Talk:SAP/Archive 1

Archive 1

Full name

What is the full name of SAP? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.177.150.120 (talk) 06:58, 8 July 2005 (UTC)

1. On April 1, 1972, SAP was founded as Systemanalyse und Programmentwicklung ("Systems Analysis and Program Development") in Mannheim, Germany.

2. In its fifth year of operations, SAP became a GmbH (a closely-held corporation) and took on a new name: Systeme, Anwendungen, Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung ("Systems, Applications, Products in Data Processing").

3. Finally, in the AGM (Annual General Meeting) of 2005, SAP was termed as just SAP AG.

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Jamal shabnam (talk • contribs) 13:35, 9 November 2005 (UTC)

Third largest?

Third largest after MS, IBM and Oracle should make it fourth largest, not third largest. PeaSea 01:39, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

It's the Third Largest software Company. IBM is a hardware company, unless I'm much mistaken NeoNemesis 22:34, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

See World's largest software companies for Forbes view on this. --S.K. 12:34, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

The forbes list was done in 2000. The world has changed a lot since then! 74.65.39.59 01:07, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

It's called the Forbes2000 because it tracks the 'top 2000' companies. The data is from the 2006 survey, and is partitioned from the 'software and services' category. Kuru ^talk 01:18, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

Check [1]. This list was compiled in 2009, and ranks companies against their Software related revenue. Even after removing IBM's hardware revenue, it still places second, between Microsoft and Oracle. SAP should be in 4th place. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.50.70.41 (talk) 07:48, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

I am sure Accenture would be bigger than SAP. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 144.36.234.188 (talk) 09:26, 26 December 2007 (UTC)

Accenture is a consulting company that sells SAP software. 74.65.39.59 (talk) 00:44, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

IBM Is not a hardware company only. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 156.149.249.10 (talk) 11:16, 26 November 2012 (UTC)

SAP is called S A P or Syap ? Why ?

Why always it is said that we should call SAP as S A P not Syap ? Is there any reason behind that ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.124.130.37 (talk) 03:13, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

AFAIK it's es-ey-pe in common English usage and it's es-aa-pe in German. Who is recommending the pronounciation you've mentioned? Jbetak 06:30, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

In my experience as a(n) SAP consultant, the low-end users (e.g. data input clerks) tend to call is Sap (like from a tree) and the people "in-the-know" use ess-ay-pee. As far as I understand, SAP AG prefer us to use the initials. I'll try to find an official response and post back in a while Andy 14:08, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

I'll confirm Andy's anecdotes; low-experience users often call it Sap while professionals and experts tend to call it Ess-Ay-Pee. However, to me it's a case of to-may-toe, to-mah-toe: it doesn't really matter, and whichever you use will depend on how you learnt it. MTD 11:52, 27 June 2006 (GMT+1)

Except in this case, the tomato can tell you how to pronounce its name. I worked for SAP for 3 years and I can confirm the preferred pronounciation is es-ey-pe (at least in English). Saying 'sap' made us cringe. BostonRed 13:17, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

I've heard it pronounced S.A.P. (es-ey-pe) on SAP's commercials broadcast on CNN International. Richmd 00:13, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

If we're being descriptive (and not prescriptive) here, the usage is fairly complicated. It's true that more casual users pronounce it as a word and those who have a better knowledge of it tend to pronounce the letters separately (which is what the company itself prefers). It's more nuanced than that, though. I tend to think that use by the former group has influenced the latter group. For instance, most SAP professionals will always call the company S-A-P. But the software, when it's referred to as one gargantuan unit, is often pronounced Sap ('Is that data available in Sap?') Also, SAP consultants will almost always call themselves Sap consultants - not S-A-P consultants. It's about as consistent as everything else about SAP. 196.209.165.114 (talk) 18:43, 24 May 2008 (UTC)

My understanding is that it is preferable to call it S A P (pronounced es - ey - pe) because:

1. they are in fact intitials for Systems Analysis & Programming and
2. the word "sap" has a negative association in English meaning one that has been easily mislead and fooled. SAP does not want their products or customers to considered "saps" or fools.

