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Original Article: SAP ERP to play crucial role in merger? | Codestone.

SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems could play a key role in the merger between two high-profile companies.

According to Computer World UK, a “vast chunk” of the integration between Kraft and Cadbury is likely to centre on SAP, as it is used by each of the businesses as their ERP platforms.

The news provider claimed the procedure could involve the migration of significant amounts of data from Kraft’s SAP ERP system followed by a centralisation process.

Kraft announced it expects to cut £379 million from operational costs following the £11.5 billion acquisition in 2009.

Irene Rosenfeld, chief executive of the firm, said: “Everything we’ve seen so far has only reinforced our decision to acquire Cadbury.”

Research recently conducted by Gartner showed that SAP is continuing to do well in financial terms, as it was regarded as the world’s number one software provider in 2009, accounting for 22 per cent of the market.

by Lara Ward

This post comes from Don Fornes of Software Advice, a web site that compares and reviews manufacturing software.

Throughout its existence, SAP has been known as an enterprise-class applications vendor – one that sells only to really big companies. At the same time, SAP has attempted – through marketing, channels and development – to move “down market” into the realm of small and mid-size enterprises (SMEs). Today, that strategy has resulted in a portfolio of software solutions that might need some explaining. I’ll give it a try.

Before we dig into the SAP portfolio, it’s important to understand a few things about the SME market:

• There exists a range of SMEs and one-size does not fit all. A $750 million SME has very different needs than a $10 million SME.
• The smaller the SME, the less likely they are to adopt complex technology. When they do get into technology, they typically like Microsoft platforms (e.g. .Net, SQL Server).
• SMEs were the first to adopt software as a service (SaaS), and that model continues to gain traction within the SME market. Any SME strategy must include a SaaS strategy.

The implications of those three points for SAP were that SAP could not just “re-package” its core SAP Business Suite – the “big company product” formerly known as R/3 – and call it an SME strategy. SAP actually tried this throughout the 1990s, but in 2002 they started on a new path toward specific solutions designed just for the SME market.

You can read the full article here: SAP’s SME Solutions – A Guide to the Product Profile.

There is a brand new and unique online service today, where SAP Customers and Consulting Houses can hire you directly without having a recruiter ‘shaving off’ your rate. As no recruiters or staffing agencies are involved who should ‘sell’ your abilities, you need to make sure that your sell your skill set yourself accordingly and start building up your reputation. continue reading…

Everybody has Access to your DATA!!!

White-collar crime is the fastest growing type of crime in North America, and co-workers and disgruntled employees have many motivations to cause damages or increase their wealth. Especially in the current economy it is every company’s responsibility to keep honest employees honest by preventing opportunities and temptation! The first thing intruders do before taking any illegal action is to get access to another colleague’s user profile for extended access so that the other person will be blamed. Below we will point out how easy this unfortunately is…

We know about one company that lost over $60 Million in a 4 year period. A director used one of his employee’s user profiles and passwords to commit the fraud in the SAP financial system. When the fraud was discovered, this employee spent half a year in jail for a crime that she did not commit. Eventually, her boss was arrested for stealing her password and committing the fraud. continue reading…

I have been asked many times if I could tell what functional area a transaction, program, table etc. belong to. Each time I did a short onsite or online demo for clients I work as a virtual consultant and created a short documentation. Now, that I have setup a blog, I thought it would be a good idea to document this here so that I can just reference it via a hyperlink. continue reading…

Working as a virtual consultant for the past few years, I am very happy that this model is starting to take off. Talking to other consultants & business partners, I came across this article by Herbert Goertz, SAP Consulting Exchange

Thanks largely to the recession, many professional services firms have been forced to abandon billable hours as a business model. Witness Monday’s Wall Street Journal article, ““Billable Hour” Under Attack.” Although the article happens to be about law firms, the issues raised apply just as much to technology consulting. continue reading…

In many organizations, the usage of transaction GR55 has been removed from end users and the usage of custom transaction for Report Painter report is preferred.

These transactions need to be added to roles & also transported via the SAP Transport system and go through change control.

continue reading…