SAP Trading forecasts and signals

Shares of SAP, a German developer of solutions for managing internal processes in large companies, are trading 20% below the maximum levels of 2021. Expectations regarding the tightening of the Fed's monetary policy forced investors to dump the securities of technology players. Nevertheless, it is clearly not worth completely abandoning such a promising direction: large, financially stable firms can become a good refuge in turbulent times.SAP is a conglomerate that occupies a leading position in a large number of segments: from ERP systems (data and operations management), to the management of business trips and related expenses (SAP Concur). Regular M&A transactions allow the company to remain relevant and do not harm profitability. Of course, after the corporation implements one of these services into its business processes, it will be problematic to abandon it, since this will require rebuilding the infrastructure. At the same time, it should be expected that the user will refuse to work with a smaller developer in order to expand cooperation with a large service provider like SAP, achieving greater efficiency.At the moment, SAP is actively transferring its customers to the subscription model. As we already know from the history of Adobe, Autodesk and other companies, this process can harm revenue in the short term, as customers will stop making one-time large payments. However, in the long run, the benefits should exceed all temporary ...

Promotions Bill.com they soared by 30% after the release of the latest financial report, as a result of which the EV/S coefficient reached an astronomical 48x. A solid figure for an issuer that has not managed to reach the break-even point. Recall that the company creates solutions for automating financial accounting. Management expects that in 2022, revenue will grow by 100-102%, to $476-480 million. At the same time, Wall Street is not so optimistic yet and forecasts growth of 66% yoy. It is important to remember one nuance: on June 1, the transaction for the purchase of Divvy (a similar company that focuses on SMEs) was closed. Its income was not fully taken into account in the recent report, whereas in 2022 its income will play an extremely important role. And in many ways it is thanks to Divvy Bill.com he is counting on such strong results. In other words, the growth next year can hardly be called organic. Without Divvy, the increase would have been about 60% yoy. This is also a good result, but it has already been included in the current prices. In the near future Bill.com it will continue to buy out competitors: a deal to buy Invoice2Go has already been announced, since expensive shares allow financing such operations. How long will this last? According to the results of the second quarter, the EPS amount was - $0.07,. At the same time, Wall Street expected $-0.04. Sooner or later, the problems with profit will become obvious to market participants, who will then begin to try to throw off the company's shares to each other like in the game “hot ...

SAP is a German technology company that should benefit more from the mitigation of quarantine measures than many other developers. Its solutions make it possible to simplify the management of internal processes. In particular, with the help of SAP Concur, firms can manage business trips and related expenses. Now the developer's shares are trading 17% below the highs of 2020.SAP is an extremely stable and large company. As practice shows, such players tend to be late with innovations. Nevertheless, in the case of a successful business renewal, they receive an additional boost for growth, which means that they are of increased interest to investors. At the moment, SAP transfers a significant part of its revenue on a regular basis (monthly payment). This process contributes to an increase in the company's share in the ERP market, which has increased from 11.9% to 12.3% since 2018. Thanks to a competent M&A strategy, SAP has achieved leadership in many industries through purchases: Concur, Ariba, Qualtrics, etc.SaaS transformation allows you to increase income in the long term and has a positive effect on the balance sheet. As an example, we can name such companies as Adobe, Autodesk and many others. By 2025, management plans to triple the size of the “cloud " business. However, in the short term, the change in the monetization model leads to a decrease in revenue: in the second quarter, it decreased by 1% y/y, to 6.67 billion ...