Nadley (talk) 23:45, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

As an SAP consultant, I often come across users making sure they 'pronounce' it S-A-P so they won't be seen as SAP ignoramuses. The facts however, present a case for reversal of this over emphasis on 'S-A-P'. As a company, when SAP was trying to market the unique 3-tier architecture in the early days, the company made sure people understood it's an acronym. So, they propagated the S-A-P acronym. You will find anecdotes to the effect in some old SAP books by authors with good connections to SAP AG. But, it is really a misconception to think that it is totally unsophisticated to say 'Sap' instead of S-A-P. For instance, a consultant with SAP_ALL authorisation level will say - "Hey, I have sap all authorisation on the system". — Preceding unsigned comment added by Busy Tracker1 (talk • contribs) 03:34, 28 January 2011 (UTC)

It's very common for users being subjected to the many organisational changes introduced during SAP implementation to object to these changes. The use of the single word 'sap' in the sense of 'to sap the strength' is therefore chosen in direct opposition to requests for the use S.A.R. from the professionals and others who stand to benefit from the implementation. I have encountered this usage in two unrelated organisations where SAP was being introduced. Unsurprisingly, SAP's marketing discourages this use.(artg, no user account) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.193.74.194 (talk) 09:51, 18 March 2011 (UTC)

See How do you pronounce SAP? (it is not 'sap' but 'S.A.P') Tule-hog (talk) 20:43, 25 October 2024 (UTC)

What is AG in SAP AG?

What is AG in SAP AG? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 221.134.193.136 (talk) 15:27, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

AG is short for Aktiengesellschaft and it means the shares are publicly traded. Richmd 00:10, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Just to add, many publicly traded companies based in Germany have AG at the end. Germany, Austria and Switzerland use AG & GmbH. These are equivalent to plc ; LLC. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Busy Tracker1 (talk • contribs) 03:20, 28 January 2011 (UTC)

Question

What is the full form of BASIS ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.80.57.2 (talk) 08:03, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

"Business Application Software Integration System" — Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.164.40.117 (talk) 12:56, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

This is a garbage backronym. Basis is a German word roughly equivalent to English 'base'. That's where the idea of 'basis' gets its name. (Then again - ABAP is a garbage backronym as well, isn't it? So we'll never know.) 196.209.165.114 (talk) 18:44, 24 May 2008 (UTC)

ABAP is not a garbage backronym: In the early times of R/2 when SAP was still German only it was the Acronym for 'Allgemeiner Berichts Aufbereitungs Prozessor' which means 'Report Writer'. Later (as ABAP/4) it got a new 'Interpretation' as 'Advanced Application Programming Language'. So you'll know now. — Preceding unsigned comment added by AnotherCurry (talk • contribs) 01:00, 26 August 2014 (UTC)

Basis

Get rid of the section on Basis. Waste of time! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.13.203.102 (talk) 10:57, 16 December 2006 (UTC)

Done!, what nonsense that. Very poor use of English. Jum4 (talk) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.169.192.90 (talk) 17:19, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

Citation needed or removal

Too much says citation needed and suspiciously it's the parts that trumpets SAP. If it's here next week I think it should be removed. Lazy people write things then expect others to do the hard work and get the sources. Needless to say some companies have been found to be editing themselves on Wikipedia. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 149.170.192.138 (talk) 21:57, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Those citation needed tags have been there for months, it is obvious that no one has found a source to cite, in fact just looking at stock sites one can find that the valuation of SAP AG is not higher than even its main competitor Oracle, its not higher than Microsoft, or Google, one I suppose could argue about it, but it is silly without an actual reference to cite we are just interpreting data, which I think might be considered original research or not. Find a source by June 8th or all statements tagged citation needed will be removed. Please don't complain about the short notice the tags were there for over 2 months, you can add statements back in once you have a source. Have a nice day, and good luck on your search, I couldn't find anything, but maybe you can :). --JVittes 20:52, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

What's the point...?

Quote from the article about SAP AG:

It ranks after Microsoft, Google, Apple and IBM in terms of market capitalization[citation needed].

Suggestion: Remove this ridiculous sentence.

What is the point in comparing the market capitalization of SAP AG to those of Google and Apple or even to those of IBM and MS (to some extensions)?!

If the point here is to show the value of SAP AG just quote Forbes and state that SAP AG assets are $60,1+ billion. If you need to point the value of the brand then point SAP's place in businessweek's ranglist for most powerful brands in the world.

