Two months ago, SAP announced their intention to acquire Hybris and back then I blogged about the potential implications for Forrester’s clients. Today, SAP has formally completed the acquisition, which brings further clarity for the road ahead:

  • Hybris will operate as an independent business unit. Hybris will operate as an "SAP Company" rather than a "Product of SAP” and will retain its existing sales and development teams. This is a positive move for existing and future Hybris customers and ensures that the Hybris solution will continue to remain agnostic of other SAP products and technology. For now there will be no bundling of products, Hybris will not become part of the ERP or CRM suites or vice versa, however on the SAP side of the house there will be development in building lightweight ‘connector’ integrations for those customers that want to run Hybris alongside an existing SAP ERP or CRM infrastructure.   
     
  • Customers will be able to buy from SAP or Hybris. In the near future, the on-premise edition of Hybris will become available on the SAP price list. For existing SAP customers looking at Hybris, this will give them the flexibility to contract directly with SAP and leverage their existing master service agreement. Given that Hybris will be available through both the SAP and Hybris sales channel, customers should expect price parity – it is unlikely that SAP reps will have much leeway to apply deep corporate discounting when selling Hybris.
     
  • Hybris becomes the only commerce offering from SAP. With today's closure of the deal, SAP will cease further investment in their WCEM (Web Channel Experience Management) solution. This should come as no surprise given that the weakness of this solution in the market was the impetus for the acquisition in the first place. Going forward, all commerce related opportunities at SAP will be strategically directed to Hybris. Existing WCEM customers can expect SAP to continue to support them on the product, but over time will be encouraged to make a transition to Hybris.

As always, I recommend that Forrester clients who have questions or concerns about this acquisition to schedule an inquiry with me to discuss.

Thanks,

Peter