3-layer structure, powerful, accurate and adaptable, which can meet the needs of large and small customers, and can meet the needs of different industries. High levels of document and customer service design make R / 3 to complete synchronous data sharing in the enterprise. This compatibility makes SAP become industry leaders. Jeremy Coote said: You buy a comprehensive, wide range of integrated modules from SAP, not just a product. By 1996, the accumulated investment on R / 3 has reached 3 billion US dollars, and these investments have been charged. The R / 3 coverage is huge, and it covers all aspects of the company, associated with more than 80% of the company's behavior. The global global performance is also reflected in it automatically calculates the exchange rate, and it can operate in a variety of languages. R / 3's income is mainly from licensing fees and annual maintenance costs calculated in accordance with initial prices. The license fee depends on the number of customers and how much they use; some customers are just reading transactions; some of them use some of them, while others use the system's full function. The more types are used, the higher the cost. The R / 3 system is open, modular. This means that customers are not always to lock in a established database, a type of hardware platform, operating system, etc. The program includes a huge application module, including four major industries - financial and control, raw materials production and product planning, sales and distribution and human resources, and can consider the above behavior from a long-term perspective. For example, in the offer-cash register system, it passes the price of the product to the customer, checks its effectiveness, obtain raw materials, shipping products, and payments. R / 3 is designed to include the entire framework, and each workbench can automatically run according to the default rules. A main process may include hundreds of workbenches, changing a will have an impact on other dozens. Although R / 3 is a standard package, it is still able to adapt to customer needs by changing the settings of the workbench. According to its parameter selection and operational demand, the company can determine each workbench. In this way, R / 3 can be used for the customer, without changing any code.
Recently, through manual changes, the cumbersome work of each workbench has been replaced by two new progress: SAP has entered the software more than 1,000 best instances, and SAP has developed new model tools automatically work. Setting of Taiwan. The best instance is selected from the close cooperation with customers and developers in 25 years. These setup workbenses represent the actual situation of leading companies in all walks of life, which can be organized as a template for its architecture.
New model tools such as "Business Engineer" also make it easier to combine standard modules and customer practical conditions. Business engineers allow customers to automatically modify the workbench to adapt SAP to some of their changes, and allow the application software consultant to enter the template input model tool, making it more like a customer, and injecting these parameters into the R / 3 system. SAP has also developed a quick implementation method called accelerated SAP, which comes from the best examples of the manufacturer consultant, and these consultants cooperate to design new methods. This is particularly useful for medium-end companies, which are unwilling to invest in derived implementation.
EXHIBIT 3 partner type
Types of
Characteristic
SAP certification
Value of SAP
Value for customers
Example
alliance
Professional service company, providing professional SAP product sales and implementation services
People with sufficient R / 3 product knowledge
Play customer relationship
Play the industry
Let SAP sell R / 3
Enable R / 3 to become industry standards
High profit SAP businesses
Pupu
Anders
ICS / DELOITTE
CSC Index
DDS.inc
platform
Provide hardware devices running R / 3
Can I support R / 3 operation?
Ensure SAP technology synchronization with current or future platform technology; provide customers with a variety of platform selection; make full use of platform companies' market budget
Ensure the current and future technical support R / 3;
SAP is market leader, which drives the promotion of partners' products; embed Sapibm in their ads
HP
Digital
Apple
AT & T
Sun
Pyramid
technology
Provide R / 3 operating operating systems and databases
R / 3 can be run under the operating system or database
Provide customers with a variety of options
Ensure compatibility
R / 3 is a key application that they must support.
Oracle
Microsoft
Intel
Complementary
Various applications that can be operated on the R / 3 top or compatible with R / 3
Interoperability between third-party software and R / 3
SAP does not provide 100% software solutions
Take advantage of the professional expertise of third-party software
Putting interoperability as a market propaganda
SAP as its sales product
EXHIBIT 4
Alliance Partners' Investment in SAP Business: Advisor for SAP certification in early 1996
global
United States
Pupu
1800
1100
Anders
2700
N / a
ICS / Qi Dynasty
1400
900
CSC
1000
200
SAP America
750
180
EXHIBIT 5 SAP AMERICA
End of the year
Sales
advisory
other
total
1988
-
9
2
11
1989
5
twenty two
12
39
1990
16
50
twenty three
89
1991
30
114
43
187
1992
50
155
79
284
1993
118
220
73
411
1994
211
523
138
872
1995
230
679
361
1270
10/31/1996
296
846
479
1621
