From Inventing The Enterprise Software Sector To Helping The World Run Better

From Inventing the Enterprise Software
Sector to Helping the World Run Better
1972 THE EARLY YEARS

On April 1, 1972, five former IBM employees – Dietmar Hopp, Hasso Plattner, Claus
Wellenreuther, Klaus Tschira, and Hans-Werner Hector – started the company
SystemAnalyse Programmentwicklung (System Analysis and Program Development). Their
idea was to create standard enterprise software that integrated all business processes and
enabled data processing in real time.
SAP´s founders and employees worked closely with customers – often sitting side-by-side
with employees in customers’ offices to learn their business needs and processes. By 1975,
they had built applications for financial accounting (RF), invoice verification, and inventory
management (RM). Some of their early customers were the nylon factory belonging to ICI in
Östringen, Germany, Knoll, Burda, Linde, and Schott. The blend of real-time data
processing, standardization, and integration were the basis for SAP’s transformation from a
small German company into a global leader in business software. In 1979, the company
started developing R/2, the second generation of its software. In 1980, SAP´s roughly 80
employees moved into their first own office building in Walldorf, Germany.
1987
1999 FROM R/3 TO GLOBAL PLAYER
Even while R/2 was enjoying huge sales success and one year before SAP went public with
an IPO in 1988 – the company’s managers were looking ahead to its third generation of
software. The SAP R/3 success story began in 1992, with the client-server software
smoothing the path to a globalized economy, turning SAP into a global player with
subsidiaries and development centers across the world.
In 1999, SAP responded to the Internet and new economy by launching its mysap.com
strategy. Ten years later, the company branched out into three markets of the future:
mobile technology, database technology, and cloud. To rapidly become a key player in these
new domains, SAP acquired some of its competitors, including Business Objects, Sybase,
Ariba, SuccessFactors, and Concur.
2011
2019 INTO THE CLOUD WITH SAP HANA
In 2011, the first customers started using the in-memory database SAP HANA. Data
analyses that used to take days or even weeks were now completed in seconds. Four years
later, SAP launched SAP S/4HANA, its latest generation of business software, running
entirely on SAP HANA. In 2019, SAP acquired U.S. company Qualtrics, a leader in
experience management software, placing SAP at the leading edge of this growing segment.
Today, SAP builds solutions for the Internet of Things and machine learning, for complex
analyses and blockchain. SAP HANA is now available on the three largest public cloud
platforms. The company’s integrated applications connect all parts of a business into an
intelligent suite on a digital platform. SAP has more than 215 million cloud users currently,
more than 100 solutions covering all business functions, and the largest cloud portfolio of
any provider. SAP operates 69 data centers at 35 locations in 15 countries.
# SAP IN NUMBERS
SAP, headquartered in Walldorf in the south of Germany, and listed in Frankfurt and New
York, is a market leader in business software, with more than 440,000 customers in more
than 180 countries, and 100,330 employees worldwide (as of December 31, 2019). About
80% of its customers are small and midsize companies.
Total revenue in 2019 was €27.63 billion, including €7 billion from its cloud business (which
is expected to triple by 2023). SAP works with about 21,100 partners and builds software
solutions for 25 industries. In 2019, it invested more than €4.3 billion in research and
development, including at 20 SAP Labs development centers worldwide.
SAP’s business is helping customers optimize their business processes. SAP’s purpose is to
help the world run better and improve people’s lives.
Today, 77% of all business transactions worldwide touch an SAP system. For example,
SAP’s customers produce 78% of the world’s food products and 82% of the world’s medical
devices.
© 2020 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or for any purpose without the express permission of
SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company.
These materials are provided for information only and are subject to change without notice. SAP or its affiliated companies
shall not be liable for errors or omissions with respect to the materials.
SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered
trademarks of SAP SE (or an SAP affiliate company) in Germany and other countries. All other product and service names
mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. See www.sap.com/copyright for additional trademark
information and notices.

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From Inventing The Enterprise Software Sector To Helping The World Run Better

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From Inventing the Enterprise Software

Sector to Helping the World Run Better

1972 THE EARLY YEARS

© 2020 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

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