SAP announced today its plans to buy Ticket-Web GmbH & Co. KG, a German maker of customer relationship management (CRM) and ticketing software applications designed for the sports and entertainment industry. SAP would not say how much they were paying for the company.
The announcement to buy Ticket-Web is part of SAP’s plan to begin offering new software that caters to promoters, venues and market events. SAP is also looking to support arena management operations.
SAP has a history of reaching out to the the event management industry. In 2011, SAP announced it was creating a sports and management version of its on-demand ERP Business ByDesign ERP for the parent company of the San Jose Sharks, as a part of its plan to spin out industry-specific versions of the application. At last year’s TechEd conference, SAP announced it was developing a new mobile application for sports fans to follow their favorite teams and players. It also launched photoTribe, a mobile application that like-minded fans can use to share photos of those same teams and players.
SAP did not say what role those prior efforts might play in its future plans for Ticket-Web. However, SAP contends that the goal is to provide sports and entertainment management software that combines business intelligence, ERP, CRM, financials with ticketing software to help promoters boost attendance, deepen customer engagement and increase profitability.
While the goal is to use Ticket-Web as the foundation of a new integrated sports platform, companies will be able to integrate the new application to other back end systems, just as SAP can run with other ticketing systems.
Under the terms of the deal, Ticket-Web employees will become part of SAP. The deal is expected to close during the second quarter of 2013, according to SAP.