Globalization – The Focus of Development at SAP

05.07.2016

Among the impressions left by the Business ByDesign Conference in Orlando, Florida, two subjects kindled the interest of companies active on the international scene – enterprises that inevitably require international software customized to individual circumstances at the same time.

These companies benefit from SAP’s major role in spurring on the integration of national idiosyncrasies in the software. It is particularly interesting in this regard when companies are located in different countries and are consequently subject to local legislation. Besides the obligatory language settings, a country version can be defined by scoping so that, amongst other things, master data regarding tax keys and VAT returns does not have to be set separately. The country versions currently include Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, USA and China – all countries in which customers of Bösch GmbH & Co.KG are already utilizing SAP Business ByDesign successfully.

Furthermore, the fiscal and formal-administrative peculiarities of more than ninety countries can meanwhile be made use of via diverse settings for the SAP products. Companies or locations in countries such as Albania, Guatemala, Morocco, Qatar or Belarus are typically listed, this helping them to configure their local setup accompanied by SAP partners.

Individualization through special sector solutions

Various courses were presented at the Business ByDesign Conference in the USA (see also blog entry on SAP Conference), which SAP sales partners and their customers can vouch for when it comes to localizing the software. The statistics regarding previous participants reveal that the SAP software is serving a high-growth market. It can be observed that both SAP customers as well as SAP consultants increasingly stem from different parts of the world. From the discussions with other participants, the topic of data protection appears to play an even greater role, especially against the background which is understood very differently across the globe.

Not only the internationalization of software is of crucial significance but also its individualization. Besides the country version, a sector-specific cross-section of Business ByDesign can even be selected in the scoping. The software can easily be adapted to corporate growth and changes within company-internal workflows at any time, no matter whether this involves a service provider, commercial enterprise or production company. As a result, SAP is soon set to intensify its support provided for the development of sector solutions specially for SAP Business ByDesign as well.

The options that will be available in future have been revealed in case studies from the oil industry and the supply chain comprising manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers at the conference in Orlando. There were also further presentations on the question “How can the return on investment be set back to an earlier period through the use of Business ByDesign?”. A question we would be delighted to discuss with you.