SAP User Group Executive Network (SUGEN), the global network of 22 independent SAP user groups, commends SAP for the announcement about extending the Digital Access Adoption Program through December 31, 2021.

SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced that its new customer portal, SAP® for Me, has successfully completed its beta phase and is now available with enhanced capabilities across products, systems, licenses and consumption to all customers globally.

Coronavirus is probably the 1 concern in investors' minds right now. It should be. On February 27th we published an article with the title Recession is Imminent: We Need A Travel Ban NOW. We predicted that a US recession is imminent and US stocks will go down by at least 20% in the next 3-6 […]

Readers hoping to buy SAP SE (ETR:SAP) for its dividend will need to make their move shortly, as the stock is about to...

The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: SAP, Thermo Fisher, TOTAL, 3M and FIS

Moody's Investors Service, ("Moody's") has today assigned a Ba2 rating to the proposed issuance of EUR250 million senior unsecured notes due in 2025, by Sappi Papier Holding GmbH (Sappi Papier), a guaranteed subsidiary of Sappi Limited ("Sappi" or "the company"). Sappi's Ba2 corporate family rating (CFR), Ba2-PD probability of default rating (PDR) and all other instrument ratings under Sappi Papier remain unaffected.

(Bloomberg) -- On the night of April 20, Christian Klein gained two major responsibilities.He became a father for the second time. And Klein was named sole chief executive officer of SAP SE, where he had risen through the ranks after starting as a student more than two decades ago.Klein’s promotion was a major upset -- not because the 39-year-old manager isn’t seen suited for the role. But it abruptly aborted the ascent of his co-CEO, Jennifer Morgan, who left after just six months, marking the shortest tenure of any leader among Germany’s largest 30 listed companies and the departure of the only woman from a league of white, German-speaking men.Speaking in his first international interview since SAP announced the surprise change shortly before midnight that Monday, Klein made no secret of the fact that the decision was painful, calling his last few calls with Morgan “pretty emotional.” The co-leader model under which SAP had successfully operated for many years suddenly caused friction in the global organization, he said.“There are a lot of positives to this co-CEO model -- you can divide and conquer and you can share responsibilities,” Klein said in a telephone interview. “But in the crisis, we also saw the downside of this model.”Klein said that in plotting SAP’s course through the Covid-19 crisis, he and Morgan realized they were “not on the same page” on several decisions he declined to disclose. They had already experienced some disagreements in the early days of their joint tenure, but the pandemic was an “accelerator,” making the issues more pronounced, Klein said. When they went to the supervisory board to explain the impasse, the panel decided to jettison Morgan and asked Klein to carry on alone.See also: Vodafone CEO Looks On as Rivals Follow His Convergence PlaybookIt’s ComplicatedSAP had been committed to the co-CEO structure, but when the coronavirus hit, it became clear that having two people in charge was no longer tenable, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The leadership structure was described as disorganized and, at times, chaotic, by the the person, who asked not to be named discussing the company’s internal dynamics.It took longer to get some things done because, in certain instances, managers needed sign off from two different CEO offices, this person said. Morgan hasn’t responded to requests for comment on her departure.Read more: SAP Chief’s Short Stint ‘Disaster’ for German DiversityKlein now faces a range of challenges to keep the world’s largest maker of business-management software on course. SAP has its headquarters in rural Germany an hour’s drive south of Frankfurt. But there’s a huge operation in Silicon Valley that fell under the remit of American-born Morgan and may now feel disenfranchised by her exit, a risk that Klein acknowledged he must address. Then there are past acquisitions that have yet to be fully integrated, like the $8 billion purchase of survey-software Qualtrics that got a lukewarm reception from investors.There’s also SAP’s engineering response to the coronavirus that requires Klein’s attention. The German government has drafted SAP and Deutsche Telekom AG to help develop an app to trace Covid-19 infections. Klein said SAP and its partners, which also include Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Apple Inc. are working under time pressure to ensure data security, scalability and user experience of the product, though he wouldn’t give an exact time frame when an app might be available to download.Read more: Germany Taps SAP, Deutsche Telekom for Contact Tracing AppChecking InAs head of operations, everyday business also keeps Klein busy: checking in with work-from-home staff via virtual all-hands meetings, conversations with customers and calls with the German government about SAP’s role in the virus recovery. The CEO said he’s also considering how to evolve the company’s commercial model, call center and digital marketing strategy.Founded by a group of former IBM programmers, SAP still relies in no small part on the input of one its co-creators: Hasso Plattner, the company’s biggest individual shareholder, chairman and engineering mastermind, who created some of SAP’s most successful products. Klein and Plattner are close, with the chairman sending a glowing internal mail after Klein’s promotion in which he assured him of his support. It’s an important vote of confidence for Klein from the one voice that matters at SAP.One thing currently not on Klein’s mind is acquisitions, and the company will rely first and foremost on organic growth, he said. Eventually though, deals will come back into focus, and the CEO has already identified a gap in its offerings.Good Sleeper“I would love to have a telecommunications solution in the portfolio right now,” Klein said, referring to video-conferencing tools that have been in high demand during the lockdown. “I’m a little bit jealous of not having such a solution in the portfolio – now in the crisis for sure.”For now, though, his attention is aimed at steering Germany’s most valuable company through the upheaval wrought by the sudden leadership change, while managing the work of 100,000 employees who are largely working from home.And then there’s the challenge of juggling the tasks of an enlarged family. Luckily for Klein, he says his newborn daughter is a good sleeper -- one less distraction as he steers the technology company through a viral pandemic and economic crash.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

