X
Business

SAP

The German software giant continues to lead in the business applications space, even as Oracle tries to extend its dominance through acquisitions over the past year. Even with Oracle's shopping spree to spruce up its application portfolio, analysts like JP Morgan continue to be optimistic on SAP's market leadership.
Written by ZDNet Staff, Contributor

The German software giant continues to lead in the business applications space, even as Oracle tries to extend its dominance through acquisitions over the past year. Even with Oracle's shopping spree to spruce up its application portfolio, analysts like JP Morgan continue to be optimistic on SAP's market leadership.

Right after the announcement of Oracle's proposed Siebel takeover, JP Morgan issued a statement claiming that SAP would be the "safe passage" for Siebel customers, referring to a program of the same name to entice customers acquired by Oracle.

But not all is well for SAP customers, as some analysts have noted. In particular, SAP's transition toward a service-oriented architecture (SOA) brings certain risks to the table, such as the possibility of higher license fees, according to Gartner.

Despite this, SAP has been unfazed in promoting its SOA foundation called Netweaver in Asia. In July, the company announced plans for a Netweaver developer hub in Singapore. The plan is to create an ecosystem of partners who would build custom and packaged extensions that meet customer-specific requirements.

The company is also reported to be interested in delivering applications on tap by the end of this year. The challenge now lies in how SAP can differentiate itself from companies like Siebel, by offering a product that touts the benefits of hosted, in terms of pricing and rapid deployment, that also links back to its strength in the larger IT stack

Editorial standards