From Inventing the Enterprise Software

Sector to Helping the World Run Better

1972 THE EARLY YEARS

On April 1, 1972, five former IBM employees – Dietmar Hopp, Hasso Plattner, Claus
Wellenreuther, Klaus Tschira, and Hans-Werner Hector – started the company
SystemAnalyse Programmentwicklung (System Analysis Program Development). Their
idea was to create standard enterprise software that integrated all business processes and
enabled data processing in real time.
SAP´s founders and employees worked closely with customers – often sitting side-by-side
with employees in customers’ offices to learn their business needs and processes. By 1975,
they had built applications for financial accounting (RF), invoice verification, and inventory
management (RM). Some of their early customers were the nylon factory belonging to ICI in
Östringen, Germany, Knoll, Burda, Linde, and Schott. The blend of real-time data
processing, standardization, and integration were the basis for SAP’s transformation from a
small German company into a global leader in business software. In 1979, the company
started developing R/2, the second generation of its software. In 1980, SAP´s roughly 80
employees moved into their first own office building in Walldorf, Germany.

1987-
2010 FROM R/3 TO GLOBAL PLAYER
Even while R/2 was enjoying huge sales success and one year before SAP went public with
an IPO in 1988 – the company’s managers were looking ahead to its third generation of
software. The SAP R/3 success story began in 1992, with the client-server software
smoothing the path to a globalized economy, turning SAP into a global player with
subsidiaries and development centers across the world.
In 1999, SAP responded to the Internet and new economy by launching its mysap.com
strategy. Ten years later, the company branched out into three markets of the future:
mobile technology, database technology, and cloud. To rapidly become a key player in these
new domains, SAP acquired some of its competitors, including Business Objects, Sybase,
Ariba, SuccessFactors, Fieldglass, and Concur.

2011-
2023 INTO THE CLOUD WITH SAP HANA
In 2011, the first customers started using the in-memory database SAP HANA. Data
analyses that used to take days or even weeks were now completed in seconds. Four years
later, SAP launched SAP S/4HANA, its latest generation of business software, running
entirely on SAP HANA. SAP is committed to enabling every enterprise to become intelligent,
networked, and sustainable – bringing together the solutions, technology, and best
practices needed to run integrated, digital business processes in the cloud.
SAP offers choice across the four largest hyperscale cloud vendors. The company’s
integrated applications connect all parts of a business into an intelligent suite on a digital
platform. SAP Business Technology Platform brings together application development, data
and analytics, integration, and AI into one platform. It is a central element of SAP’s “RISE
with SAP” offering.
SAP has approximately 269 million cloud users currently, more than 100 solutions covering
all business functions, and the largest cloud portfolio of any provider. SAP operates 57 data
centers at 32 locations in 15 countries.
# SAP IN NUMBERS
SAP, headquartered in Walldorf in the south of Germany, and listed in Frankfurt and New
York, is a market leader in business software, with 111,961 employees worldwide (as of
December 31, 2022). About 80% of its customers are small and midsize companies.
Total revenue in 2022 was €30.87 billion, including €12.56 billion from its cloud business
(which is expected to reach more than €22 billion by 2025). SAP works with about 24,200
partners and builds software solutions for 26 industries. In 2022, the headcount in research
and development equaled 30.5% of the total headcount. SAP operates more than 100
development locations worldwide, including 20 SAP Labs development centers and 17 Co-
Innovation Labs.
Today, SAP customers generate 87% of total global commerce ($46 trillion). 99 of the 100
largest companies in the world are SAP customers. 85 of the 100 largest companies in the
world are SAP S/4HANA customers.
In light of the worsening climate crisis, decreasing its own environmental impact is at the
top of SAP’s sustainability agenda. The company aims to become carbon neutral in its own
operations by 2023, two years earlier than previously planned.
SAP’s purpose is to help the world run better and improve people’s lives. SAP´s vision is to
enable every organization and every industry to become a network of intelligent, sustainable
enterprises.

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