SAP overview
SAP makes the software that many large companies use to run finance, procurement, manufacturing, human resources and supply chains. Its enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, led today by SAP S/4HANA, record transactions from across a business in one system, and they run on SAP HANA, the in-memory database SAP first shipped in 2010. Around that core SAP sells cloud applications it acquired over the past 15 years, including SAP SuccessFactors for HR, SAP Concur for travel and expenses, SAP Ariba for procurement and SAP Fieldglass for managing contract workers.
Five engineers left IBM in 1972 to start the company: Dietmar Hopp, Hasso Plattner, Claus Wellenreuther, Klaus Tschira and Hans-Werner Hector. Their goal was standard software that processed business data in real time instead of in overnight batches, and they did much of their early programming at night on the mainframe of their first customer, the German subsidiary of Imperial Chemical Industries. The financial accounting program they completed in 1973 became the basis for the R/1, R/2 and R/3 product generations.
R/3, released in 1992 for client-server networks, turned SAP into a global business: its workforce grew from about 3,600 people in 1992 to more than 19,000 in 1998, the year it listed on the New York Stock Exchange after a 1988 debut in Frankfurt. From 2008 SAP bought its way into analytics, mobile, cloud HR, procurement and travel software with Business Objects, Sybase, SuccessFactors, Ariba and Concur. In 2015 it launched S/4HANA as the successor to its older ERP suite and later committed to maintaining it until at least 2040.
Under CEO Christian Klein, SAP has pushed customers from on-premises installations to cloud subscriptions through RISE with SAP, and mainstream maintenance for its older SAP ERP software ends in 2027. AI is now the center of its strategy. SAP introduced the Joule assistant in 2023 and SAP Business Data Cloud in 2025, and in May 2026 it combined its technology platform, data cloud and AI services into SAP Business AI Platform while adding AI agents to its applications under the SAP Autonomous Suite name. Acquisitions of Reltio, Dremio and Prior Labs in 2026 added master data management, lakehouse and tabular AI technology.
SAP is headquartered in Walldorf, near Heidelberg, where it moved in 1977. It reported total revenue of €36.8 billion for 2025 and employs more than 110,000 people.
Software by SAP
4 products profiled, from SAP Concur (1993) to SAP S/4HANA (2015).
- SAP S/4HANASAP’s ERP suite for finance, supply chain and operations, built on HANA ERP, HR & Operations 2015 Subscription
- SAP HANAIn-memory, column-based database behind SAP’s business applications Databases 2010 Enterprise licensing
- SAP SuccessFactorsCloud HR suite for core HR, payroll, recruiting, learning and talent ERP, HR & Operations 2001 Subscription
- SAP ConcurTravel booking, expense reporting and invoice management for businesses Finance, Accounting & Tax 1993 Subscription
SAP history and milestones
- 1972
Five former IBM employees found Systemanalyse Programmentwicklung, with the German arm of ICI as their first customer.
- 1988
SAP becomes a stock corporation and lists its shares on the Frankfurt and Stuttgart stock exchanges.
- 1992
SAP releases R/3, client-server business software that drives its international expansion.
- 1998
SAP lists on the New York Stock Exchange, and Henning Kagermann joins Hasso Plattner as co-CEO.
- 2010
SAP ships the first version of SAP HANA, its in-memory database.
- 2012
SAP completes its acquisitions of cloud HR vendor SuccessFactors and procurement network Ariba.
- 2014
SAP becomes a European company (SE) and completes its $8.3 billion purchase of Concur.
- 2015
SAP launches S/4HANA, an ERP suite built to run only on SAP HANA.
- 2020
Christian Klein becomes sole CEO after co-CEO Jennifer Morgan leaves the company.
- 2023
SAP introduces Joule, a generative AI assistant for its business applications, and sells its Qualtrics stake.
- 2025
SAP launches SAP Business Data Cloud with Databricks and completes its acquisition of SmartRecruiters.
- 2026
SAP unveils SAP Business AI Platform and SAP Autonomous Suite and buys Reltio, Dremio and Prior Labs.
Who founded SAP?
Dietmar Hopp
Co-founder; co-CEO until 1998, then supervisory board chairman
Dietmar Hopp was born in 1940 and grew up in Hoffenheim, a village in Baden-Württemberg. He studied telecommunications engineering in Karlsruhe and worked as a software developer and consultant at IBM before co-founding SAP in 1972. He helped lead the company through its growth in the 1980s and 1990s, left the executive board in 1998 to chair the supervisory board until 2003, and gave up his supervisory board seat in 2005.
Outside SAP, Hopp is best known as the main financial backer of TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, a village football club that climbed through the leagues and reached the Bundesliga in 2008. His Dietmar Hopp Foundation funds medical, educational and social projects in the Rhine-Neckar region.
Hasso Plattner
Co-founder; co-CEO until 2003, supervisory board chairman 2003 to 2024
Hasso Plattner was born in Berlin in 1944 and earned a master’s degree in communications engineering from the University of Karlsruhe in 1968 before joining IBM. After co-founding SAP in 1972 he became co-CEO alongside Henning Kagermann in 1998 and announced the mySAP.com internet strategy in 1999. He left the executive board in 2003 and then chaired SAP’s supervisory board for more than two decades, until 2024.
In 1998 Plattner founded the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, whose researchers worked with SAP on the in-memory database technology that became SAP HANA. He has also invested in startups through Hasso Plattner Ventures and signed the Giving Pledge in 2013.
Klaus Tschira
Co-founder; SAP executive and later supervisory board member
Klaus Tschira was born in 1940, earned a degree in physics and worked at IBM before joining his colleagues to found SAP in 1972. He served on SAP’s executive board until 1998 and then sat on the company’s supervisory board until 2007.
