SAP, with some 42,000 customers, has traditionally sold its software to companies with at least 500 employees. It is now looking to build its base to 100,000 customers by 2010, using A1S to attract companies with 100 and 500 employees.

In doing so it will meet a previously stated goal of boosting the size of the market for business applications that it can address to $70 billion by 2010 from $30 billion.

An initial challenge for SAP will be marketing to smaller businesses, which is generally done through independent consultants, or resellers, who advise businesses on which software to buy, then help install it.

Ron Hinchcliffe, vice president of Synergy Plus Solutions Inc, a reseller with operations in Livonia, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario, said he was skeptical of SAP's new offering.

"It's a version one. We generally try to look at those a little more tentatively," Hinchcliffe said. "If we recommend it right out of the gate, we could be risking our reputation."