Delivering on its promise to build customized enterprise products for vertical markets, SAP AG yesterday announced the global roll-out of SAP Media, an integrated industry-specific package for print, broadcast, online media companies and advertising agencies. It includes SAP R/3 core functionality; financials, human resources and logistics, plus two industry-specific components; advertising management (IS- M/AM) and media sales and distribution (IS-M/SD). According to Bill Rogers, director of SAP’s strategic business unit for telecoms and media for the Americas, some 280 companies in the media industry already use SAP R/3 and of those, 28 have also selected the two SAP Media modules. What’s new about this announcement is that this is the first time SAP has released an English version of the software, for worldwide rollout. The international version of the two components will ship to customers in the Americas, Canada and Europe in November 1998. Rogers said it was also an example of SAP’s new approach to doing business in the media industry by providing integrated solutions across all media business and production processes as opposed to offering different solutions for different sectors. The advertising management component offers specific functionality for the management of advertising and marketing campaigns. It is designed to enable the support and handling of all processes related to the sale including booking and billing of advertisements in print media, such as newspapers, magazines, as well as TV and radio commercials. The media sales and distribution component provides support from circulation planning to the logistics of distribution and delivery, for any delivery method, including mail, freight forwarder and electronic channels, to invoicing and settlement of commission fees. SAP’s Media solution falls within the company’s new ‘roduct solution map’ it outlined at its SAPPHIRE user conference in Los Angeles last month. The map is a series of blueprints targeted at 17 specific industry area, and each map represents a strategy for what SAP and its partners offer in those particular industries today and what they plan to offer tomorrow and in the future. Under its Media solution map, SAP has identified seven major business categories for the media industry: enterprise management; business support; production; publication; customer care: advertising; customer care: products; and customer care: licensing.
