Founding of SAP

Five former IBM engineers – Dietmar Hopp, Hasso Plattner, Klaus Tschira, Claus Wellenreuther, and Hans-Werner Hector – founded System Analysis Program Development, later known as SAP, with the vision of developing standard business application software for real-time processing.

Significance

This marked the birth of one of the foundational companies in the ERP space, whose vision for integrated real-time business processes would redefine corporate IT.