Small Ontario firm gains sizeable benefits with SAP rollout

SAP is trying to recast its image as a software provider -- not just large enterprise customers -- but also to smaller and mid-sized firms.
2/26/2010 6:05:00 AM By: Brian Jackson

When Ray Corbeil was hired by a 150-employee gold mining business in Northern Ontario to select and deploy enterprise resource planning software, he didn't expect to consider SAP.

The director of cost management and administration at Timmons-based St. Andrew's Goldfields Ltd. thought of SAP software as something a much larger enterprise would use.

But when he did take a look at it, he was surprised to see it was more affordable than he'd thought.

"We were looking for not just a financial core, but materials managing, payroll system, maintenance, human resources, that sort of thing," Corbeil recalls.

He said SAP's Business All-in-One software covered all those bases in a single implementation.

Using Markham, Ont.-based Illumiti, an SAP channel partner, the mining company was able to rollout 30 licences of the software for $300,000. That included one year of software maintenance and some non-SAP related costs.

SAP has been funneling investment into a product that suits mid-sized businesses, says Jamie Fryer, vice-president of Illumiti.

"It's the same software that the large businesses use," he says. "The difference is that you can buy the accelerator."

Page Navigation 1) SAP software competitively priced for smaller shops. - Page 1
2) Various templates make it easier for smaller businesses to customize software. - Page 2
3) Recession prompted SAP to change approach with smaller firms. - Page 3

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