If the point is to compare SAP with other software companies then pick better rivals which can make meaningful comparison. On one hand SAP AG does not operate on one and the same market neither with Google nor with Apple. On the other hand MS's and IBM's core business is different from those of SAP AG - so it is like comparing apples and oranges - they are fruits (software companies) but are not comparable. If you want to make comparison better compare SAP with Oracle or Infor (they are quite alike in terms of market, core business etc.) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ber25 (talk • contribs) 19:50, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Source giving timeline for SAP

Good link. Mathmo ^Talk 21:01, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:SAP logo.png

Image:SAP logo.png is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot (talk) 05:03, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

Which ICI?

The history section refers to a company called ICI but the link in the article (like the one in this comment!) is to a disambiguation page including a number of companies called ICI, 2 or 3 of whom seem to me like they could plausibly be the relevant one. Please could someone who knows update the link. 83.244.156.78 (talk) 11:12, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

Found a reference on the SAP site which lines up with the proper ICI entry. BostonRed (talk) 18:07, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

Remove ad tag

Am removing tag that claims the article sounds like an ad. The article doesn't seem to me to be promoting the product as superior to others, it is just simply giving facts. Am removing tag. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.181.161.250 (talk) 16:16, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Remove Milestones technical solutions?

Seriously now, what does this mean?

In 1973 the SAP R/1 solution was launched. Six years later, in 1979, SAP launched SAP R/2. In 1981, SAP brought a completely re-designed solution to market. With the change from R/2 to R/3 in 1992, SAP followed the trend from mainframe computing to client-server architectures. The development of SAP’s internet strategy with mySAP.com redesigned the concept of business processes (integration via Internet).

This is all just marketing gibberish with citations from their own website. Reads like a series of press releases compressed into single sentences. Perhaps this section should be rewritten or removed altogether? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.12.151.160 (talk) 11:49, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

Fully agree that this is gibberish. Suggest changing as follows, to give it some context:

The company's roots are in financial accounting software. In 1973, the company introduced its first product, a financial accounting system orignally called "RF." The "R" stood for "real-time," (although achieveable processing times back then were far from today's understanding of real time), the "F" stood for financials. The market name became SAP R/1, and six years later, in its second release in 1979, SAP R/2. In 1981, SAP followed the trend from mainframe computing to client-server architectures. As of 1992, the product would be called SAP R/3. Today, its core financial / enterprise resource planning software goes by the name of SAP ERP.

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Chris Goold (talk • contribs) 09:33, 7 September 2011 (UTC)

Third Reich???

I removed "Given the history of the SAP AG corporation, it has been reported that Mike Godwin granted an exemption to those questioning the company's association with the Third Reich." - seriously not even a notation on what is obviously slander? It makes no sense and has no proof. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Callonjim (talk • contribs) 23:58, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

I agree - linking them is like linking Lincoln and Ford.... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 38.112.162.55 (talk) 18:32, 11 April 2011 (UTC)

Lawsuit Ongoing

The phrase "Later SAP admitted wrong-doing on smaller scale than Oracle claimed in the lawsuit." seems to imply that the admission was part of a settlement, but apparently this is not the case, as Oracle released an ammended complaint as of August 2009. Is the case ongoing or not? Can we say specifically whether it is?ADStark (talk) 17:18, 16 September 2009 (UTC)

Considering the impact of the verdict that SAP should pay $1.3Bn to Oracle Corp. for copyright infringement, this should be included in the article. Crnorizec (talk) 02:53, 24 November 2010 (UTC)

The lawsuit was thrown out. This section needs to be removed. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.49.135.203 (talk) 00:29, 5 February 2012 (UTC)

Spiegel Article

The Spiegel article has several major problems. I can't read German, so I've used Google Translator.

1. First of all, the article does not claim that SAP grows organically. It says:

   "Ellison has to buy its customers," said Kagermann, "however, we grow organically. We are the market leader through innovation on their own, which can not be simply bought."

   This is a company line, and should be presented with this acknowledgement. No neutral report would ever claim that "X company grows organically whereas Y company does not."
2. The Der Spiegel report seems terribly biased in other ways, casting the Oracle CEO as a "whiner". I'm shocked that this would be cited as unbiased information.

