Henning Kagermann, CEO SAP used his keynote to convey the impression that SAP is transforming into a full end to end solutions provider with Netweaver at the centre. As Michael Cote noted:
This morning’s keynote from Henning Kagermann was a reprise of SAP’s general idea of: hey, business is moving fast, you need agility, you want stability… SAP (and NetWeaver, specifically) is the solid foundation for all of this…
But…there are significant challenges and risks ahead as SAP attempts to drive new functionality deep into customers’ businesses. Referring to past issues, Henning freely admitted that:
- There were too many past failures
- During the 1990s, it took 5 or more years to shake out bugs
- There were way too many modifications and upgrades and
- There was a lack of connectivity.
This was an extraordinary set of admissions from a company that, in the 1990s, used to behave with all the arrogance of a company that thought its software could solve world peace yet had a number of well publicised failures from companies like Hershey and Whirlpool.
During a later meeting, Henning said that what keeps him awake at nights is the fear that as companies become more dependent on SAP that there will be a business failure arising from something going wrong with software. This left me pondering just how complex and risky global implementations can be. Henning noted that on one contract worth in excess of $1 billion (that’s not a misprint – ie $1,000,000,000), he is the executive sponsor but that the SAP element is relatively small.
Even so, when things do go wrong, it is the apps vendor that gets it in the neck, regardless of the source of difficulty. SAP should not be surprised. It is positioning itself as the premier vendor of choice that will supply all your company’s application needs. But as Brian Sommer pointed out in our private Q&A, there comes a point where SAP will have to also position itself as the systems integrator. After all, at its heart, that’s what Netweaver is supposed to deliver.
Quite how many companies will come to run their entire businesses on SAP products is moot. One thing’s for sure. alternatives will be available for years to come. This from spend management expert Jason Busch:
Push back and let SAP know you have options available. And if you do decide to take the MDM plunge without upgrading your SRM version as well, make it on your terms — not there’s.
Technorati Tags: integration, SRM, SAP, sapphire07, spend management