SAP is a German manufacturer of enterprise software that simplifies the management of internal processes. The company has more to gain from easing quarantine restrictions than many other tech firms. Thanks in large part to SAP Concur, a platform for managing business trips and related expenses. At the moment, SAP shares are trading 20% below their maximum values.In 2021, Wall Street expects EPS growth to reach $6.23, which means that the forward P/E ratio is 22.3 x – quite acceptable figures for this kind of company. Especially when you consider the fact that SAP tends to show better results than expected from it. One of the drivers of growth is the move to "cloud" technologies. It happens a little late, but given the huge number of products already available, this step should bring tangible benefits. Management expects that by 2025, cloud revenue will increase to 22 billion Euros. For comparison, by the end of 2021, this figure should be 9.2-9.4 billion Euros.In the first quarter, SAP's revenue decreased by 3% y/y, to 6.30 billion Euros. The dynamics in the foreign exchange market and quarantine restrictions had a negative effect on the indicator. The opening up of the economy and, in particular, the normalization of corporate life will allow the company to return to growth again. It is important to note that despite the difficulties, the gross margin increased by 250 basis points, to 72.3%. Thus, the work on improving the efficiency of SAP ...

Companies registered in the United States have always been larger than their European counterparts, but over the past year the gap has widened. The total market capitalization of the 10 leading European companies at the end of March 2021 was just over 2.3 trillion US dollars, according to the PwC rating of the Top 100 global companies of 2021. This is slightly more than Apple's market capitalization of $2.05 trillion.Meanwhile, the 10 largest US companies were worth a whopping $10.2 trillion, which is 4.4 times more than the 10 largest European companies. The gap widened compared to the previous year, when the 10 largest US companies were 3.5 times more valuable than the 10 largest European companies (USD 6.3 trillion versus USD 1.8 trillion). Moreover, the most expensive European company this year would not even get into the top ten in the United States.The gap widened mainly due to the fact that the US market, led by technology stocks, outperformed European markets for the year ending in March 2021. The five largest US companies by capitalization are technology companies. The value of the 10 largest US companies during the analyzed period increased by 69% compared to the growth of only 38% of the 10 largest European companies.This year, four companies fell out of the top 10 European companies: SAP, Royal Dutch Shell, Unilever and Medtronic. They were replaced by the Dutch semiconductor company ASML Holding; Prosus, the international Internet assets division of the South African Naspers group; Accenture, an Irish business services provider; and the German car manufacturer Volkswagen. Volkswagen and ASML also became the fastest-growing European companies that entered the Global Top 100 last year.The French luxury concern Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH) has risen to the top of the European rating, overtaking the slow-growing Swiss companies Nestle, Roche and ...

The "paper" era of companies is a thing of the past: competitive enterprises strive to automate business processes as much as possible and simplify their management. The computer technology market offers all kinds of software products for these purposes. One of the IT solutions designed to optimize the production process at a large enterprise is an ERP system. We understand what kind of product it is and who needs it.What is an ERP system and what is it for business?ERP - Enterprise Resource Planning. In other words, it is a strategy of combining and managing information about all aspects of the company's activities. Resources mean finances and other assets, customers with suppliers and personnel - in a word, what is subject to accounting, processing and analysis. And the practical implementation of the large-scale task of managing this data is achieved with the help of software - an ERP system.Large companies perform a huge number of operations every day. There is no question of performing them manually, but even automation does not completely solve the problem if it affects only certain aspects of the production process. And if the company is divided geographically: branches are located in different cities or even countries? It is difficult to imagine how to organize operational data exchange between departments and the main office when there is no unified planning and management system.ERP implementation helps to solve these problems. The system integrates business processes into one whole, as a result, it becomes easier and more efficient to manage the company. ERP solutions are vital for enterprises with an extensive structure and a large number of branches, especially geographically remote from each other. But a resource planning system is also useful for medium-sized businesses: a high degree of automation of processes has already become a prerequisite for survival in a competitive struggle.Here are the main tasks that are solved by implementing an ERP system:Automation of document flow. Company documents - invoices, invoices, price lists, reports - are stored and processed electronically. Operations with them are carried out automatically. Due to this, document flow is accelerated