Financial reports to come first – charts and graphs to follow
German tech giant SAP is set to launch two separate investor relations apps for the iPad and iPhone.
The first, expected to be in the Apple app store by the end of March, will contain IR publications like annual and quarterly reports. The second, scheduled to come out later this year, will include extra features such as a share price ticker, webcasts and interactive charts and graphs, according to Friederike Edelmann, director of investor relations at SAP.
The move is part of a wider overhaul of the company’s online interface, due to be launched in April.
Edelmann says many of the IR apps already available in the app store are limited and lack the interactivity and graphics that will be a feature of the SAP IR app. ‘Many of them are just making a PDF version of an annual report available on an iPad,’ she says. ‘But if you look at what magazines and newspapers are doing, the iPad is all about interactivity.’
Noticing a trend for German and technology companies to move toward the app platform for investor relations’ purposes, Edelmann says SAP had to act. ‘The world has gone mobile,’ she explains. ‘Some of the emerging markets have even skipped the PC and gone straight to smartphones. As a tech company we have to be at the forefront – including when it comes to technology for IR purposes.’
SAP investors are using iPads, adds Edelmann, but not in large numbers and she expects those who do probably have it more for personal use or to track stock prices.
Edelmann also has a note of caution for other IR teams thinking of developing an IR app. ‘I thought it would be a piece of cake,’ she says. ‘But it is a little more complicated than that.’
