SAP迎来收购SuccessFactors一周年大考

    德国企业软件巨头SAP掏出34亿美元收购硅谷人力资源软件公司SuccessFactors已经一年有余。收购至今，欧美两地的工程师一直在努力实现SuccessFactors云应用与SAP本地软件的融合，以便客户能更容易地启用这款较新的软件。

    除此以外，还有哪些改变？一年前收购时，SAP称，SuccessFactors将继续作为一家独立公司进行运作，如今这项策略已经发生了改变。SuccessFactors已被纳入SAP新近组建的“云业务部门”，这个部门还包含其他几项云应用业务。SuccessFactors的CEO拉斯•达尔加德领导着SAP的所有云业务（除了新近收购的、目前仍保持独立的互联网企业商务网站Ariba）。为了协助自己掌管新的云业务部门，最近达尔加德聘请了两位新总裁：杰夫•劳滕巴赫尔和肖恩•普瑞斯，分别负责云客户关系管理软件和SuccessFactors的旗舰人力资源软件。（自收购以来，SuccessFactors也有一些高管离开——前总裁道格•邓纳莱恩于去年离职，另外离职的还有前首席财务官和首席市场官。）

    新的领导团队需要说服SAP客户群购买SuccessFactors应用（和其他云产品），让他们相信引入SuccessFactors是为了让其他SAP服务融为一体。为了推动销售人员能合作销售(包括云产品和本地软件)，SAP为所有的云产品交易支付“双份佣金”，即给传统软件销售代表和云销售人员同时支付佣金。

    但所有这些调整和融合是否能够让SAP云业务于2015年实现收入20亿美元的既定目标？据SAP称，其年度云业务收入已接近8.5亿欧元，但最近的季度收益数据显示，云业务占全部收入的比重仍然很小。（SAP下次业绩报告将于4月19日发布）。而且，即便达尔加德和SAP新的云业务总裁们能够实现收入目标，他们的高毛利本地软件销量能否达标仍然不得而知，而SAP素以高毛利的本地软件著称。

    不过，有些客户看起来对这样的新安排感到满意。

    可口可乐装瓶商Coca Cola Enterprises使用很多的SAP本地软件和云应用，公司副总裁大卫•克拉姆雷称：“过去（SAP和SuccessFactors）这两家在很多领域相互竞争，现在它们变成了一家，我们看到它们的产品融合得更好了。”

    除了最新组建的云业务部门，SAP还在力推一种名为“HANA”的新型内存数据库技术，同时向企业客户销售移动产品。这家公司目前正在超越传统业务、向更新的科技转移，而上述所有行动都是这个计划的一部分。向SuccessFactors和其CEO达尔加德支付34亿美元（有很高溢价）是这个计划的重要组成部分。随着如今SuccessFactors正式纳入SAP云业务部门，向达尔加德汇报的管理人员增加，同时更多的销售人员正在积极销售传统软件和云软件，或许我们很快就会看到这项策略到底能不能奏效。（财富中文网）

    It's been over a year since German enterprise software giant SAP shelled out $3.4 billion forSuccessFactors, a Silicon Valley-based maker of human resources software. Since then, engineers on both sides of the Atlantic have been hard at work getting SuccessFactors's cloud-based apps to work alongside SAP's on-premise offerings, so that customers can more easily adopt the newer software.

    What else has changed? At the time of the acquisition, SAP (SAP) said SuccessFactors would continue to run as an independent company, but that strategy has shifted. SuccessFactors has been folded into SAP's newly formed "Cloud Business Unit," which also includes a handful of other cloud-based applications. SuccessFactors CEO Lars Dalgaard now leads the company's entire cloud business (with the exception of another recent cloud acquisition, business commerce network Ariba, which remains independent). To help him oversee the new business unit, Dalgaard recently hired two new presidents: Jeff Lautenbach, who is responsible for the company's cloud-based customer relationship management software, and Shawn Price, who heads up SuccessFactors's flagship HR software. (Meanwhile, some executives have departed post-acquisition -- Doug Dennerline, former president at SuccessFactors, left last year, as did the company's former CFO and CMO).

    The new leadership needs to convince SAP's customer base to buy SuccessFactors (and other cloud-based) products, and to convince customers that SuccessFactors was brought in to buy into other SAP offerings. To get sales reps to work together and sell both cloud and on-premise purchases, SAP has been "double comp-ing" all cloud deals, meaning it is paying a commission to both the traditional software reps and cloud salespeople.

    But can all of this rejiggering and integrating get SAP to reach its stated goal of 2 billion euros in cloud revenue by 2015? The company says its annual cloud revenue run rate is already approaching 850 million euros, though cloud revenue from its most recently reported quarter was still a small fraction of the company's overall sales (SAP next reports earnings on April 19). And even if Dalgaard and the company's new cloud business presidents are able to meet their revenue target, it's not clear what that will do to the number of highly lucrative, on-premise deals SAP is known for.

    Some customers, though, seem happy with the new arrangement.

    "It used to be that the two [SAP and SuccessFactors] were competing on many fronts," says David Crumley, a VP at Coca Cola Enterprises, which uses a number of SAP's on-premise and cloud-based applications. "Now they're coming together and we're seeing better product integration between the two suites."

    In addition to its newly formed cloud business, SAP is also pushing a new in-memory database technology called HANA and selling mobile products to enterprise customers, all part of the company's plan to move beyond its legacy business and invest in newer technologies. Shelling out $3.4 billion -- a significant premium -- for SuccessFactors and its CEO Dalgaard was a big part of that plan. With SuccessFactors now officially folded into the larger company's cloud business unit, a growing leadership team that reports to Dalgaard, and sales people who are actively selling both traditional and cloud-based software, we may soon find out whether that bet will pay off.