SAP credited for digital commerce technology

By Kim Yoo-chul

Leading German software provider SAP said Monday that its technology for use in digital commerce platform was ranked top in the latest survey by U.S.-based market research firm Gartner.

The survey said digital commerce platforms are critical to companies' ability to compete in a digital world and increase sales.

In line with that perception, Gartner evaluated 11 vendors’ products from five critical capabilities and three use cases to assist technology leaders and managers of digital commerce in their endeavors.

SAP said its hybris platform was found to have the most-reliable digital commerce software in three categories ― Multichannel Enterprises Selling to Consumers, Enterprises Selling Globally to Consumers and Enterprises Selling to Other Enterprises of SMBs ― in the Gartner survey.

“SAP hybris supports both the selling and scheduling of services. It also offers a rather robust platform for supporting nondigital products and services, with fairly strong support for localization,” the survey titled Critical Capabilities for Digital Commerce said.

Gartner said the SAP hybris software supports all the standard personalization features for individual buyers with the exception of gift registries.

“It has one of the most-robust sets of personalization features for corporate buyers, supporting the fact that most of its customers are business-to-business (B2B). It also supports multiple channels, including many out-of-the-box features for mobile Web and app development,” Gartner said. “B2B and business to consumer (B2C) customers typically rated SAP hybris functionality well above average in most categories.”

Consumer demand for increased functionality is causing vendors to expand their offerings through additional development, integration, acquisition and partnerships.

On the surface, most vendors appear to offer the same functionality; however, deeper exploration yields many subtle product differences among their offerings.

“Critical capabilities product ratings can change significantly, depending on which functionality is valued and by how much,” the survey said.