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5
PART V: C
ASE
S
TUDIES
This section presents some case studies to demonstrate what Cloud services
can look like in a production environment.
5.1
AppSphere and Heliotron: ERP in your pocket
AppSphere is a young start‐up with 15 staff and a couple of select key
accounts. Heliotron is an enterprise with a company history that goes back
35
years; it has some 25,000 customers and around 19 million product
variants. Both companies decided on the SAP Business ByDesign solution, an
on‐demand software solution, that is, they serve their entire line of business
needs via the Internet. This has allowed Helitron Kerzen GmbH to design
more efficient workflows and given it the ability to process enterprise data
at anytime and anywhere.
The family business specialises in economical table lamps made of liquid
wax, which it supplies to a surprisingly heterogeneous group of customers;
churches on the one hand, and international hotels and caterers on the
other. Customers can configure their candles individually from multiple
components, thus allowing for an enormous variety of choice. The sales
representatives can enter their orders online today, directly after talking to
the customer, using either a tablet computer or a smartphone. In former
times, they had to drive to the office or use a fax. At head office, the data
was then entered manually. The new software has become a huge time
saving device.
In adopting an on‐demand solution, Heliotron is in line with the state‐of‐the‐
art. According to recent surveys, three quarters of all German enterprises
use software and data services from the Cloud. This means that applications
are accessed in the browser via the Internet, which is how SAP Business
ByDesign works. The comprehensive business solution combines a fully‐
fledged ERP system including integrated customer and project management.
Instead of paying for classical licenses, customers only pay a monthly
subscription fee per user and can add or remove users at any time
depending on business needs. In addition to this, the data is accessible from
on the road.
A young company by the name of AppSphere AG in Ettlingen benefits from
this. The vendor‐independent IT service provider develops solutions for
companies and government offices based on IT virtualization, enterprise
mobility and Cloud computing, and does so with considerable success. Sales