Using Google translate discredits your assessment of the article. If you feel like criticizing foreign language media outlets pay a professional translator or learn the language. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.42.128.144 (talk) 10:34, 22 August 2010 (UTC)

Unreadable English

This is the worst Wikipedia page I have ever seen, if you count badness * size. Lots of almost uncomprehensible text. Did they use Google Translate from Germany or what??? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.100.12.194 (talk) 12:54, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

It's better now, but it is still awkward in places. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 211.225.33.104 (talk) 23:23, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

Still can't understand what SAP is

I've read the article and I still can't understand what SAP really is and what it does. It uses highly technical wording (that may or may not be understood). I guess this page is only useful for those who already know what SAP is (or maybe not)! Needs to be rewritten.Pm master (talk) 14:01, 9 May 2011 (UTC)

Agree it needs to be rewritten in layman terms. I will be pulling in help from the America's SAP User Group, and from reporters and bloggers familiar with the company, to bring some straight talk into this entry, and remove the yah-yah. (Full disclosure: I am an SAP employee, in the Global Communications department. My intent here is not to insert "spin" or "marketing jargon." I'd like to make this entry easily understandable, completely factual, transparent, and 3rd-party validated. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Chris Goold (talk • contribs) 09:40, 7 September 2011 (UTC)

Logo

I don't understand why the logo File:SAP logo.svg was substituted with File:SAP logo.png. No explanation was given for the change. Looking at the SAP website and the company's publications the SVG version of the logo seems to be the correct one. --Biker Biker (talk) 07:02, 13 September 2011 (UTC)

i'm responsible for the change. If you go on http://sap.com you can clearly see the gradient in the new logo that is not on the old. Thx. Alphoenix (talk) 20:30, 18 October 2011 (UTC)

SAP recentely updated its logo from File:SAP logo.svg to File:SAP logo.png (the difference seems to be that the second one has a gradient background). I can't make the modification myself however. --User:SimonTalBal (talk) 14 October 2011 —Preceding undated comment added 17:06, 14 October 2011 (UTC).

External Links

It looks like the external links have been spammed: is http://tutorialsap.com a relevant website? The "about SAP" links to a website in Estonian (according to Google Translate), the ecodesk and old link to a news magazine are also odd. Removing. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Simontalbal (talk • contribs) 18:04, 20 October 2011 (UTC)

Verbatim of copyrighted material

As it can be checked here, a no-longer-existing user called Daemeonr inserted the following paragraph in the history section:

"As part of the Xerox exit strategy from the computer industry, Xerox retained IBM to migrate their business systems to IBM technology. As part of IBM's compensation for the migration, IBM acquired the SDS/SAPE software, reputedly for a contract credit of $80,000. The SAPE software was given by IBM to the founding ex-IBM employees in exchange for founding stock provided to IBM, reputedly 8%. It may be noted that, at the time they left IBM, the ex-employees were quite senior staff in IBM Germany rather than founding engineers in the sense of Hewlett-Packard's founders"

It is a verbatim copy of a book on CRM (it can be checked here). In fact, after realizing this, I noticed that almost everything in the history section is a verbatim copy of this book... --Jasón (talk) 19:28, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

BLUECUBEIT

"BlueCube Information Technology Provides Modern On the internet IT Training/E-Learning Solutions on Program Applications of SAP, Java, Company Professional (BA), ORACLE APPS, Information Warehousing(DWH), Analyzing Tools(QA/QTP), SAS, Expose Aspect, Dot Net Training etc., to all Working/Non Managing Candidates With Far away Technology through out USA, UAE, The united states, Native indian, UK, Quotes and Many other Places.http://www.bluecubeit.com/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 103.29.238.130 (talk) 13:04, 18 May 2012 (UTC)

New section

I have started a Causes section, as the company has joined the (RED) campaign.--Soulparadox (talk) 07:14, 14 October 2012 (UTC)

Create an Unbiased Page

This is partly in response to Jennifer Lankheim's post below.

I believe there is to much bias in this page to promote SAP products and services. I believe we could increase the confidence in this page by adding some important counter point material, which seems to be missing.

Past and Pending Litigation:

There are many examples of law suites brought against SAP and its subcontractors for failed or misleading sales/marketing tactics to win over IT directors. Most notably I am referring to Waste Management Inc. Waste Management WikiPage and Avantor Performance Materials. However, I believe there are more documented litigation suites failed with the SEC, which could be researched and properly referenced.

The Register carried an article in March 2015 stating that the site is in desperate need of security patches following warnings that have gone unheeded for years: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/03/24/sap_blackhat_talk_nixed_medical_app_vulns/ I am not sure how that hangs in with an article like this but since there has already been a question about keeping the article and some of the allegations are very serious, I thought Wikipedia should be officially informed.

Weatherlawyer (talk) 08:44, 25 March 2015 (UTC)

Also found this about a failed deployment to Canyon Bikes in Germany in 2015.

