Last time I met Robert Scoble, it seemed to me his attention was very much in the consumer space. Today, he’s blogging from SAPs TechED in Las Vegas. he – who couldn’t resist American’s playground? Charlie Wood shows Robert chinwagging with rising SAP star Shai Agassi.
More important than all the fun is the fact that SAP is using the event to let the SAP Developer Network (SDN) self organise sessions. SAP is reinventing itself and I have a hunch it will be successful. It went through all sorts of traumas in the late 1990s when Siebel was eating everyone’s lunch. It has since emerged unscathed and stronger. At the time I thought it was in deep poo – especially as customers were balking at mySAP upgrade costs.
On this occasion, it is quietly melding the ‘old’ and ‘new.’ SAP is still very much wedded to the on-premise world, which, in the markets in which it plays, is fully understandable. But this latest flirtation with bloggers (the first was at SAPPHIRE) and the social aspects of development shows leadership in the enterprise space. Oracle, where are you?
SAP owes a lot to Jeff Nolan. He’s been tireless and relentless in his pursuit of ‘user first.’ Something that’s foreign in SAPland. Cripes – he’s put up with a lot of my crap on his site with the kind of grace which is rare in consumer blogs. I’m really looking forward to meeting Jeff at the Office 2.0 conference. It’s good to see SAP has the smarts to recognise trends and respond accordingly.
BEA wants to do the same and I was invited to their annual customer thrash. Unfortunately, the timing was off. But some of my fellow Irregulars will be there so I can follow the action virtually – as I will at TechED. And next month I’ll be at TechED Amsterdam. It won’t be quite the same but the comparisons between US and EU perspectives will add a great deal to the SDN community. I hope.
If you’re a SAP consultant, this could be a good opportunity to pick up how the company sees the way ahead. I hesitate to say it but is this a sign of SAP looking to innovate?
Technorati Tags: innovation, SAP, SAP Business One, SAP TechEd06 TechEd06, Scoble
