OREANDA-NEWS. February 25, 2016. Free trials of business intelligence solutions. High-performance reporting software priced for all users, even the smallest businesses. Starter editions for developing data-intensive apps. Self-service downloads.

All from SAP? Yes! SAP Store is open for business.

We launched the new SAP Store in March 2015, a way for SAP to make it easy for anyone to take advantage of solutions typically available only to larger businesses. Our idea was to offer a simple, seamless online shopping experience like that of any other e-tailer, except that we would enable purchase of some of the world’s most sophisticated business offerings from both SAP and third parties: software, content, data, and education-related. You can browse, search by category, filter by industry or line of business, then purchase the solution with a credit card, download and use instantaneously. Did you ever think you could buy offerings from SAP in this way?

A Simple Process – for All Types of Buyers

Anyone can use a credit card or PayPal (for partner solutions) to purchase solutions at SAPStore.com, visiting as a guest or entering contact info to register, which of course streamlines future purchases. If you’re already registered on another SAP community or extranet, you can likely use single sign-on for SAP Store. For many products, you can choose either on-premise or cloud options. Try before you buy with a free trial, available for a number of offerings. And watch out for promotional offers and other discounts.

Today’s Demo: a CRM Solution for the Entrepreneur

Let’s take a quick look at how it works. For today’s demo, I’ll be an entrepreneur, looking for a way to better organize my sales efforts and customer interactions. On SAP Store, I search for “CRM.” This turns up four options. I read through the descriptions, and determine that SAP Digital for Customer Engagement offers just what I want. I can purchase a single license, which is all I need now, for US\\$29 per user and month.

Right on the product page, I see that it’s available in a number of languages. Great – I can use it in English now and purchase another license for my colleague in Hungary when we’re ready. On the same page, I can download a product brief, read product reviews from other users, check the hardware requirements, and watch a video to help me learn how to use it. I see that if I have any questions, there’s a number to call and a button to click to create a support request. All very useful.

But since I can try it out first, I click on “trial,” which lets me use it productively and free for 30 days without further obligation. So I add it to my shopping cart, enter a few basic contact details, and click. Within a few minutes, there’s my e-mail with log-in instructions to my own CRM solution in the cloud.

What could be easier?

Your Comments Welcome

I’ll be blogging about SAP Store on a regular basis, and I’m hoping to hear from people who are using the store and its products about their experiences. That means you! Please contribute a review on the product page, suggest an idea for a blog, or comment here. Thanks for your participation as we build our community on SAP Store.

Federica De Monte is social and community manager at SAP Digital. Follow @federicademonte on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.