A few years ago the SAP R/3 product was considered to be an extensive and complex system of high financial demand and time consumption. But presently the system is even able to meet requirements of medium and small companies. The result of the SAP efforts is establishment of such tools that would continuously lower the limit of potential users. We discussed the related aspects with Milan Han, general director, and Peter Manda, sales and marketing director of the SAP Slovensko, s.r.o.

SAP is not a standard company. Can you outline the subject of its business?

SAP Slovensko, s.r.o. is an affiliate of the German parent company SAP AG, founded in 1972 and operating in fifty countries of the world. Its main product are applications, covering sixteen areas, including business (e.g. manufacturing, telecommunication, electric power and gas distribution) and state and public sector administration. The company is also engaged in financial and insurance sector, in media companies, education and other sectors. In each country of operation SAP develops a local version of the product to comply with the domestic legal requirements.

SAP R/3 is an outstanding product. What is it devoted to?

SAP R/3 provides tools and environment that supports managers to make effective decisions. The specific feature of the SAP R/3 product is in the incorporation of business know-how. It means financial information linking up to the production management and human resources. It also contains information on trends, development, analysis, and marketing of a company. This defines the area of our business. SAP is often labeled as a software house. We do offer software, but our product is also a source of information on business management. We provide scenarios and methods, drawn from thousands of installations of the R/3 product across the world. Every SAP customer is also a partner of SAP, because the product develops through communication. We adapt also our internal organisation schemes to match such approach. Also a co-operation with universities, corporate management experts, economic tools application experts, international trade experts, and with management training experts is important. Similarly, the world standardising organisations are a source of information for SAP, updating the products according to the managersi expectations.

Implementing the SAP software may not be a simple process. What kind of methods do you use?

Since SAP is a parametric system, no extensive reprogramming effort is needed. This allows to focus on other areas, such as training of the future users. If the company decides to use our product, we find an advance training very convenient. The so called key users are the first to gain the necessary knowledge. These are responsible company officials deciding the fundamentals. They learn to work with the system in setting up its parameters. Later on they are responsible to assist other end users of the system within a company. Also the testing phase is important, since the SAP R/3 becomes "the company centre". Quite often the old and new systems run in parallel. During the project implementation at the customer's premises our company proceeds in accordance with standard ASAP (AcceleratedSAP) methodology, facilitating a more rapid system implementation. This methodology allows in some cases a productive operation start-up at the customer's premises as early as six weeks following the project start, with a high service quality guarantee.

The SR government prepared and ambitious support programme for foreign investors entering Slovakia. Can this product assist in the process?

In general, exact and updated information is of vital importance for foreign investors. It is common abroad that companies are mutually linked not only on the customer/supplier level, but also through their information systems. In such event the SAP product proves to be an advantage and allows immediate connection into the string.

Can you disclose the SAP Slovensko marketing strategy, if it's not confidential?

Before any SAP operations were launched in Slovakia, the product had been prepared, respecting the language and legal requirements. The next step is the partner policy implementation. SAP Slovensko does not involve only the SAP Slovensko staff members, but also other companies, consultants and experts. Presently we co-operate with many entities, supporting our product in partner companies. Since there are over sixty customers with seventy installations on our list, thousands of users and hundreds of experienced consultants form a large community presently. It is the SAP aim to maintain their co-operation in contributing to the product development. The feed-back is an assurance that our product will be successful also in the future.

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