By Siobhan Kennedy
Hewlett-Packard Co will today announce plans to roll out SAP AG’s new web-based architecture, mySAP.com, in a bid to standardize on a single IT infrastructure that links the company’s employees, partners and suppliers on a worldwide basis.
Although there is no timeframe for the roll-out as yet, Mei-Lin Cheng, CIO of HP’s Imaging and Printing Systems division, told ComputerWire the intention is to move to mySAP.com as soon as possible and that the two companies had signed an agreement to that effect. She said the heads of HP’s four main business units were in talks and that implementation plans were already underway.
Cheng said that HP has been implementing SAP’s R/3 ERP suite for a number of years and now successfully used the applications to run 70% of the company’s back office systems including accounting, human resources and logistics. More recently, HP also decided to go with SAP’s internet based product configurator and Cheng said so far, HP had seen excellent results from implementing the software. She added that SAP had proposed the migration from R/3 to mySAP.com on a very attractive financial basis although she declined to give exact pricing details.
MySAP.com is SAP’s attempt to bring all its back office and front office products under one umbrella. Under the strategy, users will gain access to SAP applications through a mySAP.com workplace, essentially a web interface, which will also lets them access third party applications and connect to the internet for web-based data and services. In addition, the second component, mySAP.com marketplace, lets companies link with their partners and suppliers and customers in on-line marketplaces. Cheng said it was HP’s intention to roll out both components of the architecture, but reiterated that no definite timeframe has yet been decided upon.
Mayur Shah, SVP of SAP’s hi-tech industry division described the deal as very significant but would not give any specific details about the contract. He said that SAP consultants and its partners would work with HP to help the company migrate from R/3 to mySAP.com.