Top Stock Analyst Reports for SAP, Thermo Fisher & TOTAL

(Bloomberg) -- Workday Inc. reported quarterly revenue that topped $1 billion for the first time, beating analyst estimates and continuing growth for the maker of human resources software despite the economic challenges of the pandemic. Shares rose more than 7% in extended trading.Revenue increased 23% to $1.02 billion in the fiscal first quarter, the Pleasanton, California-based company said Wednesday in a statement. On average, analysts expected $994 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. After some expenses, profit was 44 cents a share, compared with analyst projections of 47 cents.Workday expects subscription revenue for the fiscal year of $3.67 billion to $3.69 billion, down from as much as $3.77 billion. In the second quarter, subscription revenue will be as much as $915 million, the company said.Chief Executive Officer Aneel Bhusri has targeted a goal of $10 billion in annual revenue, from $3.6 billion the past fiscal year. The company continues to expand its human resources, accounting and planning software to offer the capabilities of established rivals Oracle Corp. and SAP SE, but delivered through the cloud. Before Workday reported results, some analysts were concerned that corporate customers aren’t interested in pursuing large software deals and complicated implementations during the Covid-19 pandemic.“The cloud is playing a critical role in today’s climate, with organizations leaning on Workday to pivot -- whether it’s helping employees learn virtually, closing books remotely, or scenario planning to determine what path to take,” Bhusri said in the statement.Workday also announced two partnerships Wednesday. One, with Microsoft Corp., will run Workday’s Adaptive Planning on the Azure cloud. Microsoft’s finance team will start using the product for its internal needs and both companies will collaborate on integrating their software products for mutual customers. The second partnership, with Salesforce.com Inc., aims to help organizations safely return to their offices in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

The Peck Company Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: PECK) (the "Company" or "Peck"), a leading commercial solar engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) company, today announced the Company’s financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2020 ("Q1 2020").

The Peck Company Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: PECK) (the "Company" or "Peck"), a leading commercial solar engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) company, is pleased to announce that it has expanded its pipeline of solar project portfolios in Maine for up to 50 MWs capacity from a leading solar development company focused on community-scale, commercial & industrial-scale and small utility-scale solar PV systems.