In 1995 Tschira created the Klaus Tschira Foundation, based at the Villa Bosch in Heidelberg, to support research in the natural sciences, mathematics and computer science and to help the public understand those fields. He died in Heidelberg in March 2015 at the age of 74.
Hans-Werner Hector
Co-founder; oversaw SAP’s early expansion in the United States
Hans-Werner Hector was born in Kaiserslautern in 1940, studied mathematics at Saarland University and worked for IBM in Mannheim before co-founding SAP in 1972. After SAP’s 1988 stock market listing he was responsible for building up its business in the United States.
Hector stepped back from day-to-day management in the mid-1990s and sold most of his SAP shares in 1996. With his wife he has since become a major philanthropist in southwestern Germany, supporting the Kunsthalle Mannheim, programs for gifted students and, from 2022, a ten-year, €100 million commitment to an ELLIS artificial intelligence institute in Tübingen.
Claus Wellenreuther
Co-founder; left SAP in 1980 for health reasons
Claus Wellenreuther was born in Mannheim in 1935, studied business administration at the University of Mannheim and wrote his doctoral dissertation on Markov processes. At IBM he developed financial accounting systems, and in 1971 he left to program a standard accounting system before joining his former colleagues to found SAP.
Wellenreuther was primarily responsible for the design of SAP’s financial accounting software but left the company in 1980 for health reasons. In 1982 he founded DCW Software, a maker of ERP software for midsize businesses that SAP acquired in 2003. He died in March 2026 at the age of 91.
How SAP makes money
SAP earns most of its revenue from cloud subscriptions and from support contracts on software customers licensed in earlier years. Customers pay recurring fees for cloud products such as S/4HANA Cloud, SuccessFactors and Concur, usually under multiyear contracts priced by users, employees, transactions or document volumes, while companies that still run SAP software in their own data centers pay annual maintenance fees. Cloud is the fastest-growing part of the business: in 2025 SAP’s cloud revenue rose 23 percent and revenue from its cloud ERP suite rose 28 percent as customers moved to subscriptions under RISE with SAP.
A large partner ecosystem surrounds SAP. Consulting firms such as Accenture carry out many implementation and migration projects, while SAP earns additional services revenue from its own consultants and premium support. SAP Business Technology Platform, now part of SAP Business AI Platform, adds consumption-based fees for the data, integration and AI services customers use to extend their SAP systems.
Who owns and runs SAP?
Christian Klein, who joined SAP as a student in 1999, has been CEO since October 2019, sharing the job with Jennifer Morgan until April 2020; his current term on the executive board runs until 2030. SAP SE has a two-tier board: an executive board that includes CFO Dominik Asam runs the company, and a supervisory board chaired by former Nokia president Pekka Ala-Pietilä oversees it. Ala-Pietilä succeeded co-founder Hasso Plattner, who led the supervisory board from 2003 to 2024. SAP shares trade in Frankfurt and as American depositary shares on the New York Stock Exchange.
- Christian KleinChief executive officer
- Pekka Ala-PietiläChairman of the supervisory board
- Dominik AsamChief financial officer
- Hasso PlattnerCo-founder; supervisory board chairman from 2003 to 2024
SAP: frequently asked questions
Who founded SAP?
SAP was founded on April 1, 1972, by five former IBM employees: Dietmar Hopp, Hasso Plattner, Claus Wellenreuther, Klaus Tschira and Hans-Werner Hector. They started the company in Weinheim, near Mannheim in Germany, as Systemanalyse Programmentwicklung, with the goal of building standard business software that processed data in real time.
Who owns SAP?
SAP SE is a public company owned by its shareholders. Its shares trade on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, where it is part of Germany’s DAX index, and its American depositary shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange. SAP reported that its founders together held about 11 percent of its shares at the end of 2025, with about 84 percent in free float.
Who is the CEO of SAP?
Christian Klein is the CEO of SAP. He joined the company as a student in 1999, became co-CEO alongside Jennifer Morgan in October 2019 and has been sole CEO since April 2020. His current term on the executive board runs until 2030.
Where is SAP headquartered?
SAP is headquartered in Walldorf, a town near Heidelberg in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. The company was founded in nearby Weinheim in 1972 and moved its headquarters to Walldorf in 1977. Its North American headquarters is in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.
What software does SAP make?
SAP is best known for enterprise resource planning software, today SAP S/4HANA and the SAP Cloud ERP offerings built on it. It also makes the SAP HANA database, SAP SuccessFactors for HR, SAP Concur for travel and expenses, SAP Ariba for procurement, SAP Fieldglass for contract workforce management and SAP Business Data Cloud for data and analytics.
What does SAP stand for?
SAP stands for Systeme, Anwendungen und Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung, German for systems, applications and products in data processing. The founders first called the business Systemanalyse Programmentwicklung, meaning system analysis program development, and adopted the longer name when they set up a limited liability company in 1976.
Is SAP a German company?
Yes. SAP was founded in Germany in 1972 and is headquartered in Walldorf, but since 2014 its legal form has been a Societas Europaea, or European company, which is why its name is SAP SE. It operates worldwide and is listed in both Frankfurt and New York.
Sources
- The history of SAP, SAP sap.com
- SAP announces Q2 and half-year 2026 results, SAP News Center news.sap.com
- SAP unveils the Autonomous Enterprise, SAP News Center news.sap.com
- SAP SE Supervisory Board, SAP Investor Relations sap.com
- SAP company information sap.com
- SAP, Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org
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