| Year |
Happening |
| 1972 |
Five former IBM employees founded SAP as Systemanalyse und Programmentwicklung (“Systems Analysis and Program Development”) in Mannheim, Germany |
| 1977 |
SAP became a GmbH (a closely-held corporation) and took on a new name: Systeme, Anwendungen, Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung ("Systems, Applications, Products in Data Processing"). |
| 1978 |
SAP R/2 provided the framework for a comprehensive software system |
| 1980 |
50 of the 100 largest industrial companies in Germany were SAP customers. |
| 1982 |
236 companies in Germany, Austria and Switzerland were working with the SAP standard programs. |
| 1984 |
SAP (International) AG founded in Switzerland |
| 1986 |
DM 100 million reached and SAP’s Austrian subsidiary SAP Österreich Ges.m.b.H. started in Vienna |
| 1988 |
SAP goes public. SAP Consulting GmbH started as a joint project between SAP and the consulting firm Arthur Andersen; the opening of an International Training Center in Walldorf; and the welcoming of Dow Chemical as SAP’s 1,000th customer. |
| 1989 |
Over 1000 employees at SAP |
| 1991 |
R/2 developed in Russian |
| 1992 |
First Shipment of R/3 on July 06th 1992 (R/3 – 3 tier architecture) |
| 1993 |
First shipment to US. Releases 2.0 and 2.1J provided R/3 users with even more functionality and a center for US customers setup in Foster City, CA. |
| 1994 |
SAP had over 5000 employees worldwide and SAP Japanese in Kanji was released. Release 2.2E was released and included Financials and Logistics combined with Production Planning included as a module – took a great popularity in American Manufacturing Industries. |
| 1995 |
R/3 Release 3.0, a functional and technical milestone in R/3 development. First time customizing was separated completely from Core transactions. Memory management was enhanced. |
| 1996-1998 |
Releases of R/3 from 3.0A, B, C, D, E and F |
| 1998- 1999 |
First Internet enabled version 3.1G quickly followed by 3.1H and 3.1I (3.1I was supported till 2 years back). The technology used was ITS (an ancient CGI technology). Also a datawarehousing solution BIW was introduced (which later got renamed to BW and then the current NW-BI). |
| 1999 |
Releases 4.0 A/B were released – HR was introduced as a new module. PFCG and STMS technologies were introduced. SAP CRM was introduced. |
| 2000 |
In quick succession 4.5A/B and then 4.6C was introduced – this was the enjoySAP or mySAP.com release and had gained a lot of popularity amongst customers – first release having good aesthetics and ergonomics. APO was introduced. |
| 2003 |
R/3 got renamed to R/3 Enterprise – Basis got renamed to WAS. Quick succession 4.7 Ext. set 1.10 and 2.00 were released. |
| 2004 |
Netweaver 04 was released to the later half. R/3 discontinued – morphed into ERP. |
| 2005 |
100,600 installations, over 25 industry-specific business solutions, 27 languages and more than 29,800 customers in 120 countries. SAP is the world's third-largest independent software vendor next to Microsoft and IBM. (Look at help.sap.com) |