Author: Bo Lykkegaard, IDC

Since the high-impact Business ByDesign launch in 2007, SAP has significantly scaled back marketing activities around the SaaS ERP suite. In the meantime, the Walldorf-based company sees its opportunities more in specialized cloud applications.

Thanks to cloud, Hana and mobile, SAP is off to a strong start in 2013, in line with IDC's 2013 predictions that 90 percent of IT market growth will come from "3rd Platform" technologies between 2013 and 2020.