and simplified, errors related to the human factor are minimized. Such an important property of corporate data as transparency is also provided. The information in the system is visible, that is, at any time the user can get the necessary information. This eliminates a lot of unnecessary actions and saves time.Integration of management processes. The ERP system allows you to combine databases on procurement, production, sales, distribution, financial reporting, personnel, customers, suppliers - in a word, on any aspects of the company's activities. When all the information is stored in one place, it is much easier to track and analyze it.Effective planning of business processes. Prompt access to data helps to make the necessary calculations quickly and accurately. With the help of the ERP program, it is not difficult to take into account current changes and make the necessary adjustments to sales, procurement, production plans, and create corporate reporting.Ensuring the confidentiality of corporate information. For any company, the problem of data protection is relevant. In the ERP management system, you can configure different access levels for employees. Particularly important information will be available only to authorized persons, for example, senior management, and will be closed to ordinary managers. Clients, investors, and partners may also have limited access to enterprise databases.What should I do before implementing the system?The transition to ERP is a complex and expensive process, and the cost of error is too high. In order for the use of the system to bring the expected result - to help increase the parameters of business efficiency, this task needs to be taken responsibly. The first thing the company's management should do is to understand whether it is really necessary to implement ERP. And if so, to what extent.Now almost every enterprise uses at least one application to automate business processes. But it does not always work with the desired efficiency. What are the options for increasing returns? There are several of them: to optimize current software and methods of working with it; to abandon existing applications and implement a single resource planning system instead; to integrate existing programs with an ERP system. A detailed analysis is required for the right choice, but it is not easy to carry it out on your own: management experience alone is not enough. We need special knowledge that only specialists in the implementation of ERP systems have.So, the first step towards the realization of the task is to order an IT audit in a consulting company. Experts will analyze the existing applications and give detailed answers to the following questions:does the software used by the enterprise provide a sufficient degree of data security;how complete is the information provided by the existing applications;does the level of their automation meet the standards adopted in the industry;do existing IT solutions cope with the task of increasing the productivity of business processes in the enterprise;is the implementation of ERP justified from an economic point of view.After such a check, ERP consultants will provide a report with recommendations: what weaknesses are there in current IT solutions, what needs to be optimized and how best to do it. Often, according to the results of the audit, it turns out that a cost—effective way for a company is a full-scale implementation of an ERP system.But making such a decision is only the first step. To get the maximum possible return, it is important to choose the right system and implement it accordingly. Knowing a few basic rules will help you avoid typical mistakes at these stages.It is necessary to set specific goals: not "improving business efficiency", but, for example, "optimizing financial statements", "improving sales planning". When the task is formulated vaguely - it is unclear what to strive for. Accordingly, the necessary result is not achieved.The system must be adapted to the field of activity and customized to the needs of a particular company.It is important that the interests of employees of all departments are taken into account when implementing ERP. If only the management benefits from using the software, it will inevitably cause a protest among others and the result will be exactly the opposite.The program should have a simple interface that is accessible to all users.The implementation and configuration of ERP are the tasks of experienced specialists, and it is a mistake to entrust this to your own IT department.Comparison of two systems: which model is suitable?One of the advantages of ERP is its versatility. Thanks to the modular architecture and flexible configuration, the same system is suitable for enterprises regardless of the field of activity, whether it is production, trade or the provision of services. Therefore, there is no need to develop a personal software package for each company — it is enough to adapt ready-made solutions.Another advantage arising from the modularity principle is the ability to select ERP modules from different systems. It is not necessary to limit yourself to the functionality of one software package.What developments are popular on the Russian market today? In total, there are more than a dozen systems from foreign and domestic manufacturers, but two hold the leading positions - SAP and 1C. Each has its own distinctive features.1C ERP1C Company is a developer of business software. In 2013, she introduced a new product - the 1C: ERP Enterprise Management system. More than 100 specialists