Massive job cuts rock the boat at SAP

NEWS European ERP giant SAP is cutting seven per cent of its US workforce despite promising good sales after 11 September. The company is slashing around 300 jobs as it follows arch-rival Siebel into a customer relationship software slump. The cuts are part of SAP's restructuring programme in the US to transform its 21 industry groups into 12 vertical industry "clusters" that will focus on three core ebusiness software areas. Areas to be covered are centred around CRM software for places like call centres and enterprise resource software that runs entire corporate computer systems. SAP has 26,500 employees globally, with 4,200 of those based in the US.