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- These days, someone proposing a remote meeting or virtual happy hour is very likely to say, “Let’s Zoom.” While the coronavirus-induced lockdown has made Zoom Video Communications Inc. synonymous with video calls, it has also created a broader market, and whet investor appetite for stocks well placed to profit from the move to working from home. Pexip Holding ASA has satisfied some of that demand with Europe’s biggest technology initial public offering this year. The Thursday listing valued the Oslo-based company at some 9 billion Norwegian krone ($880 million) – not shabby for a business with just 370 million krone in revenue last year.The company is trading at a discount to its bigger, better-known competitor. If Pexip grows at the same pace for the rest of this year as it did in the first quarter, and profitability is consistent with previous years, then the listing gives it an enterprise value of more than 70 times forward Ebitda (a measure of a company's operating performance). Zoom is considerably pricier, with a valuation on the same basis of more than 370 times.If this were primarily a classic consumer-facing market, then investors would have to weigh up the prospect of a winner-takes-all battle. After all, that’s how things have tended to pan out for online services: Alphabet Inc.’s Google took search, Facebook Inc. dominates social media, Microsoft Corp.’s LinkedIn has professional contacts and so on. And Zoom has already entered the lexicon as a verb in much the same way as google or tweet.But the video-conferencing business model differs from those advertising-driven offerings: Most of the money is to be made from companies paying for premium services. Chief technology officers care less about what’s in vogue than about the best solution for their needs from both a technical and cost perspective. So while Pexip’s valuation is still punchy, there is room for multiple players. Concentrating on a business-to-business solution is far more likely to build a sustainable concern built on rational purchases — Pexip already boasts customers such as Vodafone Group Plc, General Electric Co. and Accenture Plc and annual recurring revenue from multi-year contracts jumped 50% in the first quarter. With 1.1 billion krone in IPO proceeds, it now has capital to accelerate that pace of growth.There’s significant demand to capitalize on the work-from-home trend. Shares in TeamViewer AG, a German maker of software that facilitates remote working, have climbed 33% this year, while the benchmark DAX Index has fallen 22%. Even at enterprise software giant SAP SE, Chief Executive Officer Christian Klein told Bloomberg News this week he’d love to have a video-conferencing solution in the company’s portfolio right now.Pexip must do a lot to justify its valuation, which prices in a huge increase in earnings over the next few years. It may be telling that many of its investors are using the offering as an opportunity to sell their stakes: The company will have a free float of some 80% of the share capital. Perhaps they’re sensing an opportunity to make hay while the sun shines. But if work from home is here to stay, then there will likely be plenty of seats around the (dining room) table.This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Alex Webb is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Europe's technology, media and communications industries. He previously covered Apple and other technology companies for Bloomberg News in San Francisco.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) -- Covid-19 has killed more than 200,000 people and triggered a severe recession. Governments want to get people back to work, and a key part of this is contact-tracing technology that helps authorities track the virus and warn citizens who may be infected to stay home or get tested.Tech companies have jumped at the opportunity, with the highest-profile effort coming from Apple Inc. and Google. These tech giants aren’t alone, though. Here’s a round-up of initiatives from around the world:U.S.Compared to the rest of the world, the U.S. is behind in developing contact-tracing apps. There is no official national system, and a patchwork of apps have sprung up at the state and even municipal level.Apple and Google plan to released the first version of their contact-tracing system by the middle of May. This will let health agencies build apps that allow a person who tests positive for Covid-19 to input their diagnosis. The system will then use Bluetooth technology to learn who the person has come into contact with and then notify those people of a possible exposure. A second phase, to be rolled out in the coming months, will have deeper integration with Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android operating systems to rely less on apps.In early April, a startup repurposed an app that had been used by football fans traveling to far-off championships to begin tracking Covid-19 in North and South Dakota. It’s anonymous, but uses location data to track where people go. If someone tests positive, public health authorities can use the historical data to figure out who else should be tested and quarantined. When Apple and Google’s tool launches, it will be integrated into the app, according to the North Dakota government’s website.Utah’s HealthyTogether app uses Bluetooth and location data to track people’s whereabouts and go back to see who they might have been in contact with if they test positive. The app also lets people input their symptoms and connects them to a testing center if they’re deemed high risk.Nodle, a startup that has developed Bluetooth applications in the past, is building its own app that follows similar principles to Apple and Google’s plan. Using Bluetooth, it keeps tabs on interactions between people, and can notify users if they’ve come into contact with someone who has Covid-19. It’s a global app but is being tested in Berkeley, California right now.Last week, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the state is building a “tracing army” to track the origin of individual Covid-19 coronavirus cases and reduce the spread of the virus. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Bloomberg Philanthropies are donating $10.5 million to the effort. (Michael Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.)AsiaChina, South Korea and Singapore have led the way in developing contact-tracing systems. Some governments already had systems in place, having learned from the SARS epidemic 15 years ago.South Korean white hat hackers and self-taught coders jumped into the development of tracing apps as early as January, even before there was a domestic outbreak. Coronamap.site, created by a university student, informs users of the movements of confirmed patients and places where infected people have circulated. The government has also developed an app to enforce quarantine orders, which uses location data and tracks whether smartphone users have turned off their GPS. About 90% of people under self-quarantine had installed the government app as of April 13.China’s tech giants stepped in early to help the government contain the pandemic. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s Alipay and Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s WeChat, the country’s primary digital payment channels, already tracked the consumer activity of hundreds of millions of users. During the outbreak, both companies released QR code systems that can be read by smartphones and allow authorities to designate which people pose health risks and need to be quarantined and which ones can use public spaces and transportation. The government is using the technology extensively to police the country as it gets back on its feet. Alibaba’s system assigns each user one of three colors -- green, yellow or red -- based on their location, health information and travel history. Green allows freedom of movement, while yellow and red indicate that people must self-quarantine or enter a supervised quarantine facility, respectively. The system has been widely adopted.Singapore was among the first to roll out a contact-tracing app. TraceTogether launched on March 20, and more than a million of Singapore’s 5.7 million residents installed it by mid-April. The system uses Bluetooth, and data is crunched securely on each individual’s phone, making it a precursor to the Apple and Google plan. Due to relatively low adoption, the country still had to institute a strict lockdown.India’s contact-tracing app, Aarogya Setu was downloaded by more than 50 million people in just 13 days at the urging of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The app collects lots of sensitive information, and can use it in more ways, which prompted criticism from privacy advocates.More than two million Australians have downloaded the government contact-tracing app, which uses Bluetooth instead of GPS data. That’s well below the 40% of the population that need to use it for the system to be effective, according to the government’s estimates.EuropeThe European Union has published guidelines for contact-tracing apps. The requirements dictate that apps should be voluntary, approved by national health authorities, preserve user privacy and should be dismantled as soon as they are no longer needed. Interoperability is key so tracing can continue even when citizens start to cross borders again.Iceland’s app, called Rakning C-19, uses smartphone location data, which must be enabled at all times to work. Once set up, the app runs in the background and saves the phone’s location several times per hour, storing the data on the phone itself and deleting it after 14 days. Using location instead of Bluetooth can give health authorities richer data about the virus’s spread, but it also makes it easier for governments to track individuals in a way that could infringe on privacy.Austria and Switzerland are building apps based on an approach called DP-3T, designed collaboratively by researchers to preserve user privacy. Some of its principles are similar to Google and Apple’s approach, and it uses Bluetooth in the same way. The effort is strictly opposed to centralized apps that let governments and health authorities store and access information.SAP SE and Deutsche Telekom are working with Germany to build the country its own contact-tracing app. Data was originally supposed to be stored on a central server, but after criticism about a lack of privacy, the country opted for a decentralized approach, following the principles outlined by Apple and Google.The U.K.’s National Health Service is building its own app that will store information centrally so virus trackers can have more information to work with. NHS engineers were able to tweak existing software from Apple and Google to make the Bluetooth app work even when running in the background.In Israel, the government ordered telecom carriers to share data with security services for contact-tracing. The plan gave authorities access to detailed data that usually is reserved for military purposes. In April, the country’s Supreme Court said the order was illegal and the government needs to pass official legislation allowing the program, or shut it down completely.Developer SoftMining introduced a contact-tracing app in Italy in March. Soon after, hacking groups launched Android knock-offs with malicious code capable of opening backdoors into personal devices, according to security researchers.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced that leading companies across the globe selected SAP® Ariba® and SAP Fieldglass® solutions to continue their digital transformation journeys, reducing risk, managing costs and getting work done while keeping supply chains intact to successfully navigate through the current economic upheaval.

