<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Gigaom]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[http://gigaom.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[Barb Darrow]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[http://search.gigaom.com/author/barbdarrow/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[SAP to trim jobs and redeploy resources]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p>Enterprise software giant SAP could cut up to 2,200 jobs (three percent of its 74,000 employees) in a move to rebalance employment around growth areas. The news was first reported by <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-06/sap-to-eliminate-over-2-000-jobs-in-second-cut-under-mcdermott">Bloomberg News</a><a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/2893932/sap-to-cut-2200-jobs-plans-to-recreate-them-in-other-parts-of-the-company.ht">.</a></p>
<p><a href="https://search.gigaom.com/company/sap/">SAP</a> CEO Bill McDermott told Bloomberg that the company needs to put jobs where the work is.</p>
<blockquote id="quote-%c2%a0%e2%80%9cif-i-"><p> “If I have a great growth opportunity in Middle East and I have excess of capacity in U.S. or Germany, I am gonna offer those employees the opportunity to go to Middle East, to where customers need us &#8230; We are not eliminating jobs but lifting and shifting those assets.”</p></blockquote>
<p>A spokesman confirmed the news but said 2,200 was the upper limit and that many affected employees could end up in other positions in the faster-growing HANA or cloud business segments. Some jobs may go away via attrition. He said the company will end the year with more employees than it started out with: &#8220;SAP is hiring.&#8221;</p>
<p>Still, the axe will fall for some, in what would be the second set of cutbacks since <a href="https://gigaom.com/2013/07/21/sap-taps-marketing-whiz-mcdermott-as-sole-ceo/">McDermott assumed the top spot</a> at SAP in 2013. <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-05-13/sap-cutting-jobs-as-ceo-mcdermott-hastens-software-shift">The first round of cuts</a> came in May 2014 in a move that McDermott said would bring total headcount to 67,000 by year&#8217;s end, so clearly some hiring took place in the interim.</p>
<p>SAP is hardly the only enterprise IT company struggling with the new sales and cost models of the cloud computing and Software-as-a-Service world. <a href="https://gigaom.com/2014/02/28/ibm-job-cuts-continue-now-in-the-us/">IBM</a> and <a href="https://gigaom.com/2014/05/22/when-will-it-end-hp-to-cut-up-to-16k-more-jobs/">HP</a> have both announced layoffs and employee reassignments to try to get their cost structures in line. IBM sounded a very similar message to SAP earlier this year, confirming layoffs but also stressing that its hiring in hot areas.</p>
<p>Part of the problem is that <a href="https://search.gigaom.com/company/ibm/">IBM</a>, <a href="https://search.gigaom.com/company/hp/">HP</a> and other older companies have relied on selling on high-end, high-margin software and hardware tied to big up-front purchases. The SaaS revolution, which spread payments out over time and offered less expensive (at least initially) products, took its toll on these players as born-to-SaaS companies like <a href="https://search.gigaom.com/company/salesforce-com/">Salesforce.com</a> started to eat their lunch.</p>
<p>Now, even though those SaaS companies have <a href="https://gigaom.com/2013/12/08/whatever-happened-to-the-pay-as-you-go-beauty-of-saas/">moved more to an enterprise sales model</a> &#8212; requiring up-front payouts for a year or more of use &#8212; they are still seen as more cost-effective and more modern than the legacy guys.</p>
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