Mainframe software company SAP AG, headquartered in Walldorf, Germany, is the latest in a long line of such companies to unveil plans to migrate all its applications software onto smaller machines. SAP plans to complete the migration to Unix, the PS/2 and IBM’s AS/400 by 1994. SAP’s R/2 software suite consists of an integrated set of 10 business application modules covering manufacturing, logistics, accounting and personnel functions. It runs on IBM Corp Siemens-Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG mainframes. The new ‘R/3’ software is being developed for mid-range computers and workstations and will offer a choice of OSF/Motif, Presentation Manager or Windows graphical users interfaces and will be client-server based. SAP is Germany’s largest software house. It was founded in 1972 by four ex-IBM employees and had a turnover of $333m from its R/2 range of mainframe software products last year. It is committing 25% of its annual revenue together with 850 of its 2,350 strong workforce to research and development projects. SAP numbers firms such as ICI, Esso, Mobil and British Rail among its British customers. It estimates that R/3 will be available to its mainframe customers by 1994; 1992 is the projected date for those with AS/400, Siemens mid-range and Unix. Digital Equipment Corp’s Ultrix and Hewlett-Packard Co’s HP-UX have been earmarked as early target implementations of Unix.