(Bloomberg) -- SAP SE’s cloud division Chief Financial Officer Todd McElhatton will leave the German software giant to run finances at cloud-applications company Zuora Inc., the latest departure in a wave of executive exits.McElhatton will become CFO of San Mateo, California-based Zuora on June 22, a week after exiting SAP, he said in an interview. He will replace Tyler Sloat, who departed Zuora and joined Freshworks Inc. as CFO this month.McElhatton spent two years overseeing the finances of SAP’s $7 billion cloud division, which includes acquired companies such as Concur, SuccessFactors and Qualtrics. He’s one of several high-profile leaders who have departed Walldorf, Germany-based SAP within the past year. Bill McDermott, who served as chief executive officer for about a decade, stepped down from that role in October and is now CEO at ServiceNow Inc. Jennifer Morgan, one of McDermott’s two successors, departed in April after disagreements with co-CEO Christian Klein about SAP’s direction. Abdul Razack, SAP’s chief product officer, left earlier this month. With the exception of McDermott, SAP’s first American CEO, these executives have been some of the company’s highest-profile leaders based in the U.S.Zuora helps other organizations adopt and manage subscription-based business models, but it has struggled at times since its April 2018 initial public offering. The software company has posted slowing year-over-year sales growth in each quarter of the last fiscal year. The stock has declined about 19% this year and, at $11.66, is trading below its $14 IPO price.McElhatton “understands companies at our level of scale and how do we bridge from where we are to be a multibillion dollar company,” Zuora CEO Tien Tzuo said in an interview. “It’s a milestone for us in the next step of our journey.”McElhatton said Zuora is well-positioned as a company that helps businesses transform their operations.“It’s just something I couldn’t pass up and the subscription economy is even going to be a bit more relevant as we go through this post Covid-19 environment,” he said.McElhatton said it was a coincidence that several SAP leaders have left in recent months and expressed confidence in Klein and SAP’s CFO Luka Mucic.Zuora hasn’t yet reported results that reflect the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, but has pointed to how its customers are faring. In a recent analysis of clients, the company found that half saw no adverse effect on business in March and April. About 20% saw subscriptions accelerate. But notably, 17% are seeing slowing growth and 15% are contracting. Zuora is scheduled to issue results June 3.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) -- ServiceNow Inc. projected rising sales in a sign that demand for business workflow software will withstand the economic downtown spurred by the Covid-19 pandemic. Shares gained about 7% in extended trading.Subscription revenue will be as much as $1.01 billion in the second quarter, the Santa Clara, California-based company said Wednesday in a statement. The company trimmed its guidance on that revenue for the year to as much as $4.19 billion, from an earlier high-end expectation of $4.23 billion.Chief Executive Officer Bill McDermott pledged to build ServiceNow into a “software juggernaut” after he took over the top post in November. The cloud application company’s recurring revenue model means that a large share of sales are predictable, but investors are keen to see whether it can sustain its torrid pace of sales expansion, usually more than 30% a year. In the crowded landscape of cloud-computing providers, ServiceNow has emphasized the more tedious parts of office life, like setting up a help desk for IT operations and bringing on board new employees.“While we believe we are in a strong financial position to weather impacts caused to our business by Covid-19, many of our customers are now operating under very challenging circumstances, especially those in industries highly affected by Covid-19, and may re-evaluate their spend,” ServiceNow said in the statement. “Our guidance is also based on the assumption that generally the most significant headwinds will occur in the second and third quarters of 2020 and there will be increased uncertainty around new business, renewal timing or billings terms, particularly with customers in these highly affected industries.”First-quarter revenue increased 33% to $1.05 billion. Net income was $48.2 million, or 24 cents a share, from a loss of $1.55 million, or 1 cent, in the period a year earlier.Shares rose to a high of $352 in extended trading after closing at $321.99 in New York. The stock has climbed 14% this year.McDermott, formerly CEO of German software giant SAP SE, said earlier this month that ServiceNow would retain its workforce during the pandemic, and plans to hire more than 1,000 additional employees by the end of the year.“We’re humbled by the way our platform is resonating with customers especially in challenging times,” McDermott said in an interview. “There are times when a company is very vital to what customers need to perform.”About 80% of ServiceNow’s clients haven’t experienced significant business harm from the pandemic, McDermott said. The other 20%, including airlines and hospitality companies that have been dealt major financial blows, have continued to invest in the ServiceNow platform “to thrive after the crisis,” he said.(Updates with comments from CEO in the final two paragraphs.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