took part in the creation, and the quality of solutions was evaluated by the heads of the largest corporations.In the new system, the developers tried to embody the idea of universality. As a result, they managed to expand the scope of the program, to create a solution suitable for enterprises of various fields.Let's list the main directions in which 1C ERP capabilities are implemented.Control of the production process. It is carried out at two levels — general and local. At the upper stage of control, a schedule for the execution of orders for the enterprise is drawn up. The lower level is production management by individual departments. The capabilities of ERP 1C allow you to track weaknesses in the production process, thereby reducing the risk of deadlines and other troubles.Financial planning. The software solution from 1C is equipped with convenient tools for conducting all types of reporting.Tracking targets. You can set and analyze parameters for achieving your goals. Such monitoring allows you to evaluate the effectiveness of business processes and make the right management decisions.Personnel management. 1C ERP provides a wide range of tools for personnel management: accounting of employees' working hours, payroll, scheduling, vacation schedules, documentation of receptions and dismissals.Customer relationship management. The ERP system from 1C contains a full-fledged CRM functionality: a database of contacts, transaction control, event planning, a mechanism for processing claims, and so on.Sales and procurement management. To put up a commercial offer, arrange the shipment of goods, arrange delivery, select suppliers, form an order — these and other operations are available in 1C ERP.Cost accounting. The functionality provides for the control of the costs of the enterprise — material and labor.Monitoring of equipment maintenance and repair. You can monitor the condition of the equipment and plan timely maintenance and repair activities.On a note - The capabilities of the system are expanded due to special industry solutions. 1C ERP modules have been developed for the mining, metallurgical, energy, logging industry, agro-industrial complex, meat processing, poultry enterprises, construction, design organizations, real estate and other companies.SAP ERPThe SAP system is the leader in this class of programs: it is chosen by the majority of large companies around the world, and in Russia it accounts for up to 40% of the market. The solution is distinguished by the maximum coverage of the company's activities.The SAP structure consists of modules that can work separately and in a complex. Data exchange between them takes place in real time. All application components are connected to the basic module that ensures the functioning of the system.Here are just some of the SAP modules:"Finance" - is intended for the formation of all types of accounting statements;"Controlling" - the main function is accounting and planning of income and expenses;"Fixed Assets Management" - includes a wide range of features: from monitoring equipment repairs to investment management;"Production planning" - allows you to calculate all stages of the production process;"Personnel Management" - contains a complete set of tools for HR management: from payroll to training;"Sales" - automates all stages of the product sales process.As in 1C, SAP provides for the expansion of functionality due to industry modules. Special applications have been developed for the oil and gas, chemical, automotive, defense, engineering, pharmaceutical industry, aviation, telecommunications, trade, healthcare, banks, insurance companies.Read more: How to invest in stocks and what you need to knowSAP is an international ERP system. The implementation process in companies necessarily involves a localization stage, that is, adaptation to the local ...

SaaS is a cloud technology that allows you to use software online without installing it on a computer. The abbreviation SaaS stands for Software as a Service.SaaS resembles rental housing. You rent an apartment with furniture, appliances and even dishes for any period. You live there, and its owner is engaged in maintenance and repair.Most SaaS platforms, along with access to software, provide data storage services (projects, information, letters). But there are services where projects are not saved. In them, the work is organized according to the principle: worked — downloaded — left.ContentSoftware by subscriptionSaaS examplesAdvantages and disadvantages of SaaSA key factor in the development of SaaSWhat is a cloud service and why is it so calledData security in cloud servicesWill SaaS be able to completely replace local softwareSoftware by subscriptionSaaS services provide subscription services. Usually, such companies offer different tariffs, the cost of which increases along with the number of available tools and the size of the cloud storage.On many platforms, you can collect your tariff as in the constructor and pay only for the services that you use. Other services offer several formed tariffs for different tasks and requests.It is convenient that you can not pay for all the features of the service at once. Needs have changed — change the tariff.In addition, almost all services have a trial period or a demo tariff with reduced features for getting acquainted with the product.SaaS examplesSaaS products have been known for a long time. The first representatives of this model are considered to be mail services.Today, according to the SaaS model, they work:Text, image and video editors (GoogleDocs, Figma, Canva, Adobe);Social networks (Facebook, Linkledin, Twitter).Video and audio hosting services (YouTube, SoundCloud).CRM systems (Bitrix24, Salesforce).E-commerce systems (BigCommerce, Shopify).Site builders (WiX, Setup, uCoz).Enterprise Management Systems (1C: ERP, SAP Business One).The Unisender mailing service is also a SaaS service that provides tools for email marketers by subscription.There are whole complexes of SaaS services. For example, Google and Yandex is the postal service, document editors, video applications, tools, online marketing, drives to store information.Advantages and disadvantages of SaaSCloud technologies are convenient to use, and this is not the only advantage of such services.Advantages of SaaS:Low price. A software subscription costs much less than the purchase of a license.The ability to work together. In many services, several performers can work on one project at the same time.Low probability of data loss due to technical problems. It is not terrible if the computer freezes during operation, the lights are turned off or you forget to save. In SaaS, data is saved immediately as it is introduced.Account availability from different devices. You can start doing something in the office, and then go to a meeting by taxi and continue working from the phone.Regular updates. Cloud services are constantly updated by a team of specialists without any effort on the part of users.Reducing the load on the user's gadgets and equipment. You do not need to use memory to install many different programs — a browser is enough. There is also no need to buy expensive powerful equipment — the entire load falls on the servers of the service provider.But even such a popular model has some disadvantages:High price in the long run. Using a paid service for a long time may be more expensive than paying for licensed software once.The risk of information loss. All data is stored with the provider. If the servers stop working or are hacked, you may lose valuable information.Low operating speed at high loads. The capabilities of the service provider's equipment are not unlimited, if a large number of users are connected to the cloud at the same time, the speed of work decreases.A key factor in the development of SaaSRemember how we installed software before the advent of SaaS — we searched for hacked programs from friends or downloaded keygen on the Internet. Those who could afford it paid for the license.Today, we are already taking full advantage of the capabilities of cloud services, without even thinking about how much they have made our lives easier. Now we can close the laptop, come to work, enter the username and password to log in to the account on the computer and continue working from the same place.Since SaaS is based on the principle of providing services via the Internet, the development of cloud technologies is directly related to the history of the world Wide Web.The abbreviation SaaS appeared in 2001. Since that time, the popularity of cloud technologies has been growing along with the speed of the Internet.The emergence of high-speed networks, wi-fi and the constant improvement of mobile communication standards invariably entails new upgrades in the field of SaaS. The throughput of services, the speed of information processing, the volume of storage are increasing, the tools are becoming more complex and expanding.What is a cloud service and why is it so calledSaaS is a cloud service, the highest form of cloud technologies, which have their own hierarchy:IaaS is an infrastructure as a service, for example, a virtual data center or a virtual server.PaaS is a platform as a service, or a cloud development environment.SaaS - software as a service, or a ready-made application for work, which is located in the cloud.All together, it is called XaaS — "everything as a service", where X is considered as an unknown variable, instead of which you can substitute the desired letter.Cloud computing is called computing that is performed simultaneously on several servers connected by a network. In this scenario, data processing and storage takes place in a place that is difficult to imagine as something concrete — it is ephemeral and elusive, like a cloud.  The user cannot touch it or see what is hidden inside.A less popular name for cloud technologies is cluster technologies. Cluster translates as a swarm (of bees), a cluster, a brush (of grapes). This word is used in Internet technologies to refer to a group of computers connected together through a network.Data security in cloud servicesWe actively use SaaS services for work and personal tasks. Photos and correspondence are stored in mailers and messengers, projects are stored in application repositories, and information about costs and cost is stored in the enterprise management system. All this is our data, which is unique and highly valued.An important principle of cloud work is that the user's information belongs only to him. Self-respecting SaaS services provide customers with the ability to export data and leave the platform at any time. But not everyone does this. Therefore, before settling on a cloud service, it is necessary to study this issue.SaaS services are constantly working on the security of customer data, introducing new means of protection. But the professional community has not yet come to a consensus on the reliability of SaaS. Despite all the efforts of providers, the risks remain. Moreover, even large companies are not immune from them.The threats to which customer information is exposed in the cloud can be divided into three