SAP promises to listen to customers

SAP's UK boss has pledged to put more emphasis on listening to customers and being more responsive than the ERP software giant has been in the past.

Steve Rogers, UK MD of SAP admitted the company has fallen short in terms of listening to its customers in recent years but said there is now an opportunity to get closer to users and encourage greater collaboration between vendor and customer.

Speaking to silicon.com at SAP's Sapphire conference in Berlin this week, Rogers, said: "We've put the customer at the centre of our universe. There's an opportunity to do more with our customers.

"We don't set the strategy. We're encouraging an ecosystem. Most of what we do is in response to the market and our customers."

As part of this, SAP has boosted its customer facing team in the UK to give businesses better access to the company and to encourage greater dialogue between the two. Rogers said SAP is now in a good position to be more responsive to customer needs.

Chairman of the UK and Ireland SAP User Group, Alan Bowling, told silicon.com that SAP does appear to be involving its customers more.

He said: "[SAP is] doing an awful lot to improve the wider engagement with customers.

"This is about a company that is clearly caring about its customers - I'm seeing that both on a global level and I'm seeing it at a local level."