SAP Re-Ups Kagermann Contract

SAP's supervisory board on Thursday voted to re-up Kagermann's contract through May 31, 2009, and he has agreed on the extension, the company said.

"The supervisory board again has expressed its confidence in Henning Kagermann and recognized his extraordinary achievements leading SAP's successful strategy of organic growth during his tenure," supervisory board chairman Hasso Plattner said in a statement.

Kagermann, who turns 60 in July, started with the Walldorf, Germany-based company in 1982 and became an executive board member in 1991.

In mid-January, Plattner said he would recommend that the contract be extended through next year and that he was confident Kagermann would sign on. It appears the company got more of Kagermann's time than even Plattner predicted.

SAP is the leader in ERP software and is pushing to entrench its Business One and All-in-One products in smaller companies. The software vendor's MySAP offering, the follow-on to R/3, focuses on enterprise accounts.

In the enterprise and midmarket arenas, SAP is facing heated competition from Oracle, which is armed with PeopleSoft, Siebel and JD Edwards applications. For small-business customers, SAP is facing off with incumbent Sage Software and an aggressive push by Microsoft with its four ERP lines.

In other SAP executive news, channel chief Donna Troy is moving on as of April. Many of her duties will be assumed by Terrance Scerri, vice president of SME indirect channels. Troy is executive vice president of global SME indirect channels.