Hasso Plattner, SAP chairman delivered an understated keynote at the end of yesterday’s opening day of the company’s 3-day customer event. Thomas Otter took the brave step of live blogging it. I sat back and soaked up the Stanford d.school inspired ‘blackboard’ approach. It was a clever way to indicate yet hide complexity and made a refreshing change from SAPs usual diet of incredibly complex PowerPoint slides.
After the keynote, Hasso kindly hosted a session with Jason Busch, Dan Farber, Brian Sommer, Jason Wood and myself. It is some years since I last met Hasso but it is clear that his fire and passion remain undiminished. Despite the recent departure of Shai Agassi, which palpably upset Hasso at the time, he was in no mood to reflect on the past. Instead he concentrated on what he sees as an exciting time for SAP. “I’m fascinated by the potential of communities to influence what is happening with the product,” he said. I hope he is right and that SAP has the ability to respond to what the market has to say. It will be tough for SAP because it is not used to behaving in this manner. (Of which more later)
In recent times, SAP has not enjoyed the market mindshare which has been key to its success. In the eyes of many, while Shai was unquestionably a charismatic leader, the company had lost its ability to show itself as a clear space leader in the enterprise applications market. But one solid keynote doth not a leader make and while there is no age limit on innovation, the fact remains that Hasso is semi-retired. As he says: “There isn’t the pressure of past years.” Maybe not personally but the company still has significant challenges.
SAP is now solidifying its vision of the market. This is based on the assumption that while its core market may not necessarily move forward to adopt new technologies at the same speed as it did in the 1990s, there are new opportunities in the mid-range.
This contrasts sharply with Oracle’s strategy of consolidating the market and feeding off the maintenance pickings. That might be a good strategy for Oracle but I’d rather be in the shoes of an SAP customer. At least I’m likely to get something fresh for my money rather than paying Oracle for an implied promise which has yet to be delivered.
More to follow once we’ve heard from SAP’s CEO Henning Kagermann.
PIc courtesy of Dan Farber.
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