SAP has completed acquisition of partner Praxis Software Solutions, based in Minneapolis, to incorporate new e-commerce and customer relationship management (CRM) software into its Business One management suite.

The move comes soon after research by Yankee Group revealed that integrating the company website with accounting, inventory and other business applications is one of the biggest technology challenges faced by small and midsize enterprises (SMEs). “Integrated e-commerce plays a key role in increasing the productivity and overall efficiency of the workforce for SMEs,” said Yankee Group’s Sanjeev Aggarwal in a statement.

SAP announced that the new projects will help SMEs generate revenue, increase sales and operate more efficiently. Companies will be able to set up online stores easily, and the reach of Business One will be extended to a new group of smaller companies.

Analysts call the acquisition and integration of Praxis a competitive move to retain market share, according to CRM.com. Chad Eschinger, principal analyst at Gartner Dataquest, says SAP tends to make “small, very strategic” acquisitions.

The company announced 20 new reseller partner locations to bring Business One into new markets.

Dan Kraus, vice president of SAP Business One, said in a statement, “We look forward to the benefits of this expansion of our network in allowing us to reach greater numbers of SMEs with integrated business management solutions."

In other news, SAP plans to meet its year-end earnings projections despite second quarter results that did not meet analysts’ expectations.

According to Sci-Tech Today, the software giant will announce detailed financial information Thursday, and SAP Chief Executive Henning Kagermann says the company’s “order pipeline” is strong enough to offset the second-quarter miss in license revenue projections.