SAP A1S Morphs into Business ByDesign

September 19, 2007 from eWeek – “After perhaps the biggest build up in recent memory, at least in the business applications sector, SAP unveiled its on demand suite built for the mid-market Sept. 19 at an event here at the Nokia Theater. SAP's long-standing code name for the product, A1S, is now officially buried. The new product name: SAP Business ByDesign…

The applications themselves are completely new, written from scratch, according to Peter Zenke, SAP executive board member and technical lead for Business ByDesign. "The [application] code is 95 percent fresh code." Underlying the applications is also a new Foundation Layer that is comprised of "all the key objects" a company would need to define highly personalized items like products, bill of materials or recipes, according to Zenke.

The user interface for Business ByDesign is also new, although it is roles based, similar to Microsoft's UI approach. SAP has decoupled the UI from the business logic which lets users (through consultants) design their own interfaces. Within the applications themselves, users are able to connect to live user communities and to SAP to get help…

The cost is $149 per user, per month with a minimum of 25 users. A $54 per month per user price is available for up to five users—a plan designed for companies looking to access limited portions of the suite."

180 View – We have not seen the system yet, but if SAP delivers on the software’s key principals: “completeness, ease of use, adaptability and lower TCO”, then ByDesign may be just as successful in mid market businesses as its big brother, SAP ERP, in the high end. We also think that ByDesign may explain the departure of Shai Agassi, who brought SAP Business One to SAP, which was to be SAP’s mid market solution. We wonder whether SAP Business One will be phased out.