When I wrote my analysis of BusinessOne I neglected to make an important point, something I later remembered and mentioned to some of the SAPpers with whom I converse.
If the company is to be perceived as successfully serving its customers then it needs to get active on the customer case study programme.
While talking to Gadi Shamia, he pointed me to Yakpak, a US retailer that claims an uplift of 30% in volume and a reduction of 22% in operational costs following adoption of the e-commerce module. These kinds of stat matter to potential buyers.
At present, SAP cannot publicly field a single UK case study. Of its 10,000+ customers, only 13 make it to the case study page. That’s not god though it is something some within SAP acknowledge.
I’ve said it to other clients but I believe case study references should be part of the contractual agreements made between vendors and customers. This may not always be enforceable and plenty of customers will likely resist such clauses. But if you don’t ask, you don’t get. And it’s much harder to go back than it is to strike such deals at the time the contract is signed.
Some customers like to use this as a price bargaining chip. I’m not in favour of that. If the customer gets a great service, then why wouldn’t they tell the world? There can be no loss of competitive advantage because no two companies ever replicate systems implementations or usage.
I maintain an ongoing dialog with customers of both Winweb and Twinfield because they provide valuable insights about how they are being served. This is incredibly important in the SaaS world but is equally important in the on-premise world.
Even if the customer won’t go public, a limited agreement that allows potential customers to at least call existing customers has to be on the table. Otherwise it is almost impossible for potential customers to validate what they’re buying into. As we know, not all engagements are consummated in marriage. Software acquisitions are no different. And these days, as SAP has found, your brand in one market doesn’t necessarily carry to another without a lot of work.
As an aside, there is SAPs Software Developer Network. Anyone can look at large chunks of the site. That gives you a glimpse of how this community performs. Maybe they’re not quite as anti-social as I thought? What do you think James?
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