SAP Perspective: http://news.sap.com/canyon-bicycles-innovation-wheels/

Customer Perspective (After Deployment): http://www.pinkbike.com/news/an-update-from-roman-arnold-to-all-canyon-customers-2016.html

Other interesting lawsuits:

California litigation in 2013: http://articles.latimes.com/2013/nov/21/local/la-me-pc-california-sues-sap-20131121

Avantor: http://www.computerworld.com/article/2493504/enterprise-applications/manufacturer-sues-ibm-over-sap-project--disaster-.html

Ingram Micro: http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/395494/sap_project_issues_hurt_ingram_micro_profits_again/

Marin County, California: http://www.computerworld.com/article/2508601/enterprise-applications/sap-s--ramp-up--program-fingered-in-erp-lawsuit.html

Victorian Order of Nurses: http://www.computerworld.com/article/2510412/enterprise-applications/sap-ibm-payroll-system-woes-fouled-up-nurses--pay.html

Bridgestone: http://www.businessinsider.com/ibm-rips-into-bridgestone-over-600-million-lawsuit-2013-11

Queensland litigation in 2015: http://www.itnews.com.au/news/revealed-queenslands-case-against-ibm-399308

Oregon MicroDude (talk) 23:19, 7 June 2016 (UTC)

Sales and Marketing Campaign:

In the IT industry it has been noted in several publications that SAP has a world class marketing and sales organization, which often over sells products in order to gain key industry clients http://www.messagesthatmatter.com/columns/sap.shtml. Obviously, one could argue that this is an opinion, but seeing some of the contributing authors to this and other related Wiki pages it is worth consideration.

What do you think? Oregon MicroDude (talk) 01:26, 15 February 2013 (UTC)

Proposed merge with SAP for Retail

May not meet notability guidelines or standalone article. AdventurousSquirrel (talk) 03:50, 26 July 2013 (UTC)

• SAP operates select industry teams as strategic units. retail is one of these teams. This is done for the sake of the customer - menaing it helps to have a unit of retail focused team centered on retail. It should be kept as SAP Retail and not "for" Retail — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tredd351 (talk • contribs) 19:56, 24 October 2013 (UTC)
• Merge: It seems like the merge is in order as it's just a business unit of the larger firm. Toddst1 (talk) 23:20, 17 December 2013 (UTC)

Update template

This article contains data from 2007 (seven years old at the time of writing), so I have inserted the template. I have added this to my Watchlist, so I will try and find new sources.--Soulparadox (talk) 01:38, 27 May 2014 (UTC)

Adding sections on corporate affairs, acquisitions, the role of millennials and CSR.

This section previously contained potential copyright violations from Harper70, blanked by Fuhghettaboutit.

 Not done. I have removed your suggested text above as it appears chock full of copyright violations and plagiarism, in the form of lifted text and far-too-close paraphrasing. For example, your first cite is to a source that starts with:

• "The Executive Board is the governing body of SAP SE..."

Which is cited for suggested content that starts with

• "The Executive Board is the governing body of SAP SE..."

Another example – this time close paraphrasing: cite 10's source says:

• "SAP offers on-premise, cloud, and hybrid deployments to give real choice to customers."

And your suggested text is:

• "It offers cloud, on-premise and hybrid deployment options to provide more choice to customers."

The way you did this so carefully and cited your sources (and the fact that you disclosed your conflict of interest) leaves me with no doubt you did not know you were doing anything improper in the form these suggestions took, but you cannot use other's copyrighted text in this manner. This is an overriding concern, but were this not present, then I would be telling you that swaths of the suggested text reads as quite promotional. This is entirely without prejudice to a second attempt, keeping the matter I've raised in mind. Best regards--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 22:49, 2 July 2015 (UTC)

Adding Leadership section and expanding Acquisitions section

Can we please add a new section on SAP's leadership? And can we please add more detail about the acquisition of Concur and SucessFactors under Acquisitions? These proposed edits take into account Wikipedia's rules against copyright infringement and non-promotional copy.

Leadership

The Executive Board of SAP oversees all the activities of the company. Bill McDermott, CEO and Chairman, joined it in 2008. Robert Enslin, President, Global Customer Operations, joined in 2014. Bernd Leukert heads up Products and Innovation, and was made a member of the Executive Board in 2014. Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer Luka Mucic joined the Executive Board in 2014. Gerhard Oswald has been part of this governing body since 1996.

