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News about SAP implementations in the UK has been coming steadily, and for the most part it has been promising.

Of note, Premier Foods implemented an SAP system in 2006, and is reportedly pleased with how the platform is helping them improve processes. Premier Foods’ goal was to seamlessly integrate the front and back offices, and almost four years into their implementation SAP is working well to that end. From now until 2012, Premier Foods is planning to use the solution to streamline and cut costs for back office operations. Premier, which produces Hovis bread and Mr. Kipling apple pies (among other food items), stated they already had a pretty lean back office, and that with SAP they’re hoping to reduce the number of duplications.

The other SAP-UK news item from this week describes an SAP partner implementing SAP financials for United Stationers, to help manage distribution and product lists. All in all, the news is not much for a company like SAP—a software giant with many implementations globally, but it is a good sign. Given the recent departure of Leo Apotheker and the company’s subsequent return to the co-CEO model—and of course the barrage of bad press they received for steep prices and slow implementations—it’s definitely good to hear customers singing SAP’s praises.

When it comes to a company of SAP’s size and stature, making guesses as to the effect of certain problems is tricky. SAP’s products may seem outdated, but to see a company satisfied with a 6-year deployment process does suggest that SAP isn’t doing everything wrong.

Technorati Tags: SAP

It has been a rough couple of quarters for SAP, and until the general release of their SaaS offering next year, they continue to look like a clumsy, archaic old-timer. SAP solutions have for a long time been best-suited to large enterprises, and they are currently implementing a new pricing model to attract SMEs—a pricing model that is being doubted by some.

First, a look at their old pricing model: SAP has given customers volume discounts based on the size of the deal, and this was a successful method until it became apparent that implementations were typically unfinished by the projected deadline. As a remedy, SAP continued dropping software prices, and created agreements with large companies that allowed them to defer license audits and define their terms of use, paying in phases—SAP account managers would work with corporate CIOs, and were mostly flexible in their concessions because the important part was closing the deal.

Now, SAP wants to woo SMEs, and has to adjust their pricing models, especially in light of the rise of on-demand software models that offer more flexible subscriptions. They’ve reduced up-front payments, but there are still some issues. Helmuth Gumbel at Information Week notes that this does not solve the shelfware issues that the older model incurred, as it provides no guarantee that companies won’t have to spend big bucks on upgrades in the future. Gumbel also points out that SAP often replaces its pre-existing agreements, which is also not the most attractive attribute of an ERP vendor.

But mainly, the high-volume, high-discount, long-contract model is too clunky to entice many SMEs. SAP will most likely have to reduce contract lengths to get more SMEs on board with their on-premise systems.

Technorati Tags: SAP, SMEs

For all their clout in the ERP market, SAP has had some trouble recently, mostly due to their plans to increase maintenance and licensing fees and their current lack of a general cloud-based solution. ERP-Link Corporation uses SAP’s situation to their advantage, creating SAP-Microsoft interoperability solutions; most recently, they released iNet.Invoices, a Dynamic Business Application allowing SAP users to optimize and automate invoice management for a lower cost.

With iNet.Invoices, companies running SAP for Accounts Payable and Logistics can run automated invoice management by leveraging Microsoft SharePoint Server, which provides rich document management, and workflow and Office interfaces. More specifically, the application verifies information in real-time about vendors, orders, and goods received against a user’s SAP system, and through SharePoint they can engage the information through Office apps.

iNet.Invoices optimizes at a fraction of the cost of traditional solutions, which is a timely offering given the state of the economy, but also considering SAP’s current pricing. Business ByDesign, their SaaS offering, won’t be generally available until next year, and in the meantime, their on-premise products (which are already more costly by nature) are about to see rising prices.

Technorati Tags: ERP-Link, iNet.Invoices, Microsoft SharePoint Server, SAP, SAP for Accounts Payable and Logistics