SAP ramps up its portal presence

Right on the heels of its decision to purchase TopTier, comes SAP's announcement that it has formed a new company in partnership with Yahoo. SAP Portals will be headed by TopTier CEO Shai Agassi and dedicated to developing and marketing comprehensive, open-enterprise portal and business intelligence products.

The new company, which will initially employ 700, combines the assets of three units of the SAP group: TopTier Software (to be acquired by SAP AG); the current SAP AG general business unit dedicated to the mySAP Workplace enterprise portal and mySAP Business Intelligence solutions; and eSAP GmbH, an SAP professional services subsidiary focusing on enterprise portal and e-business projects.

The company will license its technology outside the SAP group of companies and expects a significant portion of its revenues to accrue from outside the SAP installed base. SAP Portals’ solutions will be available to customers directly as part of the mySAP.com e-business platform.