The deal has T&E and governmental contracts implications, not to mention impacts from and to companies like IBM, Uber, American Express, and United, and literally hundreds of others. Adding Concur, SAP’s business network will be even more massive than before. The news from SAP tells of the more than US $600 billion SAP already interacts with, and of the $1.2 trillion in corporate travel spend SAP’s commerce comes into play with. Bill McDermott, CEO of SAP, offered this via the company’s press:
“The acquisition of Concur is consistent with our relentless focus on the business network. We are making a bold move to innovate the future of business within and between companies. With Ariba, Fieldglass and Concur, SAP is the undisputed business network company. We are redefining how businesses conduct commerce across goods and services, contingent workforces, travel and entertainment. With the SAP HANA platform, the possibilities to innovate new business models around Concur and the network are limitless.”
The “meat” of this deal is about SAP getting their cloud based technologies back on tract, according to some experts. Concur, one of the best cloud based solutions for corporate travel, fills out nicely an expansive move by an otherwise monolithic company. Also, Concur’s highly successful TripIt could factor mightily if SAP has plans to create complimentary prototypes for their platforms. TripIt, is something of a poster child for how to meld mobile with SAAS management in the cloud. It remains to be seen how SAP will leverage such services.