1. Filing Information: April 2012, IDC #233842, Volume: 1
Sales Advisory Service: Insight
I N S I G H T
I n c r e a s i n g S a l e s P r o d u c t i v i t y T h r o u g h I n n o v a t i v e
T e c h n o l o g y : A C a s e S t u d y o f S A P ' s D e p l o y m e n t o f i P a d s
Irina Zvagelsky Michael Gerard
Bob O'Donnell
I D C O P I N I O N
There is no doubt that the technology industry is maturing, and competition is
becoming fiercer. Improving sales productivity has been on the mind of vendor sales
organizations for some time now. The challenge, however, is to find creative ways in
which to positively impact sales productivity. SAP has found this through its
deployment of iPads to its entire sales force. Key insights to this rollout include:
 Obtain executive sponsorship early to help accelerate decision making. Field
sales and the board of directors demanded a mobile strategy to help increase
sales productivity, which in turn helped expedite approvals on all levels.
 Simplify the process, in both deployment and regular use, to help increase
adoption and usage.
 Offer information and tools on the iPad that are valuable to both sales reps and
their managers to help make this a truly mobile solution that will increase sales
productivity and effectiveness.
I N T H I S I N S I G H T
This IDC Insight, offered as part of IDC's Sales Advisory Service, is based upon an
interview with SAP's CIO Oliver Bussmann and his team regarding the company's
rollout of iPads for its sales force to increase sales productivity.
S I T U A T I O N O V E R V I E W
B a c k g r o u n d
SAP is an $80 billion software company that specializes in making enterprise
software to manage business operations and customer relations. With over 53,000
employees in over 50 countries, SAP is a market leader in enterprise application
software.
GlobalHeadquarters:5SpeenStreetFramingham,MA01701USAP.508.872.8200F.508.935.4015www.idc.com

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O b j e c t i v e s f o r D e p l o y i n g t h e i P a d
SAP's decision to deploy iPads to the firm's sales force stems from SAP being one of
the first companies to go into enterprise mobility. SAP's objectives for iPad
deployment included:
 To nurture mobile mindset for all SAP employees — "We believe that a majority
of workers will use mobile devices and that this will be the primary device to get
Internet access."
 To provide a device-agnostic platform — "Since the pace of innovation is so fast,
we need to make sure we were ready to support future devices."
 To mobilize the sales force, enabling them to do business in the moment
 To be a role model for customers embracing the mobile platform (i.e.,
demonstrate to customers the positive impact that a mobile sales strategy can
have on productivity)
Additionally, by equipping its sales force with a tool that is used to access pertinent
sales assets from anywhere and at anytime, SAP hoped its sales teams would be
able to pull in greater amounts of wins, quicker. Moreover, since the technology is
able to process large amounts of information to know real time where the business is
moving, sales productivity from both the account rep and the management levels
would be impacted.
SAP's focus on innovation makes a difference of how fast the company, internally,
responds to needs. This, in addition to both field sales and the board of directors
demanding a mobile strategy to help increase sales productivity, helped expedite
approvals on all levels.
D e p l o y m e n t P r o c e s s
To deploy the iPads to SAP's sales force, SAP created an internal Web site that not
only allowed the account executives to get familiar with the new technology but also
provided an easy tutorial on steps they would need to take to obtain the iPad. Sales
reps were able to go to this site to watch three one-minute videos of how to configure
the device, where to find applications, and so forth.
Having the strategy in place worked extremely well for the deployment process as it
was a simple way to get information out to the intended audience. Additionally, the
strategy provided an easy way for executives to track how the deployment was going
by tracking the number of Web site hits as well as enrollment in Afaria, SAP's flexible
mobile device management and security platform that is used within the iPads.
Moreover, if needed, the videos could be modified quickly, which helped speed up the
deployment process overall.
In addition to the Web site, weekly meetings were held to review key measurements,
including:
 Number of devices that were being procured

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 Number of people who received the device
 Number of people enrolled in Afaria (SAP's business analytics toolbox that is
deployed on iPads)
The rollout went very quickly. Within 60 days, 95% of SAP's sales force had
completed the deployment process, including enrolling in Afaria. By the end of 2011,
SAP had deployed 14,000 iPads globally, making this one of the largest enterprise
deployments in the world.
I m p a c t o n S a l e s P r o d u c t i v i t y
SAP's strategy of utilizing a mobile solution to increase sales productivity stems from
the solution's ease of use across multiple productivity components. Allowing mobile
business intelligence to sit on the devices makes it easy for sales reps to access
information anywhere and at any time. Reps can be more productive when preparing
for customer interactions and, in turn, be better prepared when meeting with IT
buyers, which is something that, according to IDC's annual Buyer Experience
research, sales reps are consistently struggling with. (Clients of IDC's Sales Advisory
Service are able to contact izvagelsky@idc.com or mgerard@idc.com for the full
Buyer Experience Study report)
SAP has numerous mobile applications. Some of the more popular/essential
applications are:
 SAP StreamWork 2.0, mobile version
 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer Mobile
 SAP BusinessObjects Experience
 SAP SSO
 Afaria
 Gallery Launcher
 Adobe Connect Mobile (for SAP Connect sessions)
 CRM at SAP Sales Mobile (see Figure 1 for a screenshot) — Users are able to
access the CRM system to both obtain and input information in real time. Key
features include:
 Ability to access SAP CRM accounts, contacts, leads, opportunities, quotes,
and orders
 Ability to plan calls with prebuilt tools, which include account fact sheets,
surveys, and marketing/sales assets
 SAP Box
 SAP Pricing