The world of messaging brings us the latest development in that theme: SAP, the CRM and enterprise software giant, is selling its Digital Interconnect messaging business to Sinch, a Swedish cloud voice, video and messaging company. Sinch said it is paying €225 million (around $250 million) on a cash and debt-free basis for the business, which has 1,500 enterprise customers that use it for various messaging services, such as the now-popular option of running "omnichannel" conversations with customers over SMS, push, email, WhatsApp, WeChat and Viber; and messaging technology for carriers. The deal will give Sinch, based in Sweden, a bigger foothold in the US market -- the Digital Interconnect business is headquartered in Silicon Valley -- and more access to a trove of customers using the kind of messaging technology that Sinch develops and sells.

Investors in Europe’s largest software company, SAP, have called for the “hullabaloo” in the boardroom to end, after the departure of a string of top executives. The revolt comes as Germany’s most valuable public company prepares to hold a virtual annual general meeting on Wednesday, in the wake of the departure of Jennifer Morgan as co-chief executive after less than six months at the helm alongside Christian Klein.

(Bloomberg) -- SAP SE, Europe’s largest software maker, said several of its cloud-computing products do not meet the company’s cybersecurity standards.The vulnerabilities affect 9% of SAP’s 440,000 customers, the Walldorf, Germany-based company said Monday in a statement. It plans to fix the problems in the second quarter to meet contractually agreed or statutory security standards. There are no known breaches or security incidents that have resulted from the shortcomings, which affect products from companies that SAP acquired, including SuccessFactors Inc., Concur Technologies Inc. and Callidus Software Inc.The software giant found similar issues with its C4C/Sales Cloud, Cloud Platform and Analytics Cloud products. The cost of improving the applications is expected to be covered within the range of SAP’s 2020 forecast, according to the company.SAP’s U.S. depository receipts fell 1.4% in extended trading after earlier closing at $117.19 in New York.Read more: SAP Drops Co-CEO Role After Six Months as Virus Upends PlansFor more than a decade, SAP has spent lavishly on cloud-computing companies to help the 48-year-old business keep up with younger firms delivering software over the internet. The company paid more than $3 billion for SuccessFactors in 2012, upwards of $7 billion for Concur in 2014 and more than $2 billion for Callidus in 2018. When absorbing those companies, SAP inherited their infrastructure, and has faced difficulty transitioning some subsidiaries away from using programs from its chief rival Oracle Corp.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

Kickstart Seed Fund, based in Utah's Salt Lake City, has raised a $110 million Fund V it announced this morning, its largest to date. The firm's rise to investing prominence has largely coincided with Utah's own emergence as a technology hub, with the pair's success intertwined since the financial crisis when the fund was put together. Founded in 2008, when Utah was far from known as a technology hub—let alone a printing press for billion-dollar startups—the firm has invested in over 100 companies and has seen 20 exits, Kickstart told TechCrunch in an interview.