Image of SAP

SAP

Organization

A large European software company that Nadella recalls partnering with in the 90s, illustrating Microsoft's history of building ecosystems with international partners.


First Mentioned

1/22/2026, 4:20:10 AM

Last Updated

1/22/2026, 4:25:52 AM

Research Retrieved

1/22/2026, 4:25:51 AM

Summary

SAP SE is a German multinational software giant headquartered in Walldorf, Germany, recognized as the world's leading provider of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. Founded in 1972 by five former IBM engineers, the company has grown into the largest non-American software firm by revenue and, as of June 2025, the most valuable European company by market capitalization. SAP's software serves as the backbone for complex business processes across 180 countries, with a significant presence in the Fortune 500 where approximately 85% of companies utilize its solutions. The company has historically engaged in strategic partnerships with technology leaders like Intel and Microsoft to drive innovation and ecosystem value, and it is currently a major constituent of the DAX and Euro Stoxx 50 stock market indices.

Referenced in 1 Document
Research Data
Extracted Attributes
  • Founders

    Dietmar Hopp, Klaus Tschira, Hans-Werner Hector, Hasso Plattner, Claus Wellenreuther

  • Industry

    Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software

  • Full Name

    SAP SE

  • Headquarters

    Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

  • Stock Indices

    DAX, Euro Stoxx 50

  • Employee Count

    109,973

  • Market Position

    Largest non-American software company by revenue

  • Meaning of Name

    Systems, Applications, and Products in Data Processing (Systeme, Anwendungen und Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung)

Timeline
  • SAP GbR founded in Germany by five former IBM engineers. (Source: Wikipedia)

    1972-01-01

  • Launched first commercial product, the RF financial accounting system (cornerstone of SAP R/1). (Source: Web Search (Wikipedia))

    1973-01-01

  • SAP GmbH founded as a sales and support subsidiary. (Source: Web Search (Wikipedia))

    1976-01-01

  • SAP GbR dissolved and rights passed to SAP GmbH. (Source: Wikipedia)

    1981-01-01

  • Company headquarters moved to Walldorf, Germany. (Source: Web Search (Wikipedia))

    1982-01-01

  • Restructured as SAP AG in the late 1980s. (Source: Wikipedia)

    1988-01-01

  • Adopted the corporate structure of a pan-European societas Europaea (SE). (Source: Wikipedia)

    2014-07-07

  • Ranked as the largest European company by market capitalization. (Source: Wikipedia)

    2025-06-01

SAP

SAP SE (; German pronunciation: [ɛsʔaːˈpeː] ) is a German multinational software company based in Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is the world's largest vendor of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. SAP GbR became, in 1981, fully Systeme, Anwendungen und Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung (Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing), abbreviated SAP GmbH after a five-year transition period beginning in 1976. In the late 1980s, it further restructured itself as SAP AG. Since 7 July 2014, its corporate structure is that of a pan-European societas Europaea (SE); as such, its former German corporate identity is now a subsidiary, SAP Deutschland SE & Co. KG. It has regional offices in 180 countries and 109,973 employees. SAP is a component of the DAX and Euro Stoxx 50 stock market indices. The company is the largest non-American software company by revenue and the world's fifth-largest publicly traded software company by revenue. In June 2025, it was the largest European company by market capitalization, as well as one of the 30 most valuable publicly traded companies in the world.

Web Search Results
  • SAP - Wikipedia

    SAP SE (/ˌɛs.eɪˈpiː/; German pronunciation: (/wiki/Help:IPA/Standard_German "Help:IPA/Standard German") ⓘ) is a German multinational software company based in Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is the world's largest vendor of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. [...] SAP is a component of the DAX and Euro Stoxx 50 stock market indices. The company is the largest non-American software company by revenue and the world's fifth-largest publicly traded software company by revenue. In June 2025, it was the largest European company by market capitalization, as well as one of the 30 most valuable publicly traded companies in the world. ## History [edit] ### 20th century [edit] [...] In 1973, SAP launched its first commercial product, the RF financial accounting system. This system served as the cornerstone in the ongoing development of other software modules of the system that eventually bore the name SAP R/1. This offered a common system for multiple tasks. This permitted the use of a centralized data storage, improving the maintenance of data. From a technical point of view, therefore, a database was necessary. In 1976 SAP GmbH Systeme, Anwendungen und Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung ("Systems, Applications, and Products in Data Processing") was founded as a sales and support subsidiary. Five years later, the private partnership was dissolved and its rights were passed on to SAP GmbH.The headquarters moved the following year to Walldorf, Germany.

  • SAP - LinkedIn

    SAP is the leading enterprise application and business AI company. We stand at the intersection of business and technology, where our innovations are designed to directly address real business challenges and produce real-world impacts. Our solutions are the backbone for the world’s most complex and demanding processes. SAP’s integrated portfolio unites the elements of modern organizations — from workforce and financials to customers and supply chains — into a unified ecosystem that drives progress. SAP privacy statement for followers: www.sap.com/sps Our Community Guidelines At SAP, we're committed to fostering meaningful conversations that respect everyone in our community. To maintain a positive environment, we moderate comments that: • Target individuals personally, including our [...] ## Media - Images: - Logo: Company Logo ## Additional Additional jobs info: SAP (91,062 open jobs). Engineer (555,845 open jobs). Analyst (694,057 open jobs). Intern (71,196 open jobs). Manager (1,880,925 open jobs). Developer (258,935 open jobs). Project Manager (253,048 open jobs). Associate (1,091,945 open jobs). Software Engineer (300,699 open jobs). Scientist (48,969 open jobs). Consultant (760,907 open jobs). Specialist (768,666 open jobs). Director (1,220,357 open jobs). Account Executive (71,457 open jobs). Account Manager (121,519 open jobs). Accountant (91,739 open jobs). Student (634,404 open jobs). Executive (690,514 open jobs). Graduate (361,130 open jobs). User Experience Designer (13,659 open jobs) [...] # SAP We bring out the best in every business. Software Development • Walldorf, BW • 4,698,914 followers • 10,001+ employees

