Whats-SAP?

Hey there fellow bloggers and readers, this is my fourth entry into my blog and this week I thought I would talk about why companies have implemented blogs and if it actually enhanced or benefited the company.

There are many reasons as to why a company would start a Blog or Wiki, a few of the major reasons include establishing a two way communication between prospects and influencers IE. Buyers and sellers. Expand the companies reach and strengthen your brand. Or maybe the company simply just wants to extend its network, create relationships.

Blogs's and Wiki's are a mainstream source of news and information in the current day and age. Companies are now finally embracing enterprise 2.0 and integrating these types of tools into their business so that they can enhances their online identity and enhance the company itself. SAP is a company that developed its own Enterprise Resource Planning package or ERP package. The name of this service is, coincidentally, SAP which stands for System Applications and Products. This software service is mainly used in Data processing and has proven to be highly effective and is one of the top selling ERP packages to date.

SAP have their own website which has an abundance of information on it, such as training and courses to study SAP, service and support for SAP and a page about their industry and the strategies they used. Among browsing the website I spotted a community tab which intrigued me so I clicked on it. To my surprise SAP has a vast array of social media tools that they have integrated already into their website and company. For example there is a live twitter feed which constantly updating tweets from the company about updates to the product or just general things they want to mention. They have a Facebook, Youtube, Google+ and various other accounts for users and customers to follow. However the main highlight to their community page is their corporate blog. This blog is internally run within the website itself so users must go through the website to access the blog. The surprising thing is that this blog is very externally/community focused and has topics such as SAP business trends where they talk about IT strategies and business value and give insight on upcoming business trends. Their corporate Blog is a place for all SAP enthusiasts and potential customers and users alike to gather and get all the information they want on SAP and what their doing.

The blogs also have topics about how to improve ones business through financial integrity and decision making, so not only are SAP using their blog and other social media for marketing and sales, they are also connecting with the consumers and helping them achieve their own goals. If SAP did not make the decision to integrate these enterprise 2.0 tools then they would not have this many customers and probably wouldn't even have the title of one of the top selling ERP packages, the reason? they would have no way of connecting with customers or clients and because the Blogs act as a forum as well there would be no potential sharing of information, collaboration, users talking to users and employee's about how to improve SAP or where it should go next. However in saying this, because SAP is a IT service it immediately has the upper hand in the blogosphere because they know what their doing when it comes to technology and marketing, however I believe SAP mains marketing strategy that led to the most success was their Blog.

Relating back to the lecture you can clearly see that SAP has used multiple technology value levers, they have practically satisfied the entire column of marketing and sales which include, using social technologies for marketing, generating and fostering sales lead, and social commerce. Through the use of their Youtube and Facebook page they satisfy the user insights section.

Finally concluding here's today's question: Have any of you heard of or used SAP? if so what do you think of the product and or service?