SAP Steps Up Database Pursuit

SAP AG (NYSE:SAP) is going directly to the customer as it tries to beat Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) at the database game. The German company will set aside $337 million to pay for consulting services for new customers who replace an old database program with Hana, the new one from SAP.

SAP makes business application programs that have to rely on databases, and for long it resold Oracle databases along with its own applications. However, SAP has now been trying to make a move into the database market and spent $5.8 billion on acquiring database maker Sybase in 2010. It has also spent resources on developing its own program, Hana, which SAP says works differently than traditional databases and is much faster.

“SAP is a database company,” Steve Lucas, an executive vice president at the company, told Wall Street Journal. “SAP will pursue like never before this database.”

The company is targeting total annual revenue of more than 20 billion euros ($26 billion) by 2015, up from about 14 billion euros last year. It is relying on new revenue streams to achieve that target, including expanding into products for mobile devices and cloud services.

Earlier this year, SAP acquired SuccessFactors, a company that offers Internet-based software to help companies manage their employees and conduct performance reviews, for $3.4 billion. It also plans to buy Syclo, whose products help businesses manage mobile devices.