Mainframe software house SAP AG, based in Walldorf, Germany is to release English, French and Dutch versions of its SAP System R/3 Unix business software in January 1993. Based on SAP’s wide ranging R/2 management information and financial software for mainframes, R/3 is already being piloted in the UK and on the continent. German versions were released in July, and Spanish and Italian languages follow in July 1993, with Eastern European versions to be added by the end of 1993. The first R/3 pilot site in the UK is a subsidiary of German natural detergents company, Henkel Chemicals AG, which will run R/3 on a Hewlett-Packard Co 890/200 database server accessed by X-terminals at the front end and serving 250 users. The software will run on IBM Corp, Hewlett-Packard, Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG, Digital Equipment Corp and Compagnie des Machines Bull SA Unix systems and support all client-server configurations. SAP’s founder, Dr Hasso Plattner, said the company was in no hurry to convert for other systems: It is difficult pleasing so many hardware partners. We are drawing up another list which includes ICL Plc and Sun Microsystems Inc. He also said that although R/3 will not have R/2’s functionality until the end of 1993, he expects it to exceed R/2’s performance by the end of 1994. Existing R/2 customers will get a free copy of R/3. However, R/3 is not seen as a competitor to R/2: It (R/2) will exist as long as IBM is still investing in mainframes, commented Plattner. In the UK, Plattner confessed that R/2 had a limited presence of about 30 sites. The marketing strategy had been to push R/2 rather than the unreleased R/3: It is our cash cow. We told people that if they wanted R/3 they would have to come to Germany. A spokesman from Hewlett-Packard commented that this had caused SAP to lose out to Oracle Corp in the UK: But SAP is now revising its R/3 marketing strategy, he said.
