SAP pushes supply chain management for medium-sized firms

MySAP SCM promises broader appeal, and includes new demand-forecasting and collaboration capabilities

SAP has announced a new version of its MySAP supply chain management (SCM) solution, and emphasised its commitment to providing firms of all sizes with web services software to help them share information with global suppliers, subsidiaries and business partners.

MySAP SCM has added support for specific retail forecasting and replenishment functions to help firms predict product demand more accurately and cut inventory storage costs. It also offers planning tools to aid demand-driven supply networks and has enhanced collaboration support for demand-driven manufacturing. It will be available in the second half of 2006.

SAP estimates that more than 90 percent of its new customers now come from what it calls the mid-market (firms with annual revenue of 20m euros or less) and is keen to push its software further down the supply chain to organisations supporting larger companies’ operations.

"The mid-market currently accounts for 31 percent of software sales. I would expect that to grow to 40 percent by 2010, but our main objectives remain focused on the upper tier [of companies]." said SAP chairman and chief executive Dr Henning Kagermann.