More than two thirds of SAP User Group now using ERP 6.0

More than two thirds of the SAP User Group are using the latest version of SAP's ERP business suite ERP 6.0 (69 per cent) up from 35 per cent in November 2009.

The findings are the result of a survey questioning 220 members of the SAP user group across the UK and Ireland.

Chairman of SAP User Group UK/Ireland Alan Bowling explained that he thought that the increase in uptake was the result of a series of upgrade sessions held by the user group itself.

"SAP is not particularly good at demonstrating the benefits of its products – in the past it has been difficult to see where there is value, but when customers share stories as they do in out upgrade sessions, they are able to see the benefits," he said.

Take up of SAP's analytics tool, Business Objects, which was bought as part of the OutlookSoft acquisition in 2007, is still low at just seven per cent of the SAP user group; however, Bowling expects this to increase significantly over the next 12 months.

He explained that the release of Hana, which was made generally available last month was likely to boost uptake. Hana is an in-memory integrated database and calculation layer that allows the processing of large quantities of real-time data in main memory to provide quick analyses. The software integrates "seamlessly" with Business Objects, according to the company.

"This technology offers a real competitive advantage for companies, particularly those in the utilities or retail sector. However, to take advantage of this they should take up Business Objects with Hana as soon as they can. It won't be long before everyone is using it," claimed Bowling.

The research also went on to look at members' use of SAP's current support offerings, comparing uptake of Standard Support with that of Enterprise Support.

Standard Support provides basic features, including legal updates, problem resolution, knowledge transfer and quality management to keep SAP systems running.

Enterprise Support contains all the features of SAP Standard Support, but also focuses on business continuity, business process improvement, protection of investment and accelerated innovation, as well as reducing a customer's total cost of operations.

Of those surveyed, over two thirds (67 per cent) are now using SAP's Enterprise Support offering, compared with 11 per cent on the recently re-introduced Standard Support.

While the cost of Enterprise Support will rise this year, increasing the gap between the two options to more than 1 per cent, these figures seem to show that it is currently the favoured option for the majority of businesses.

"It will certainly be interesting to see how many customers stay on Enterprise Support when the next set of price rises comes into effect in the next year. With this in mind, we will make sure our members are provided with all the information they need to make an informed decision about their support requirements," added Bowling.