Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : BackWeb Technologies Ltd (BWEB) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: rdmsqito who wrote (12)	5/27/1999 12:10:00 AM
From: Wheats	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 584

Great Article in IBD: BackWeb signs major contract with SAP -- see below: SAP Pushes Into Front Office Business Software Leader Makes New Thrust Date: 5/27/99 Author: Michele Hostetler SAP AG is racing to catch up in a new niche that aims to give companies better customer data. It's called customer relationship management software. The product is designed to tie a company's back-office system, where manufacturing takes place, to the front office, where sales are made. Germany's SAP plans to announce on Thursday an agreement to license San Jose, Calif.-based BackWeb Technologies Ltd.'s software. It'll use BackWeb to provide new software to manage customer relationships. ''Working with BackWeb is important for SAP because they're trying to catch up,'' said Allen Bonde, an analyst with market researcher The Extraprise Group in Boston. ''There's no question that SAP has been conspicuously absent from the CRM space.'' SAP's stronghold is business software called enterprise resource planning. But ERP, which focuses on back-office functions, is in a lull. In contrast, CRM and other front-office software is on the rise, says Dagmar Fischer-Neeb, a marketing director at SAP. ERP must encompass CRM, she says. SAP has many customers, and many want to unite their software systems under one umbrella, Fischer-Neeb says. ''Part of our growth strategy is to become part of the CRM space,'' Fischer-Neeb said. ''We expect significant sales there.'' The CRM market is growing at about 50% a year and had sales of about $1.5 billion last year, Bonde says. ''It's becoming sizable, but more importantly for a company like SAP is that it's where the growth is,'' Bonde said. SAP's first-quarter sales rose 22% to $1.16 billion from the year-ago quarter, but its profit was flat at $106 million. The company is about 18 to 24 months behind CRM leader Siebel Systems Inc., says Chris Selland, an analyst with market researcher Yankee Group in Boston. Oracle Corp., SAP's biggest rival in ERP, also is entering CRM. SAP came out with its first CRM software in March and plans to ship an updated version, with BackWeb's help, by year-end. BackWeb, which recently filed to make an initial public stock offering, will help SAP move to market more quickly, says Carla Stratfold, BackWeb's vice president of business development and strategic alliances. SAP can still leapfrog Siebel and Oracle, Bonde says. The firm's CRM approach uses the interactive and real-time advantages of the Web. BackWeb's ''push'' technology alerts salespeople to any changes with a customer. ''Push isn't entirely new, but the way SAP is using it . . . has the potential to be pretty innovative,'' said Yankee Group's Selland. Many considered CRM to be a natural move for ERP vendors. But that hasn't been the case, Selland says. ERP is about cutting costs and making operations more efficient. CRM seeks to boost sales by accessing customer information. ''Companies like Siebel have a very different mind-set than SAP,'' Selland said. SAP is gearing its CRM strategy to customers that are moving into electronic commerce, Bonde says. ''It's really about building relationships over the Internet,'' said BackWeb's Stratfold. The deal also gives BackWeb a boost. ''This is about as good a partner as BackWeb could hope for,'' Bonde said. BackWeb plans to reveal similar contracts soon, Stratfold says. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (C) Copyright 1999 Investors Business Daily, Inc. Metadata