Business and Marketing

The heck with approvals from IT. Marketers, salespeople, and analysts will soon be able to get their own personal versions of SAP software.

SAP gets personal.

Tired of having the IT department run your data-driven lives? Well, SAP made an announcement at its SAPPHIRE NOW conference in Orlando yesterday that it will begin letting individuals purchase SAP technology with their credit cards online. No muss, no fuss, and no purchase orders, invoices, or RFPs.

“For 43 years SAP has helped organizations around the world become best-run. Now our digital business will bring the power of SAP technology to individuals, using the same simple approaches they know in their personal lives,” said CEO Bill McDermott. “This is a key accelerator for SAP's growth aspirations.”

For individual buyers, SAP Digital boiled the purchase process down to the familiar one-click agreement employed by Internet retailers. The company claims that users can configure their own applications in a few hours or less, in most instances. No IT departments or consultants needed, the company says.

The target market, according to SAP Digital, includes business owners, salespeople, analysts, developers, and human resource professionals. It figures to build momentum for individual sales among a group of half a million individuals who downloaded free versions of its Lumira software. By mid-year SAP Digital will offer them paid upgrades, such as access to new data sources.

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