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By Kate Hanaghan, 9 May 2002 17:15

NEWS The managing director of SAP UK has welcomed Microsoft's acquisition of Navision, claiming it will raise the profile of the small business software market. Martin Metcalf was responding to concerns raised by industry watchers who believe the $1.3bn Navision takeover will hit SAP's European business. Talking exclusively to silicon.com, Metcalf added that Microsoft did "not have the perfect strategy moving forward". He explained that Microsoft will be left with the problem of having to integrate its Great Plains and Navision businesses on what he describes as SAP's "home turf". SAP claims it has worked hard over recent years to grow its CRM business. In the first quarter of this year, revenues from MySAP CRM were E74m (£46m), up from E67m (£41m) in the same period last year. Metcalf said: "We always set out to be number two and we've achieved this." But PeopleSoft is also staking claim to the number two spot. Metcalf responded to that by saying: "I think their claim would have to be examined. Our CRM revenues are more than PeopleSoft's total revenues." Charles Grover, PeopleSoft's director of CRM business EMEA, claimed independent research confirms his company is indeed second only to Siebel. He told silicon.com: "Meta Group places us in the challenger position to Siebel." He added: "The trouble with citing revenues is that organisations can play around with numbers - I'm not suggesting SAP is - but they can roll-in any number of other components into the CRM figure." Metcalf concluded by saying that if the CRM market remains as it is currently, "it is feasible SAP could become the number one vendor".