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 SAP Now (see Figure 2 for a screenshot) — This application allows users to stay
connected to the company while on the go.
 Email/calendar/contacts
 Citrix Receiver for WRS@SAP
 VPN
F I G U R E 1
C R M a t S A P S a l e s M o b i l e
Source: SAP, 2012

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F I G U R E 2
S A P N o w
Source: SAP, 2012
In addition to the popular/essential applications, sales reps are able to use their iPads
during a sales pitch, with applications built by SAP and other companies. For
instance, SAP rolled out 20–30 demo applications that reps are able to use during
their sales presentations.
Using this mobile device also helps SAP sell its software. SAP's head of EMEA sales
focuses his reps on optimizing the impact of the iPads on SAP's software sales. "I tell
my sales reps that we're not selling iPads, we're selling software" ... we do that by
demoing end-to-end business processes for that customer ... and the customer's
whole body language changes and they sit up to listen."
Other important items to note include the following:
 With both the iPad and the transportation between the iPad and corporate
network being encrypted, users are able to have full access to email, including
attachments, when using their iPads. SAP is currently moving toward email
encryption to provide the utmost security possible.
 "iPads are great to consume information, not to create it. Thus we cannot
eliminate the use of PCs right now. Tablets will be used more for creation as
applications become more sophisticated; however, there are certain activities like
intense data entry and slide creation that will always be easier on a laptop if one

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is available. More and more though we will see business users only taking tablets
with them on business trips."
K e y S u c c e s s F a c t o r s
SAP's key success factors for rolling out iPads to help increase sales productivity
include:
 Executive sponsorship that helped accelerate decision making
 Strong demand from the field to be mobilized
 SAP's position in the marketplace as a leader in enterprise mobility that has the
company's partners and customers expecting it
 Simple process for deployment, which include a Web site and tutorials
F U T U R E O U T L O O K
Establishing and maintaining a mobile solution to increase sales rep productivity
provides vendor sales reps the ability to work anywhere and anytime. Since
customers are asking more of vendors, companies that have a mobile solution in
place and are executing it effectively and efficiently will have a clear competitive
advantage in the market. The most productive sales organizations in the future will be
those that will best establish a mobile strategy that will drive sales rep productivity.
L E A R N M O R E
R e l a t e d R e s e a r c h
 Social Collaboration for Sales: Cutting Through the Hype (IDC #233340, March
2012)
 Top Action Items for a New VP of Sales (IDC #232588, January 2012)
 Leveraging Sales Enablement to Improve Sales Productivity: A Best Practice
Case Study at T-Systems (IDC #232490, January 2012)
 Sales and Marketing Leadership Meeting Highlights, October 2011: Customer
Panels, Sales Enablement, Lead Management, and IDC Productivity
Benchmarks (IDC #231281, November 2011)
 Sales Enablement — 90% Process, 10% Technology: A Best Practice Case
Study of Sales Enablement at Oracle (IDC #230546, October 2011)
 IDC's 2012 Sales Investment and Productivity Planner: Trends, Benchmarks, and
Essential Guidance for Technology Sales Organizations (IDC #230919, October
2011)

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 Best Practices in Preparing Sales Managers to Be Coaches (IDC #227923, May
2011)
 IDC Sales Leadership Board Meeting Notes: February 15 and 16, 2011 (IDC
#227269, March 2011)
 Best Practices in Sales Performance Measurement: A Focus on Productivity
(IDC #226727, February 2011)
 Content Management and Sales Enablement Survey Results (IDC #225701,
December 2010)
 IDC's Worldwide Sales and Marketing Taxonomy, 2010: Guidelines for Cost
Control and Resource Allocation (IDC #225661, December 2010)
 Update: The SAVO User Summit 2010 (IDC #225593, November 2010)
 IDC CMO and Sales Leadership Board Meeting Notes: October 13 and 14, 2010
(IDC #225486, November 2010)
 Best Practices for Customer Intelligence for Sales — Companion Presentation
(IDC #225791, November 2010)
 IDC's 2011 Trends, Benchmarks, and Essential Guidance for Technology Sales
Organizations (IDC #225089, September 2010)
 Executive Sponsor Program: Exceeding Expectations of Your Largest Customers
(IDC #225024, September 2010)
 IDC's Sales Best Practices Series: Customer Intelligence for Sales (IDC
#224520, September 2010)
 Key Success Factors for Launching and Best Leveraging Your Sales Force
Automation Application (IDC #224737, September 2010)
 The Next-Generation Sales Operations Team (IDC #224122, July 2010)
 The Next Generation Sales Operations Team — Companion Presentation (IDC
#224354, July 2010)
 The IDC Sales and Marketing Automation Framework (IDC #224215, July 2010)
 IDC's Sales Best Practices Series: Account Planning (IDC #223295, May 2010)
 2010 Technology Sales Barometer: Maintaining the Momentum for Productivity
Improvements (IDC #222485, April 2010)

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