SAP Supplier Relationship Management (SAP SRM)

Solution "Vendor relationship management" (SAP Supplier Relationship Management, SAP SRM:

• The solution for vendor relationship management of SAP SRM provides the strategic value expressed as significant economy of costs, performance of contracts and the accelerated payback. Your company receives in the order tools for achievement of good results due to complex business processes. Such transactions as cost analysis, the choice of suppliers, contract management and requests, drawing of accounts and also vendor management are already included in the integrated offer.
• Being a part of family of business applications of SAP Business Suite, the SAP solution SRM is presented by the integrated offer for process automation "from purchase before payment" goods and services, increasing the value created by SAP Business Suite.
• The solution "Vendor relationship management" (SAP SRM) is focused on business process optimization and decrease in the total costs connected with logistics and purchase of services by the enterprises of any scale. Integrating in itself ample opportunities for the analysis, assessment and ranging of suppliers, consolidations of needs for purchases of goods and services, building of strategy and forecasts of efficiency of vendor interaction via traditional and electronic channels, the SAP solution SRM helps to identify the optimal partners who are most conforming to requirements of business of the company.

To provide profit earning on a permanent basis, the enterprises need to have the balanced expenditure management system on supply. If the enterprise is capable to reduce purchase costs of goods and services, then increase in profitability - without damage to quality and even without increase in sales volumes will be result. The solution "Vendor relationship management" allows to automate all processes integrating in themselves source selection of deliveries and actually supplying activity. Along with it the solution "Vendor relationship management" allows to increase transparency of logistic network and to make available to the management the interactive overview of all costs connected with supply.

The solution "Vendor relationship management" allows to control all cycle of deliveries: from strategic planning before implementation. It allows to optimize selection process of suppliers and to reduce duration of supplying cycles.

History

The SAP company announced in the spring of 2006 that it will purchase Frictionless Commerce company, the supplier of the powerful SRM solution. The deal should be closed by June, 2006. Thus the German vendor tries to close a gap in functionality of own SRM solution.

As analysts of Gartner consider, progress of SAP in sales of mySAP SRM much more exceeds progress of clients in use of this solution. In a product of ERP giant there are no many important functions which are in solutions of the third-party developers offering the best in the solution class in the market. The innovation products deliver such companies as Ariba, Emptoris, Frictionless and Procuri. Many users of SAP use products of these producers, "having felt a difference". Purchase of one of suppliers of the best solutions in the market will allow SAP to integrate its practices into the product and to considerably strengthen its market positions. As believe in Gartner, most likely the solution Frictionless at first will be available only to the existing users of mySAP SRM (it, naturally, will allow to sell "remaining balance" of licenses for today's version of a system) and only with an exit of the next version of a SAP product it will be included in standard delivery. Respectively, the fifth version of mySAP SRM and will remain behind solutions of other suppliers. As for the sixth version which release is planned for the fourth quarter 2006, analysts hope that in it there will be a sufficient number of improvements to provide loyalty of users. In general, acquisition of SAP should not have some significant effect on the market of SRM solutions, as well as on users of mySAP SRM, Frictionless and solutions of other vendors.