A report by Forrester, commissioned by SAP, has revealed companies could improve agility and cost reduction if they adopt the cloud-based SAP Jam social software platform.
"The Total Economic Impact of SAP Jam" study highlighted how companies could benefit from better sales cycle times, decreased time to access information and expertise, and lowered costs associated with common new business processes.
Between 2013 and 2014, the SAP Jam social network solution had over 17.5 million subscribers across the globe.
TJ Keitt, senior analyst at Forrester, said: "Social business technology roadmaps rely on systems of engagement that help knowledge workers in their moments of need.
"These engagement systems should help workers search for information and assistance, alert them to important events in business processes, allow them to contribute to discussions, and enable them to find a resolution to issues."
The survey was conducted last March and included 30 North America-based enterprise-size customers from managers and directors to senior business and IT leaders heavily involved with their organisation’s implementation of SAP Jam.
Within three years of adopting the solution companies reduced the time to close new business by more than nine percent, leading to revenue opportunities of $9.63 million.
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An extra gain of $7 million as companies experienced a 14% decrease in time to access information and expertise. With a further saving of more than $1.6 million in training and on boarding.
Customer complaints and other issues were also dealt with faster, leading to more than $1.1 million in savings.
Sameer Patel, senior vice president and general manager, Products and GTM Enterprise Collaboration and Social Software at SAP, said: "When SAP entered the collaboration market in 2012 with SAP Jam, we were convinced that there was a much better way to accelerate organisational performance for our customers by improving how they engage with their employees, customers and partners.
"I believe that these findings by Forrester are clear proof points that collaborating in the context of functional processes powered by SAP as well as within third-party applications has rapidly returned significant revenue and tangible cost savings for our customers."
