SAP Business ByDesign delayed

Just as I am preparing to head off for meetings with SAP at their annual customer conference in Orlando and with representatives at a gathering of Business for Social Responsibility, news has come in that general availability of SAP Business ByDesign is almost certainly going to be delayed through 2009.

Details as to why the delay has occurred are thin on the ground but I am speculating this has something to do with the way in which the product has been designed. SAP has adopted what is known as a ‘mega-tenant’ design. This allows it to ensure complete separation of customer databases on data centre ‘blades.’ This is good news for customers concerned about security, but means it is more difficult to scale the service compared to ‘multi-tenant‘ designs where all customer data usually resides on a single database instance.

Competitors like Salesforce.com are bound to make a meal of this news but it need not be fatal to SAP’s aspirations in the mid-market. 18 months is a long time in software and while it gives CODA a head start in terms of deliverables, SAP is still the brand to beat. The fact SAP claims 150 beta customers is indication enough the product is in the works. My real concern though is that Peter Zencke, who led the development effort is scheduled to retire at the end of the year though he is said to be retaining a consulting role with the company.

More details to follow once I’ve had the opportunity to discuss the issues with SAP executives. That will be in the next few days.