Acquisitions

In 2014, SAP bought Concur Technologies Inc. in a deal valued at $8.3 billion, expanding its cloud-based software portfolio.

Analyst Thomas Becker of Commerzbank questioned whether Concur was the right choice for SAP. Credit Suisse called the acquisition an “aggressive” move.

In 2012, Bloomberg noted that businesses are “increasingly choosing to store and process data on the Web” and SAP was shifting “many of its staple applications to the Internet.”

Also, in 2012, SAP acquired SuccessFactors, which develops Human Capital Management (HCM) software on premise and in the cloud.

— Harper70 (talk) 23:04, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

The acquisitions are already mentioned in the list. The significance to SAP's business strategy would probably be better summarized in a subsection of its own, apart from the "acquisitions" list, say "Shift to cloud". Regarding the "Leadership", other software companies largely only list CEOs or people with articles of their own. IBM provides a similar list, but every single member of their Board of Directors has a Wikipedia article. What I'd find more relevant than the list of names and dates is whether SAP switched from a German-style dual structure of Vorstand and Ausichtsrat to a single Board when they became a SE - "oversees all the activities of the company" would suggest so, but apparently a separate Supervisory Board still exists and oversees the Executive Board, and there's also an advisory "Global Managing Board". Some third-party source discussing SAP's structure of boards would probably be helpful.

For now I'll add something IBM-style about the Board and possibly fiddle a little with the cloud stuff. Huon (talk) 19:20, 4 August 2015 (UTC)

I deleted Netbase from the list of acquisitions as this was factually wrong. SAP had a partnership with Netbase to resell Netbase as SAP Social Media Analytics, but that partnership has since been terminated. SAP never acquired Netbase. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.192.163.94 (talk) 17:12, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

SAP S/4HANA link

Another user removed some content from this section and edited the article, which leads me to believe the requested changes were incorporated... toggling this... as it stands, this is an empty section. — Andy W. (talk · ctb) 16:47, 4 June 2016 (UTC)

Banner above S/4 Section

Hello, I've worked with a Wikipedia community member to try to rephrase the S/4 section so that it doesn't sound promotional. Might we now we take the orange banner down? If not, how might the section be further improved or made more objective? Thank you. Harper70 (talk) 15:54, 7 March 2016 (UTC)

Focus on cloud

In 2014, IBM and SAP began a partnership to sell cloud-based services. IBM provides the infrastructure services to SAP, and SAP runs its SAP HANA cloud solution on top. The alliance gives both companies broader reach in the market. SAP has announced additional partnerships with Microsoft in order to give customers tools for data visualization, as well as improved mobile applications.

SAP exceeded its revenue projections due to the expansion in its cloud business and the success of SAP HANA. The growth can also be partially attributed to the acquisitions of Concur and Fieldglass. Currently, over 1,200 SAP customers have migrated to SAP HANA. In the meantime, the company has reassured its on-site software customers that they’ll continue to receive support. SAP Business Suite 7 customers will get mainstream support until the end of 2025.

Thank you for your input and help! Harper70 (talk) 15:54, 1 December 2015 (UTC)

Updating Philanthropic Efforts

Since the current information in the article references programs from 2013, would it be possible to update this section with newer material by adding the below?

In 2014, SAP distributed $4 million to the Global Fund to help fight diseases, including AIDS, malaria and T.B. throughout the world.

In addition, SAP has distributed free software in South Africa to create a “supportive business climate” and better educated workforce.

The company also encourages employees to volunteer through social sabbaticals, sending teams of people to different countries to aid non-profits. SAP employees have volunteered in China, India, Brazil, and South Africa.

— Harper70 (talk) 15:24, 12 January 2016 (UTC)

 Done Sorry for the delay. Looks good. Have incorporated into article! Ajpolino (talk) 00:54, 14 November 2016 (UTC)

Organization

The organization section would benefit from updated information. Many of the members of the Executive Board are named. However, the following executives are also on that Board: Michael Kleinemeier, Stefan Ries, and Steve Singh. In addition, Luka Mucic is CFO, not CFO and COO. I'd certainly appreciate it if the community could make these edits. As an SAP employee, I cannot make them directly. Thank you!! Harper70 (talk) 21:14, 7 June 2016 (UTC)

Done. InedibleHulk (talk) 14:51, 21 June 2016 (UTC)

