SAP pushes Business ByDesign at mid-sized firms

Sapphire conference plays host to major upgrade for on-demand product suite.

Enterprise software firm SAP has used its Sapphire Now conference to launch a new version of its troubled Business ByDesign on-demand suite, promising mid-sized customers enhanced mobile support, real-time analytics and an improved user interface.

Support for mobile devices could boost productivity for workers on the go, the company said, while the analytics enhancements allow users to analyse all corporate data in real time, as well access and manipulate it in Excel if preferred.

The new suite also offers a richer user interface thanks to the incorporation of Microsoft Silverlight technology at the front end as well as tighter Office integration, SAP said.

Customers can choose between single- or multi-tenancy options, and pre-configured packages provide trouble free and speedier deployment, according to SAP.

Peter Lorenz, SAP's executive vice president of small and midsize enterprises, claimed that the new offering could help midsized firms execute on aggressive growth strategies.

"With the upcoming innovations in SAP Business ByDesign, we aim to make a huge step forward in scalability and innovation while we enable our users to collaborate more effectively, make better decisions and improve productivity," he said.

SAP will be hoping that the new enhancements, especially with support for multi-tenancy, will alleviate many of the scalability concerns which have dogged its progress so far.

SAP also announced plans to accelerate the creation of a partner system around Business ByDesign to prepare for a concerted push in the SME space with this latest offering.