BARCELONA, Spain -- In an effort to meet the growing demand for machine-to-machine technology, Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) and SAP AG (NYSE:SAP) have signed an agreement to jointly market and sell cloud-based, machine-to-machine (M2M) solutions and services to enterprises via operators around the globe. The solutions will be based on a combined software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering from Ericsson and SAP within M2M.The combined power of Ericsson's services, solutions, technology and network operator infrastructure, which are powered by Ericsson Device Connection Platform & Service Enablement Platform, and enterprise business solutions from SAP powered by the SAP HANA® platform will allow businesses to find better and more innovative ways to respond to customer needs even more quickly than they could before. The announcement was made at Mobile World Congress, held February 25 - 28, 2013 in Barcelona, Spain.Enterprises have faced barriers toward the adoption of M2M solutions, such as lack of complete multi-industry end-to-end offerings and deficiency of suitable global coverage connectivity solutions that are needed by multinational enterprises. Ericsson and SAP are teaming up to deliver a connected cloud-based offering to operators that will remove those barriers, while at the same time adding the benefits of minimal up-front investment and faster time-to-market. These new solutions and services will also help enhance enterprise efficiency in key business processes such as maintenance, remote service, inventory, logistics and road transport management, vending and customer experience management.Ericsson Money Services AB