SAP CRM vs. SalesForce.com (advantages, disadvantages, costs, ...)

Hello,

I have created a few open discussions in the past, which I think are quite interesting, and I would like to add another one.

Introduction: I am currently in an assignment at a pharmaceutical company in Germany working on SAP CRM 7.0 and now the management has decided that they want to replace it with SalesForce.com. I think one reason is corporate politics as they are already using this software in other divisions. Concerning other reasons I am not sure.

Here is one of many articles about the CRM software market:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2014/05/06/gartners-crm-market-share-update-shows-41-of-crm-systems-are-saas-based-with-salesforce-dominating-market-growth/

What do you think: What are the advantages and disadvantages of SAP CRM and SalesForce.com? What about the costs? Are SAP CRM liscenses and implementation costs really higher? Is SalesForce.com growing faster than SAP CRM? Is it a serious threat to us?

Thomas Wagner