German software titan SAP is targeting mid-sized companies with a
pre-configured enterprise resource planning (ERP) appliance, built in
conjunction with partners Intel and NEC.

The package, which customers can use straight out of the box, ships with a
pre-configured version of SAP's mid-market ERP software, Business
All-in-One, running on Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise operating system and
with SAP's MaxDB database. The servers are based on Intel's Xeon
processors.

SAP is targeting companies with between 100 and 500 employees, where there
is a need for sophisticated business planning software but not a large IT
team to support the software. The preconfigured servers will help "drive
down operating costs," noted Henning Kagermann, SAP's chief executive.

Initially, SAP will ship versions of the product aimed organisations in the
manufacturing, service and trade industries. It will begin shipping in
Germany and should be available across Europe in the first half of 2008.