SAP Offers Virtual Showroom To Test Drive mySAP.com

Potential customers and users of SAP now can try out the enterprise software giant's new portal, mySAP.com, via the Internet. Using SAP's Internet Demonstration and Evaluation System (IDES), businesses and users can demonstrate and evaluate role-based and industry-specific software packages via the Internet. SAP's goal with the Web-based showroom for its software is to enable employees at all levels -- including executives and shipping clerks -- to experience the firm's package software tailored to different industries and individual employees' roles. "With nothing more than a Web browser, everyone can gain personal experience with SAP solutions," says Guenther Tolkmit, chief marketing officer of SAP AG in Walldorf, Germany. Here's how it works: A customer, prospect, or SAP business partner looking for software to enable e-commerce requests a user account via the Internet and logs onto the system, which is automatically tailored to that person's industry and relevant business processes. Unfortunately, the virtual showroom currently is designed only for service industries such as consulting and employment agencies. SAP promises that it will soon add other industry-specific solutions for automotive, consumer products, and retail.