categories.Physical data lossUsers from the 2000s have repeatedly found themselves in situations where a broken hard drive or a washed USB flash drive entailed a lot of problems associated with the loss of information.In cloud storage, such situations are practically excluded. Several servers are used for calculations at once, data is stored in different places, there are backups. Therefore, a technical malfunction of one or more servers does not lead to data loss.If the server is damaged, the technical team of the service will work in emergency mode until the problem is fixed.Hacker attacksHackers break into cloud servers for various reasons: to collect information about user behavior, to damage large businesses, to steal unique data, assets, money. An attack on the cloud is sometimes organized by competitors who want to undermine the reputation of the service.In 2014, there was a major scandal related to the leakage of Apple user data. A specialized iCloud storage was hacked, and personal information was available to everyone. After this incident, Apple seriously took up the security issue and installed several additional shields: password verification, two-factor authentication, data encryption.There are many such examples in the history of SaaS, and each incident entails the emergence of new ways of protection. Today, a user's account is an impregnable fortress, but black programmers continue to look for ways to get inside.Illegal actions of the owners or employees of the SaaS serviceOne of the fears of SaaS users is what if my data is sold by the service itself?The second level of legal protection is an agreement between the service provider and the client. To use the service, we sign a public offer agreement (check the box without reading it). It is here that it is stated in which cases the service provider company has the right to use your data. This is usually a standard document. However, owners can leave loopholes for themselves to study user behavior.But even such a serious protection does not exclude unpleasant situations. In 2018, the data of 87 million Facebook users were transferred without their knowledge to an analytical firm that used the information to promote Trump's election campaign and the PR campaign for the referendum on Britain's exit from the European Union. It is believed that all this happened with the tacit consent of the Facebook management. The company lost about $ 60 billion in a few days due to a drop in shares, the "Delete Facebook" campaign swept through Twitter, the social network experienced a serious reputational crisis. In 2019, a US federal court ordered Facebook to pay a 5 billion fine and review the terms of protecting the privacy of its users.Such incidents cause serious damage to cloud service providers, so they are trying their best to protect user data. But, as they say, God protects the safe.How to secure your data:Try not to store information in cloud services, the theft of which will cause serious problems, or encrypt it additionally. You can use both ordinary archives with passwords, and special software for encrypting data.Store information on several services at once or duplicate it on physical media.Use all the opportunities to improve security: do not be lazy to come up with strong passwords that are different for all sites; use two-factor authentication; put passwords on gadgets and computers.Carefully read the contract, before signing it, study all the information and reviews about the provider with whom you plan to cooperate.Install a good antivirus and antispyware.Will SaaS be able to completely replace local softwareSaaS services have made our life easier. There are even devices on the market where only browsers are installed, and all the rest of the software is available from the cloud (for example, a Chromebook laptop).It is not surprising that cloud technologies have been experiencing an unprecedented boom in recent years. In 2019, the profit from the sale of services for this model worldwide increased by 26% compared to 2018.In 2020, the development of SaaS was affected by the coronavirus pandemic and the transition of many companies to remote work. Key cloud giants have doubled their revenues during the year, and by 2025, the value of the entire cloud technology market is projected to double.SaaS services have seriously reformatted our lives. The creation of virtual offices made it possible to introduce a remote mode of operation. The State of Remote Work global survey in 2018 showed that before the quarantine, employees of 16% of companies around the world worked completely remotely, 40% of employers offered a choice. For comparison — in 1995, the number of organizations with the option of remote work was only 9%.After the quarantine began, entire industries moved to the cloud — IT, design, journalism, marketing and other areas for which the constant presence of an employee in the office is not necessary. The trend of 2021 is the rejection of offices, announced by a number of IT companies.But not everyone can afford to completely switch to SaaS technologies. For example, professional work with sound and video is still carried out on local software — a sufficiently powerful cloud service has not yet been created for this purpose. Adds a fly in the ointment and the fear of data loss when an account is hacked.Therefore, experts predict that in the foreseeable future, SaaS platforms and physical media will work in tandem, and we will be able to choose when it is more convenient to use local software, and when it is more convenient to use subscription ...