While undoubtetly the No. 1 in Europe, SAP has tough competition especially in the North American market. Microsoft, Oracle and IBM are probably the company’s strongest competitors , but there is also some influence from companies like Hewlett-Packard, Adobe Systems, Bechtle and PSI, who are less focused on business software and more on hardware development. However, SAP’s current most dangerous opposition might stem from a rather small and relatively young tech player, called Salesforce.
Salesforce and SAP both compete for the Customer Relationship Management market, long for CRM. At the moment Salesforce is considered on the top, but there are also rumors about a possible SAP acquisition in the close future (like they did with Fieldglass, Concur and Ariba). The German software hub hasn’t contributed to these rumors, but it would certainly have the means to integrate Salesforce in its catalogue of smaller business software ventures.
Looking at SAP’s product portfolio, it becomes clear that the company sticks to what they do best: help businesses run simple. The addition of SAP HANA, an in-cloud data memory platform, to its services have helped keep them at the top. Their vision and objective to be their customers favorite point of contact and their employees most favorite place to be, helps them to permanently rank among the companies with the highest consumer satisfaction and employee retention.
One of the most valued concepts at the German tech giant, is to put yourself into the shoes of the client in all steps along the Software as a Service process (SaaS). According to their mission, if the software doesn’t end up working for the end-user, it can’t be called a service at all. Positive relationships and transparency, helps make customers feel like they are part of the development process and not just at the end of the production line.
Trying to set themselves apart from the cut-throat environment at most other software companies, SAP wants their employees to feel comfortable at their workspace. One of SAP’s mottos is to “build bridges not silos.” It refers to interconnected software, that makes processes simples rather than more difficult, but it also describes the open-door culture at the company. In that sense, it has much more of a “Google”-atmosphere, with big, glass-walled offices, coffee corners, loose dress codes and a first-name policy among all employees (seriously, everyone).
The company managed to combine the best of two worlds: American innovative spirit and German diligence and reliability. I believe, that SAP’s policies will continue to make a difference for customers as well as employees.
Competitor analysis: https://www.pinterest.com/sophieschwechhe/jmc-3443-sap-competitor-analysis/
