“SAP said on Tuesday that new software for sales-force automation that it is hailing as one of the most user-friendly products to date would be compatible with Apple Inc’s iPhone,” Jim Finkle reports for Reuters.
“SAP, the world’s biggest maker of business management software, will include the program as part of new sales-force automation software that it is launching this month,” Finkle reports.
“‘The iPhone has become such a popular thing,’ said Bob Stutz, a SAP senior vice president who is responsible for developing the company’s customer relationship management software,” Finkle reports. “‘Everybody wants the ease of use of the iPhone.'”
Full article here.
Er, this is a huge enterprise software company. “Compatible with the iPhone” may just mean “We don’t assume all the world’s a PC running Windows and Internet Explorer.”
Very powerful SAP is. But sucks a lot its GUI does. Not user-friendly at all. Can’t do things as simple as “Cut & Paste”.
This is one of the largest ‘business’ oriented endorsements for Apple that I’ve ever seen. The fact that it has come so quickly after the launch of iPhone is both surprising and gratifying, especially since SAP is a European based mega-company with world-wide influence.
Exciting !!
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HOLLY CWAP!! :-0
Now I want to see SAP/R3 running on Leopard xServer. That will be huge endorsement to Mac OS. Remember, Mac OS is UNIX certified!
The Apple Retail stores use SAP for their product database. Hmm, Windows mobile credit card readers going away at the Apple Store???
Read the article! The page is sponsored by Windows Mobile! Ah sweet irony.
To Darth Mac:
“Very powerful SAP is. But sucks a lot its GUI does”
You’ve got that right. It is U-G-L-Y ! ! ! Very Windows-like. I feel bad for people who have stare at that all day.
Darth Mac – I agree that SAP R3 isn’t very user friendly. But Quick Cut and Paste is one of its best features. Until recently, I was in version 4.6 four to six hours every day. I depended on key combos in the transactions I used most frequently (this was on windoze XP, btw) to the point where they became second nature. And control-C and V worked just fine where the text was able to be highlighted. Where it wasn’t, Quick Cut and Paste usually did the trick.
You can understand how much I appreciated coming home to my Macs after 6-8 hour days on a Dell, though.
SAP is Germany’s revenge against North America for losing the war. It is the most user unfriendly software that they now will insidiously infect us at an even deeper level.
That being said, this is fantastic news for Apple and sales of the iPhone.
@ Ampar
Then, for me, really bad you feel indeed. Luckily this year, no longer use that much, I do !!! But very powerful, one has to remember SAP is.
@ trex67,
Even though SAP has certainly implement a couple of improvements to its GUI, it gonna have to do a lot more to equal iPhone in term of user-friendliness. Not very natural for the user SAP is !!!
very upset will remain Master Steve if nothing is done.
SAP is an acronym for Slow and Painfull
Yep Opie, SAP is very very very slow. If as Buster said, it is a revenge from Germany, then they should review their strategy.
That said, iPhone really looks like a damn’ good platform with this type of software available. Think about SAP, Google, Saleforce.com and all other 3rd party developers can bring to this little device. 12 months from now people will realize that the smallest laptops in the world are in fact the iPhone/iPod Touch… and this time, Apple won’t do the same mistake they’ve done with the Mac vs. PC. They’re just gonna become the reference.
This is HUGE: it gives instantaneous credibility to the iPhone as a business tool in the minds of business people who now are mostly thinking in raspberry or blackberry terms.
SAP is very important: its clients have a lot of salespeople.
This will help Apple gain market share from RIM.
Almost every global enterprise uses SAP software.
This is a massive deal for Apple and the iPhone platform, this is exactly what Apple needed to crack the business sector.
Great news!