What a Long Strange Trip It's Been: SAP and Business Objects Reported by Analyst Firm as Market Leader in Two Major Segments of EPM

On my behalf of the many colleagues whom I have had the privilege to work with at SAP and Business Objects over the last three years, it is with great pride and enthusiasm that I share with you today the greatly-anticipated launch of Gartner’s CPM Suite Software market share for 2007 and IDC’s 2007 Business Analytics market share report which includes the Performance Management Tools and Applications market.

IDC announced that SAP and Business Objects have the fastest growing EPM business and lead in the Performance Management Tools and Applications market! (IDC’s term for EPM).

The Performance Management Tools and Applications market is the largest subset of the Business Analytics Software market, representing $15.4 billion out of the total $22.1 billion market. According to IDC, SAP's EPM market share grew by more than a full 4 percentage points. Additionally, SAP and Business Objects have the fastest growth of any competitor in the marketplace, more than tripling the growth of our largest competitor. These latest market share findings by IDC confirm that our differentiated, comprehensive EPM strategy and approach is resonating with customers.

In addition to IDC’s latest report, Gartner released its CPM Suite Software market share report and finds SAP and Business Objects is the fastest-growing EPM vendor, is taking share from all other vendors, and is statistically tied with the market leader.

• SAP and Business Objects is the fastest growing of the large CPM (Gartner’s term for EPM) vendors – SAP grew 31.2%, Oracle grew just 3.7%, the market grew 19%.
• SAP and Business Objects has moved from #4 in the CPM market a few years ago, to statistically-tied for #1.
• SAP and Business Objects’ market-share grew from 21.6% to 23.8%. (All vendors, with the exception of one, stayed relatively flat or declined).

What has been the secret to our success? We are the only vendor today that offers a complete vision and solution portfolio which unifies EPM, GRC, BI and Information Management. For example, SAP Strategy Management is integrated with SAP GRC Risk Management, allowing executives to plan and execute corporate strategy with an in-depth understanding of the underlying risks, which therefore helps them to make more informed, calculated, risk-aware decisions and better manage future performance.

SAP and Business Objects Reported by Analyst Firm as Market Leader in Two Major Segments of Enterprise Performance Management

SAP is Market Share Leader for Performance Management Applications and Business Objects for Performance Management Tools

SAN JOSE, Calif. and PARIS - November 19, 2008 - SAP (NYSE: SAP) and Business Objects, an SAP company, today announced that IDC has reported that each leads in one of the two major segments of the Performance Management Tools and Applications market based on software license and maintenance revenue. The aggregate Performance Management market represents $15.4 billion out of the total $22.1 billion Business Analytics Software market.

The market analysis, titled “Worldwide Business Analytics Software 2008–2012 Forecast and 2007 Vendor Shares,” found that SAP leads in performance management applications and Business Objects leads in the performance management tools market.1 Together these two segments comprise the broad market for performance management tools and applications. “The IDC data presented in our 2008 business analytics report finds that SAP and Business Objects each lead a major segment of the performance management market,” said Dan Vesset, vice president, Business Analytics Solutions, IDC. “The two companies have come together and are balancing the goals of remaining open for non-SAP customers while optimizing their solutions for the SAP platform. This openness and ability to satisfy all customers—along with the breadth of Business Objects and SAP’s enterprise performance management solutions—are catalysts for continued market growth.”

According to the IDC report, which evaluated the two companies separately in 2007 because they had not yet merged, SAP and Business Objects held 11.2 percent and 7.6 percent respectively of the total 2007 market share for performance management tools and applications. The report also found that SAP’s share of the performance management tools and application market grew at 19.3 percent, higher than the market as a whole.

IDC attributes SAP and Business Objects’ leadership to the following factors: “SAP continues to see strength in sales of its performance management applications across a diverse set of business processes. In addition, Business Objects showed continued strength in growing its business intelligence tools revenue in 2007. The company, acquired by SAP in the past year, contributed a significant install base, broad product portfolio, strong brand recognition and experienced development and marketing resources. Business Objects will expand SAP’s diversity and offers improved reach into the small and medium-sized business market segment with its Crystal Reports® software.”

“It is gratifying to see that SAP and Business Objects’ vision and execution have been validated by our customers, partners and one of the leading industry analyst firms,” said Sanjay Poonen, general manager and senior vice president, Performance Optimization Applications, Business Objects. “We have experienced rapid growth in the EPM market, catapulting us to the top position in the market, over competitors with outdated products. Our EPM portfolio expands beyond finance to provide end-to-end performance management capabilities across the organization to ensure both profitable and compliant business performance. SAP and Business Objects’ diversity of EPM offerings—combined with the leading business intelligence and governance, risk and compliance solutions, all with more modern, user-centric application design—puts us ahead of traditional vendors who possess harder-to-use, incomplete EPM solutions.”

1 Worldwide Business Analytics Software 2008 - 2012 Forecast and 2007 Vendor Shares, IDC #214904, November 2008

About Business Objects

Business Objects, an SAP company, transforms the way the world works by connecting people, information and businesses. With open, heterogeneous applications in the areas of governance, risk and compliance; enterprise performance management; and business intelligence, Business Objects enables organizations of all sizes worldwide to close the gap between business strategy and execution. Together with a strong and diverse partner network, Business Objects allows customers to optimize business performance across all major industries including banking, retail, consumer-packaged goods and public sector. Business Objects is committed to helping customers turn raw data into actionable decisions, regardless of their underlying database, operating system, applications or IT system.

For more information about Business Objects, visit: http://www.businessobjects.com/.
For more information about SAP, visit: http://www.sap.com/.

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