  • What is SAP? - IBM

    What is SAP? | IBM My IBM Log in Subscribe What is SAP? Image 1: Aerial view of New York City skyline at night What is SAP? software. The SAP ERP is a modular business management and automation solution that is used to maximize efficiency and accelerate workflows. Where businesses might have traditionally decentralized their operational data and stored materials and sales information in separate databases, SAP ERP allows a wide variety of companies to standardize their data management across the board. SAP solutions can be installed at a business’ primary location on-premises, in the cloud, or as part of a hybrid cloud model. The SAP ERP was among the first to fully embrace a modular design and allowed users to choose the software components that best suited their business. [...] ### Enterprise resource planning with SAP SAP’s solutions for ERP have encouraged clients to embrace digital transformation, leveraging data analytics and automating select operations. By introducing modules to apply to hundreds of specific use cases, the company has encouraged seamless integration across departments, unifying all business operations into a single database using a single user interface. SAP’s partner ecosystem has grown to represent a vast number of third-party applications and extensions to enhance its core functionality. In recent years, the company has released features to supportenvironmental, social and governance reporting(ESG) to help customers reach their sustainability goals. ### Financial management with SAP [...] ### Supply chain solutions with SAP SAP’s impact onsupply chain managementhas grown far beyond materials management and inventory control. The software enables customers to track goods and materials on the company’s unified platform and rely on advanced analytics to identify potential disruptions and forecast potential changes in demand.Internet of Things(IoT) integration and a heavy focus in recent years on Industry 4.0 means organizations can monitor production and logistics in real-time. SAP use cases module to plan logistics and manufacturing as well as predict the lifecycles of various pieces of equipment. ### Customer experience and CRM

  • What is SAP Software and How to Use it For Your Business - Madata

    ## What is SAP Software? SAP stands for Systems, Applications, and Products in Data Processing. It is a comprehensive enterprise resource planning (ERP) software developed to manage business operations and customer relations in an integrated environment. Known for its ability to streamline processes and provide real-time insights, organizations worldwide widely adopt SAP Software. ### Brief History SAP was founded in 1972 by five former IBM engineers—Dietmar Hopp, Klaus Tschira, Hans-Werner Hector, Hasso Plattner, and Claus Wellenreuther. The company began with its first commercial product, SAP R/1, a financial accounting system. Over the years, SAP evolved significantly, introducing SAP R/2 in the late 1970s to manage various business functions. [...] Efficiency: SAP automates numerous routine tasks that would otherwise require manual intervention. This includes processes like data entry, invoice processing, and inventory management. By automating these activities, employees can focus on more strategic tasks, enhancing overall productivity. Furthermore, automation reduces the risk of human error, ensures a more rapid completion of tasks, and allows all business operations to run more smoothly and efficiently.

  • What is SAP? - An Introduction - YouTube

    Oracle has a particular product called. Net suite. I've made many videos and courses on. Net suite. And that product is particularly targeted for small to mid-sized companies. Microsoft also has a very popular ERP product called Dynamics 365. And then SAP, which is a company, has products and particularly makes products that are oriented for the most part with large companies, also known as enterprise sized companies. So that's where SAP comes into the picture. And let's now take a look at what the word SAP even means. So SAP is actually a German acronym. And to translate it into English, it stands for Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing. So to give a little bit of a background on SAP as a company, SAP was founded in Germany in 1972, right at the beginning [...] of the computer and software age. And it really just grew exponentially over the decades to the point where right now, SAP employs over 100,000 employees, and Forbes magazine listed SAP as the fifth largest software company in the world, bigger than Adobe, Intuit, and by some metrics, even IBM. Now, earlier on, I said that SAP is particularly targeted towards large companies. But to prove that point, if you look at the Fortune 500 list, which is the 500 biggest companies in the United States, roughly 85% of them use and rely on SAP for their ERP software. So that should give you a concept of SAP as a company. Now let's take a look at some of the SAP products. Unlike some other companies, such as Oracle's Net suite, where really it's just one product that's been updated [...] that can handle all different aspects of a business all in one. So instead of what you would usually have where let's say you want to handle the accounting in your business, you might get software like QuickBooks. Or if you want to handle customer relationship management, you might have Salesforce. For project, you could use Monday.com. These are all software that have a particular specialty that they get used for. But instead of having ten different pieces of software that all handle some aspect of your business, a lot of companies choose to have one software that covers everything. So all of your information is in one place, and that is what an ERP software is. So that's what an ERP is. And by no means is SAP the only ERP software. There's many different competing products. For example,

Location Data

SAP, Parkmore East Business Park, Ballintemple ED, Cathair na Gaillimhe, County Galway, Connacht, H91 V0TX, Éire / Ireland

company

Coordinates: 53.3016545, -8.9875954

Open Map