SAP announced on June 29th that the company has expanded its worldwide leadership as the number one enterprise software vendor, based on market share numbers. Gartner Dataquest, a division of Gartner, Inc., the leading provider of research and analysis on global information technology, issued three reports on June 7th, June 8th and June 12th, 2006 analyzing the status of the worldwide enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM) and supply chain management (SCM) market. Based on the new metric of total software revenue, SAP ranks number one in all three enterprise software markets. In addition, SAP now has the largest market share in the ERP - Enterprise Asset Management segment.

"SAP is thrilled to be recognized as the leader in market share across all ERP categories worldwide," said Léo Apotheker, president of Customer Solutions and Operations and member of the executive board, SAP AG. "We believe it's a testament to our ability to successfully execute against our product strategy, as well as how well we work with our customers to fulfill their current and future needs."

For the first time, Gartner, Inc. calculated the market share for the worldwide enterprise software market segments based on the total software revenue metric to reflect the changes in the industry, such as open-source software (OSS), on-demand business models and new regulations.

CRM - SAP's Integrated CRM strategy Continues to Strengthen its Leadership Role
According to Gartner, Inc., the worldwide CRM market enjoyed robust growth as total software revenues grew 13.7 percent. SAP enhanced its leadership position as the number one CRM worldwide market share holder with a year-over-year growth rate of 19.6 percent based on total software revenue.

ERP - SAP is Number One in Enterprise Asset Management
SAP now ranks first in all four of the ERP software segments, including financial management systems, human capital management, enterprise asset management and manufacturing operations, worldwide. SAP achieved the greatest breakthrough in the enterprise asset management segment.

SCM - Increasing Adoption of SOA
SAP expanded its position as the largest market share holder in the worldwide SCM market with a 25 percent year-over-year growth. Total software revenue for SCM applications grew 2.6 percent annually. The SCM market saw mergers, suite encroachment and technology advances in 2005.

Source: 1

Prashanth Rai