SAP has extended its partnership with Research In Motion (RIM) to make the full SAP CRM program available on BlackBerry.
The platform integrates SAP CRM with BlackBerry applications such as e-mail, address book and calendar. Other SAP enterprise applications will follow the CRM release and will be similarly integrated.
“The bottom line is that SAP, the world leader in enterprise applications, and RIM, the world leader in enterprise communications, have now converged applications and mobility on the BlackBerry,” Bill McDermott, president and CEO of SAP Americas Inc., said in a press conference. “This is a major win for RIM, SAP and any mobile professional that works anywhere in the world today.”
The new mobile CRM platform automatically synchronizes data between business systems and mobile applications. Other selling points touted by SAP and RIM include the low cost of deployment and minimal training needs for existing SAP customers and BlackBerry users, along with enhanced productivity for BlackBerry-carrying employees.
“Embodying the entire span of mobile professional activities on a BlackBerry is game-changing,” McDermott said. “But in my opinion, the really exciting part is that this is only the beginning; we’re now committed to natively integrating the entire business suite of SAP onto a BlackBerry device, so if you’re a human capital or finance professional you, too, will be able to access applications on your hip.”
SAP and RIM first partnered in 2004 to work together on SAP CRM, using the BlackBerry as a browser for CRM. RIM will continue to develop mobile applications for other SAP Business Suite products on BlackBerry.
