EDS, SAP, and Sun Microsystems Partner to Provide Affordable Enterprise Application Solutions to Mid-Market Clients

Strategic Insights -

Mid-size companies are now benefiting from leading-edge enterprise application tools thanks to a partnership between EDS, SAP, and Sun Microsystems. The EDS and SAP Hosting Alliance offers accelerated implementation of SAP's R/3 application, leveraging EDS' world-class application support infrastructure and Sun's reliable and scalable platform. This alliance provides mid-market clients with a cost-effective solution, with total cost of ownership reduced by leveraging a per-month, per-user pricing model.

Key Takeaways:

  • The EDS and SAP Hosting Alliance provides a robust solution for mid-market clients, combining SAP preconfigured solutions with EDS' Application Hosting Services and Enterprise Application management on Sun's Enterprise servers.
  • The alliance helps reduce the total cost of ownership by providing a per-month, per-user pricing model, making it an affordable solution for mid-size companies.
  • Mid-size companies can now benefit from the same powerful enterprise application tools as their larger competitors, with the added advantage of reduced infrastructure costs and improved scalability.
  • The EDS and SAP Hosting Alliance solutions are based on SAP R/3, running exclusively on Sun Enterprise workgroup servers, and utilize a standardized system configuration for easy upgrades and reduced grow/invest cycles.
  • The alliance addresses the challenges faced by mid-size companies in realizing the economies of scale to implement enterprise applications efficiently, with support costs accounting for almost 40 percent of total solution costs.

Statistics:

  • Almost 40 percent of total solution costs are attributed to support costs for mid-size companies.
  • Infrastructure costs represent roughly 70 percent of the on-going costs of ERP systems on an annual basis.
  • The EDS and SAP Hosting Alliance solutions can reduce the total cost of ownership for mid-size companies by leveraging a per-month, per-user pricing model.

Sources:

  • EDS press release
  • SAP press release
  • Sun Microsystems press release
  • META Group study on enterprise application projects
  • Robert Cringely's article on the EDS and SAP Hosting Alliance
  • Henry Wurst, Inc. press release on their partnership with the EDS and SAP Hosting Alliance.