
SAP CRM: Still Alive… and Better than Ever!
This is the first installment of a new quarterly update for SAP CRM (on-premise) customers, providing you with insight into what SAP is working on, what we've recently rolled out, and what we are planning.
It's no secret that SAP is aggressively investing in SaaS-based solution and that we want to become "The Cloud Company". That being said, SAP also recognizes that the Cloud may not always be an ideal match for every customer or every industry. We want to allow customers to choose the solution that best matches their needs -- whether it be the Cloud, on-premise, or a hybrid deployment.
In addition, SAP still has a huge installed base of customers running SAP CRM on-premise -- and we continue to add more customers every year! Customers like yourselves, many of whom have just implemented SAP CRM or upgraded to the latest release, don't necessarily have any immediate plans to transition to the Cloud. Therefore, SAP has committed to protect your investment. To that end, SAP has extended mainstream maintenance of SAP CRM until 2025. In addition, SAP continues to enhance and improve SAP CRM with new features and enhancements via quarterly releases.
Analysts are also taking notice of the work SAP is doing with SAP CRM (on-premise). For example, last year Forrester ranked SAP the highest in its 2014 Forrester Wave: CRM Suites for Large Organizations. See the full report here. SAP CRM 7.0 was recognized for:
SAP CRM: Quarterly Release Cycle
Although SAP has committed to maintain and support SAP CRM until at least 2025, we aren't just parking SAP CRM in a garage under a tarp like a classic automobile. Nope, to the contrary, we are still under the hood tinkering every day: adding tweaks, performance improvements, and sweet new features via quarterly release cycles.
In Q2 we delivered EHP3 SP08, which introduced new features and enhancements such as: the ability to attach multiple PDF factsheets to a CRM business partner account, fast changes for ERP sales orders and sales quotes that have been downloaded to CRM, as well as various industry enhancements for Public Sector and Utilities.
We also recently just released EHP3 SP09, which provides additional enhancements such as mass-change mode for installed base (iBase) materials, creating and updating service contracts and service contract quotations from IBase components, as well as industry enhancements for Telco, Utilities, and Public Sector.
You can find more details about what was included in each release here. The next support package, EHP3 SP10, is planned for Q4.
SAP CRM: Continuous Innovation
The first version of SAP CRM was introduced back in 1999, over 15 years ago. Since then SAP has rolled out numerous improvements via support packages, enhancement packs, and new releases. You might naturally assume that by now, with version CRM 7.0, the solution would finally be complete? But alas, the world never stands still. New business models and best practices are continually evolving, and SAP needs to adapt and respond to keep our solutions current and relevant. Here are some recent enhancements that we think you will find interesting:
Influence the SAP CRM Roadmap: SAP Customer Connection
SAP publishes detailed official roadmaps for the SAP Line of Business (LoB) Marketing, Sales, and Service. You can find those on the SAP Service Marketplace on the right-hand side of the page under the “Strategy and Roadmap” heading area. However, perhaps one of the best keep SAP secrets, at least until now, has been a program called SAP Customer Connection that allows SAP customers to influence the SAP product roadmap by suggesting incremental improvements and enhancements for existing products.
SAP CRM On-Premise has been participating in the Customer Connection program every year for all 5 years that the program has been available, and CRM has the highest Net Promoter Score and most number of downloaded notes of any product area participating in the program.
In the last round of the program, CRM 2015 (which wraps up next month), customers submitted over 171 improvement requests, many of which we have already been able to deliver. That’s the nice thing about the Customer Connection program: instead of having to wait for the next enhancement package to come out to take advantage of new features, when possible we deliver the enhancements via notes and support packages that can be taken advantage of immediately.
Check out my blogs, “You Asked for it, SAP Delivers: Twenty-Four (24) Cool New CRM Enhancements” and, "You Asked for it (Again), SAP Delivers Fifty-Six (56) More CRM Enhancements" to get an overview of the program and the type of enhancements provided. Additionally, all of the enhancements delivered via the Customer Connection program can be found in the SAP Improvement Finder tool. And if any one is interested in joining the program, the current round, CRM 2016, just kicked off on August 26, so you're just in time to join us!
Follow me on my blog at john.burton/blog
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