Grammatical Fixes

Would it be possible to make a few minor corrections to the last 3 sentences of the Organization section? I would suggest rewording as follows: SAP Labs is mainly responsible for product development whereas the field organizations, which are spread across many countries, are responsible for field activities such sales, marketing and consulting. Headquarters is responsible for overall management, as well as core engineering and activities related to product development. SAP customer support, also called Active Global Support (AGS), supports SAP customers worldwide. Harper70 (talk) 21:27, 28 July 2016 (UTC)

I was tempted to simply remove the entire section for its lack of third-party sources. I presume better sources than just SAP's rather promotional press releases exist; thus I've left it for now and adapted the grammar (though I disagreed with some of the proposed changes that to me seemed to miss the point the section tried to make: There are several Labs, multiple "field organizations", but just a single headquarters (obviously) and a single customer service organization. Huon (talk) 23:50, 28 July 2016 (UTC)

Hi Huon, I agree with you regarding the need for better sources. I will try to hunt them down and add them back into this thread. Thanks very much for your help! Harper70 (talk) 17:28, 29 July 2016 (UTC)

Adding Images

Would it be possible to add this image of the founders to the section that details the history/founding of the company? Link is: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ASAP_History_Founders_001.jpg. This would provide some visual interest to an otherwise text-heavy page. Another good one would be of Hasso Plattner: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ASAP_History_Founders_004.jpg. Thanks in advance. Harper70 (talk) 21:27, 28 July 2016 (UTC)

Those images seem problematic from a copyright point of view. "SAP allows journalists and others to download and use the images for journalistic purposes." is not compatible with the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license which would allow everybody to re-use and modify the images for any purpose, including commercial purposes. At the very least, someone who is in a position to enter legally binding agreements on SAP's behalf should contact OTRS at permissions-commonswikimedia.org to confirm that SAP indeed has irrevocably released the images under CC BY-SA 4.0. If that permission cannot be obtained, the images must be deleted. I'd resolve that before adding them to the article. Huon (talk) 22:52, 28 July 2016 (UTC)

Hi Huon, thanks for your feedback on this. SAP Legal advised using the above language, and said it should be sufficient. But I will see if they can confirm/respond to your request. Again, many thanks for being such a responsive editor on this page! Harper70 (talk) 17:28, 29 July 2016 (UTC)

A standard release form for freely licensed content can be found at WP:Declaration of consent for all enquiries. Just to give one silly example, under CC BY-SA I could photoshop a goatee onto the image of Plattner, print it on t-shirts, and sell them for profit, as long as I release my Plattner-with-goatee image under CC BY-SA too and credit SAP as the copyright holder. I rather don't think that would be covered by any stretch of "journalistic purposes", showing that that's not enough for compatibility with the kind of free license Wikipedia requires. Huon (talk) 00:24, 30 July 2016 (UTC)

Hi Huon, I see your point. I think deleting the images would be the most conservative course. Would you recommend nominating them for deletion, or manually deleting them? I don't use Wikipedia Commons often, and would certainly appreciate your guidance! Harper70 (talk) 17:06, 30 July 2016 (UTC)

Adding to the SAP S/4HANA section

Since this article might benefit from additional sources and citations within the SAP S/4HANA section, I’ve provided the below:

At SAP TechEd Las Vegas in September 2016, SAP introduced SAP HANA, Express Edition. It allows for application development on a PC or in the cloud, and would let developers and students create apps without costly infrastructure. Harper70 (talk) 21:28, 20 September 2016 (UTC)

 Done Trimmed wording a bit but mostly added as requested. Thanks for your input! Ajpolino (talk) 00:49, 20 November 2016 (UTC)

SAP Named One of the Best Places to Work

Would it be possible to include a short section on the recognition that SAP has received as being one of the best places work? This would give readers a stronger sense of the culture within the company. I’ve provided the suggested text below for your consideration. Thank you!

In 2016, Glassdoor named SAP the best place to work in Germany, the tenth best place to work in Canada and ranked SAP as #15 among all employers in the U.S.. In addition, SAP was named among the best places to work in the UK. Harper70 (talk) 21:34, 30 January 2017 (UTC)

 Not done per the same rationale as Fylbecatulous on Bill McDermott. Altamel (talk) 22:52, 31 January 2017 (UTC)

Hi Fylbecatulous, thanks for your prompt feedback on this article, too. Bloomberg cited the report from Glassdoor, which named SAP as one of the best fifty places to work in 2016. Harper70 (talk) 16:09, 1 February 2017 (UTC)

References

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