SAP was started in 1972 by five former IBM employees in Mannheim, Germany. The original name for SAP, Systeme, Anwendungen, Produkte, is German for "Systems, Applications and Products." The original idea for SAP was to provide customers with the ability to interact with a common corporate database for a comprehensive range of applications in real time.
In 1973, SAP released R/1, a financial accounting system. R/1 ran on IBM servers and DOS, and it had a single-tier architecture in which presentation, applications and data were on one platform.
In 1979, SAP released R/2, a mainframe system that provided real-time data processing across accounting, manufacturing, supply chain and human resources. R/2 used a two-tier architecture, where presentation was on one platform and applications and data were on another. R/2 helped power SAP's growth, and the vendor expanded its customer base to about 200 companies.
In 1992, SAP released R/3, which represented a switch from mainframe computing to the client-server model, and from a two-tier to a three-tier architecture, in which presentation, applications and data were housed separately. R/3 was a critical product for SAP that launched the company onto the world stage.
In 1999, SAP launched mySAP, which marked a new strategy for the company of focusing on combining e-commerce software with the applications in R/3. One year after R/3's release, SAP partnered with Microsoft to port the new version to Windows NT. By 1997, SAP employed 13,000 people.
In 2004, the company launched SAP NetWeaver, and it reported that more than 1,000 customers acquired the application development platform that year. Also in 2004, the successor to R/3, the SAP ERP system (or SAP ECC, for SAP ERP Central Component) was released. Customers already using R/2 or R/3 were still supported, but new customers were required to implement SAP ERP. By 2005, SAP was generating $8.5 billion, with upwards of 35,800 employees around the globe.
In 2006, the company claimed hefty revenue from SAP Business All-in-One and SAP Business One, its SAP ERP systems for SMBs.
In 2009, SAP Business Suite 7 became available to customers worldwide. At the time, SAP called it "the company's next-generation software suite enabled by service-oriented architecture."
In 2011, the company launched SAP HANA, an in-memory database platform. HANA was a major development project for SAP, and an important new strategic direction for the vendor, which has said it intends HANA to take the place of the traditional databases SAP has used for its business applications. SAP has offered HANA as a deployment option for Business Suite, and, in 2015, released S/4HANA, an ambitious rewrite of Business Suite optimized for the HANA platform.
As of this writing, Bill McDermott is CEO of SAP, a position he has held since May 2014. In the four years prior, McDermott was co-CEO with Jim Hagemann Snabe. Meanwhile, company co-founder Hasso Plattner is a member of the SAP Supervisory Board and continues to help lead the technology strategy for the company.
In 1973, SAP released R/1, a financial accounting system. R/1 ran on IBM servers and DOS, and it had a single-tier architecture in which presentation, applications and data were on one platform.
In 1979, SAP released R/2, a mainframe system that provided real-time data processing across accounting, manufacturing, supply chain and human resources. R/2 used a two-tier architecture, where presentation was on one platform and applications and data were on another. R/2 helped power SAP's growth, and the vendor expanded its customer base to about 200 companies.
In 1992, SAP released R/3, which represented a switch from mainframe computing to the client-server model, and from a two-tier to a three-tier architecture, in which presentation, applications and data were housed separately. R/3 was a critical product for SAP that launched the company onto the world stage.
In 1999, SAP launched mySAP, which marked a new strategy for the company of focusing on combining e-commerce software with the applications in R/3. One year after R/3's release, SAP partnered with Microsoft to port the new version to Windows NT. By 1997, SAP employed 13,000 people.
In 2004, the company launched SAP NetWeaver, and it reported that more than 1,000 customers acquired the application development platform that year. Also in 2004, the successor to R/3, the SAP ERP system (or SAP ECC, for SAP ERP Central Component) was released. Customers already using R/2 or R/3 were still supported, but new customers were required to implement SAP ERP. By 2005, SAP was generating $8.5 billion, with upwards of 35,800 employees around the globe.
In 2006, the company claimed hefty revenue from SAP Business All-in-One and SAP Business One, its SAP ERP systems for SMBs.
In 2009, SAP Business Suite 7 became available to customers worldwide. At the time, SAP called it "the company's next-generation software suite enabled by service-oriented architecture."
In 2011, the company launched SAP HANA, an in-memory database platform. HANA was a major development project for SAP, and an important new strategic direction for the vendor, which has said it intends HANA to take the place of the traditional databases SAP has used for its business applications. SAP has offered HANA as a deployment option for Business Suite, and, in 2015, released S/4HANA, an ambitious rewrite of Business Suite optimized for the HANA platform.
As of this writing, Bill McDermott is CEO of SAP, a position he has held since May 2014. In the four years prior, McDermott was co-CEO with Jim Hagemann Snabe. Meanwhile, company co-founder Hasso Plattner is a member of the SAP Supervisory Board and continues to help lead the technology strategy for the company.