Report: SAP to Stop Development of Business ByDesign

German business weekly Wirtschaftswoche has reported that SAP plans to stop development of its SMB-focused cloud ERP product Business ByDesign, stating that existing customers will be still able to continue using it.

Reuters had reported that an SAP spokesman said development capacity for Business ByDesign was being reduced, but that the product was not being completely shut down.

SAP originally projected that Business by Design - which was launched in 2010 - would reach 10,000 customers and generate $1 billion of revenue. The magazine reported, however, that the product, which cost roughly 3 billion Euros ($4.1 billion) to develop, currently has only 785 customers and is expected to generate 23 million Euros ($31.47 million) in sales this year.

SAP started working on Business ByDesign back in 2003 and the Wirtschaftswoche report said that ever since the SAP product's launch, customers had complained about technical issues and the slow speed of the software.

Comments from SAP were not available by press time, however in an August interview with John Okunski, director, North America cloud channel sales at SAP had told Accounting Technology SAP was reevaluating the product roadmap for ByDesign.

Specifically he said “while Business ByDesign has been a heavily adopted solution, as a high performing company is not satisfied that we have achieved maximum market impact and become the de facto standard for SMEs to use to run their businesses. As a result SAP has undertaken a reevaluation of the Business ByDesign roadmap – with the goal of achieving the company’s ambitious goals in the SME market – and will be releasing a refreshed vision and roadmap in early fall of 2013.”

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