Even a small enterprise needs the help of the IT sector to run his or her business smoothly. With the arrival of digitalization, we don’t realize to the extent we are getting dependent on the internet. Data transfer, data storage, software development has become an integral part of the tertiary sector of the economy. With emerging businesses in every field, the software companies are also flourishing providing them with enterprise software. SAP SE is the world’s leading enterprise software company. It develops software for carrying out numerous business operations and to provide better client-customer relation. Five founders, Dietmar Hopp, Hans-Warner Hector, Hasso Plattner, Klaus Tchira, and Claus Wellenreuther founded the company in 1972. It is one of the oldest companies in the sphere of software development and one of the most successful as well. It is a company that serves worldwide with an employee count of more than 100,000.
About the Founders
All the five founders worked at IBM before founding SAP SE. When the company was founded Dietmar Hopp served as the CEO of the company for ten years. In 1998, Dietmar became the Chairman of the supervisory board. And, from 2003 he served as a board member for a couple of years.
Hans-Werner Hector is famous as a German software engineer and an entrepreneur. His net worth is $1.9 billion. It was through the success of SAP SE he became one of the richest men in the world. Due to some arguments and conflicts of interest with his partners, he left the company in 1997.
Hasso Plattner served as the Chairman of the supervisory board of SAP SE since 2003. After the financial year 2017, Forbes reported his net worth to be $13.1 billion. In 2005, he founded Hasso Plattner Ventures, a venture capital fund to support the young entrepreneurs. Currently, he lives in Potsdam, Germany.
Klaus Tchira served as the board member of SAP SE from 1998-2007. In 1995, he founded a non-profit organization, Klaus Tchira foundation for supporting innovative projects. He passed away on 31st March 2015.
Claus Wellenreuther left IBM in1971 and then programmed a financial accountancy system for batch processing. After this, he joined the co-founders of SAP SE and founded the company. He also founded DCW software in 1982 which SAP acquired in 2003.
Origin of SAP SE
Initially, IBM received the rights for working on Scientific Data Systems (SDS)/ SAPE Software project. Five scientists from the AI sector of the company worked in it until the project was called off. So, instead of leaving it midway the co-founders of SAP SE decided to resign from IBM and establish another company. SAP SE is the abbreviation for Systems, Applications & Products in Data Processing.
The Journey of SAP SE
The first client of SAP SE was the German branch of Imperial Chemical Industries. SAP SE was interested in making real-time system software. So, they developed the payrolls and accounting software instead of punch cards. On the contrary, IBM used punch cards for storing the information.
In 1973, the company launched its first commercial product which was known as SAP R/98. After this product, much other modified software was launched using the base model of SAP R. In the late 1970s, SAP R/2 was launched followed by SAP R/3 in 1992. In the meantime, the company shifted its headquarters to Walldorf, Germany.
In the following years, SAP got listed in the German Stock Index DAX and STOXX Europe 50.
Expansion
From 2012, SAP eventually started showing interest in cloud-based storage. A company in the IT sector always needs to keep up with the changes taking place around the world. So, it started acquiring companies that could help it sell cloud-based products. In 2014, the company acquired Concur Technologies, a cloud-based travel management company for $8.3 billion. This year, the company came into a joint venture with IBM for the same purpose.
To date, the company has acquired more than 70 other companies on an international level. Some of the biggest companies SAP bought are Qualtrics, CallidusCloud, Concur Technologies, Ariba, etc. SAP has a partnership with companies like Adobe, GK Software, CA Technologies, and many more.
The company also plans to invest billions of dollars in sectors like the Internet of Things. By the end of 2020, the Company will invest around €2 billion in sectors like this. The company is also planning to cut employees. Currently, the Company is putting exclusive interest in sectors like AI, ML, IoT, and the blockchain community.
Annasha Dey is an NIT student, who apart from studying engineering is also a content writer. She has a great interest in photography, writing, reading novels, and travelling as well. She is a foodie who loves socializing and hanging out with her friends. She is also a trained Kathak dancer and a big fashion enthusiast. Dey also loves watching TV series, which includes F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and Big Bang Theory. To be a better writer she prefers to read more