SAP AG will start selling a long-delayed suite of Web-based software for running small to mid-sized businesses in July, a top company executive said on Wednesday.

Co-Chief Executive Bill McDermott said in an interview that SAP would initially sell the software, dubbed Business by Design, as a hosted, Web-based service to small to mid-sized businesses in the United States, Germany, UK, France, India and China.

The product has been in development for some six years. The company originally projected that it would reach 10,000 customers and generate $1 billion of revenue by 2010.

McDermott said that he did not expect the new software to generate significant revenue during 2010 but that it might start making a material contribution to sales next year.

Business by Design's primary rival is NetSuite, a product from NetSuite Inc, a software maker founded more than a decade ago by Oracle Corp co-founder Larry Ellison. It will also compete with products from Microsoft Corp, Intuit Inc and Salesforce.com Inc.

(Reporting by Jim Finkle; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

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