Amid customer and employee discontent and a failure to boost revenue at the world’s largest business-management software maker, SAP AG Chief Executive Officer Leo Apotheker was unexpectedly let go.

SAP’s supervisory board decided not to extend Apotheker’s mandate, which would have expired at the end of the year. His exit comes less than a year after he took over in May 2009 as the sole CEO of the Walldorf, Germany-based company. Board members Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe will take over as co-CEOs, SAP said in a statement Sunday.

Thomas Otter, a Ladenburg, Germany-based analyst at market researcher Gartner Inc. and a former SAP employee, said, “The challenge is going to be what SAP will be doing five years from now; they need a coherent vision. They need to have a more compelling technological vision. Their current messages aren’t getting anyone excited. Ten years ago they had the ability to excite the market.”

(article source: BusinessWeek, image source: ERP Software)