SAP Business ByDesign still only pulling in minnows

None of the UK companies that use it have more than 100 staff

Business ByDesign, SAP's SaaS enterprise software solution for SMEs, still does not have any client companies in the UK with more than 100 users, according to Ian Anstey, head of SAP Business ByDesign for UK and Ireland.

Anstey told Computing that ByDesign does not yet have clients in the mid-market of between 100 and 1,000 users to which it is targeted.

"All our UK-based Business ByDesign clients have fewer than 100 users and this is partially our fault. We made a conscious decision with our UK marketing to target entrepreneurial, fast-growing companies. Those typically comprise 10 to 20 users in the early stages of development," he added.

"We have found that there is a reticence among the top end of the SME market (500 to 1,000 users) from an SAP perspective, as they are less willing to make a complete move to SaaS."

Anstey also said he is hoping that when smaller subsidiary companies take up the service, their parent companies will be more inclined to apply ByDesign to their own departments.

ByDesign came under serious criticism after its launch in 2007 due to the tiny number of clients it managed to attract.

Anstey insisted that ByDesign is seeing strong growth now, with its customer base increasing by 125 per cent in the past 12 months. He also said that the company has added as many clients since the start of 2011 as it did in the first six months of last year.

However, when asked how many clients the service actually had, he said: "It isn't company policy to disclose figures, but globally we have hundreds of clients, we don't have thousands yet."