SAP SE today released a new version of SAP Hybris Commerce software, which SAP says is designed to help B2B as well as retail companies better engage online buyers with personalized content.

Industry analysts say the new version of SAP Hybris Commerce is primarily a way for SAP Hybris to better compete in the market for companies that want to tie customer-facing applications like e-commerce sites and customer relationship management systems to their back-end enterprise resource planning, or ERP, systems that manage such operations as customer orders, inventory levels and financial records.

Riad Hijal, global vice president of omnichannel commerce solution and strategy at SAP Hybris, says Hybris Commerce is intended for use by companies across all industries, but that it also provides industry-specific versions for industries including manufacturing, wholesale distribution, manufacturing, retail, government organizations, telecommunications, utilities, apparel fashions, software and transportation.

“Over 100 customers have signed up for the next iteration of SAP Hybris Commerce,” he says. “We expect over 30% of all customers to be on the latest version by the end of this year.

SAP says the software includes the following upgrades:

• A redesigned content management system, with a new user interface that allows e-commerce managers to manage product and promotional content personalized to buyers across a website as well as through multiple marketing channels;
• A new promotions engine that lets marketers design online offers that dynamically appear on a website, such as when triggered by a returning customer;
• A new customer service interface that provides customer service reps with improved access to such information as customer orders and accounts;
• The capability to more quickly build customized online tools that online customers use—for example, to provide organized access to particular products for particular groups of buyers.

SAP refuses to release figures on the cost to deploy Hybris Commerce, but Hijal says the latest version is intended for use by mid-size as well as large companies. “Mid-market companies with limited complexities can be up and running in as quickly as six weeks,” he says. “Typical large enterprise deployments will fall in the three- to six-month deployment range, given the possibility of complexities associated with their requirements.”

Justin King, a partner of consulting firm B2X Partners and founder of the B2B resource website EcommerceandB2B.com, says the updated Hybris Commerce will help B2B companies address the need to better combine web content and e-commerce, without having to integrate separate content management and e-commerce systems.

“Many manufacturers struggle with the combination of content and commerce,” King says. “Manufacturers want to tell a great marketing story and sell products, but most must go to two or three vendors to achieve this and then integrate them together. Hybris has created an integrated customer experience platform that will enable manufacturers to have a single platform to manage dynamic and personalized content, promotions, merchandising and commerce flows. This integrated approach could be extremely valuable to manufacturers, especially those that are leveraging SAP as an ERP business system.”

Andy Hoar, a principal analyst focusing on B2B e-commerce at Forrester Research Inc., adds that the updated software will help SAP Hybris better compete against vendors that connect e-commerce software with content and customer management systems.

“To some extent this is about SAP Hybris responding to customer feature requests and closing some functionality gaps,” Hoar says. “But to a greater extent, this is about back-office-centric SAP Hybris re-positioning itself to take on front-office-centric vendors Adobe and Salesforce. All three vendors are endeavoring to produce a full stack solution and offer a complete digital experience and commerce platform.”

Adobe Systems Inc. provides content management and marketing applications along with technology for such purposes as electronic signing and sharing of commerce documents. It has also been working to integrate with e-commerce software, as it has been doing with CloudCraze, a provider of e-commerce software built on the Salesforce.com technology platform.

Salesforce.com Inc., meanwhile, recently acquired e-commerce software company Demandware to have its own e-commerce software integrated into Salesforce’s software platform. Salesforce’s platform also integrates with e-commerce software from Apttus Corp. as well as CloudCraze.

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