Origins of SAP

This is the story of SAP. The kind of misses – really famous ones – that IBM has had in terms of BIG ideas and businesses that could have flourished from it – it is amazing that it is still thriving!

Five former IBM employees establish Systemanalyse und Programmentwicklung (SAP) in Mannheim, Germany in April 1972. The organization’s vision is to develop and market standard enterprise software to integrate all business processes. The idea comes to the group when they notice that client after client is developing the same, or very similar, enterprise computer programs.