SAP Focuses on Mobile Apps for Growth
Germany’s SAP AG sees the business-software industry’s future in a decidedly consumer-oriented tool–the app.
For decades, business software has been focused around specialized users tied to large computers. Now, SAP is attempting to stretch those boundaries, betting that a broader set of workers will want access to business information via their mobile devices.
The push is at the center of SAP’s new growth strategy. Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe, who took over as co-chief executives in February 2010 following revenue and profit shortfalls, have sold investors on a plan to make SAP a growth company again in part by bringing the consumer mobile-app craze to the enterprise.