Following the sudden departure of Leo Apotheker as CEO at SAP, the company held a media call with Hasso Plattner, co-founder and chairman of the supervisory board. Much has been written about his performance, events leading up to Leo’s departure and speculation about the future. I’ve been a part of that. The key takeaway: The company is restructuring the board with the introduction of Jim Snabe (products) and Bill McDermott (sales) as co-CEOs along with elevating CTO Vishal Sikka to the board. In other words, the company is placing a fresh emphasis on technology. Alongside, Hasso Plattner will take a more active role. In the short term he is talking about rebuilding trust the company needs to have with both customers and employees.

While most industry watchers are quietly optimistic, there is much speculation about the future of the German giant. This inevitably opens up questions about the company’s ability to remain as an independent business and its ability to once again come to market with, as my friend and Gartner analyst Thomas Otter puts it: ‘big hairy engineering.’

There is no doubt that SAP must now put its foot on the Business ByDesign gas. Engineering wise, it’s pretty much ready to go. Distribution is a whole different story about which I have yet to hear an intelligent answer. That will come but it needs to be sooner rather than later. My sense is that SAP has at best, three months to get those ducks in a row because

1. analysts will want answers at the next earnings call and
2. it is close to SAPPHIRE where they need to make a big splash

As regards the broader product roadmap, I am in agreement with another colleague, Ray Wang who believes that SAP needs to show the market it can once again innovate in a meaningful way. I’d add that it needs to ensure that happens in the context of protecting core products that are in use around the world.

Today, the world is giving Hasso a breathing space – not long – during which to re-organize and re-energize the business. There are plenty of tough tasks ahead. However, for customers there are two outstanding questions:

1. What does this mean for maintenance costs? Fellow Enterprise Advocate Frank Scavo believes SAP will take a softer line on the topic.
2. What about succession? Few people I speak with believe the co-CEO arrangements are much more than a Band Aid. I don’t know. Both Snabe and McDermott need a chance to prove themselves, along with Sikka. I go further. SAP’s woes extend way back. While it should not agonize on the past, it needs to address the future in that context. It is a context in which Hasso is deeply entwined. Whether he can extricate himself from that, apply his analytical mind to the issues and formulate a solution is moot.

In the meantime, and again as Ray says:

“There’s lots of debate as to whether Hasso is the right person to bring the company back,” said Ray Wang, a partner at Altimeter Group in San Mateo, California. “For the next three to six months, he brings the vision and direction. To improve the treatment of employees and customers, Hasso is the right person. If there is no turnaround in the next 12-18 months, SAP will be in real trouble,” he said.

If you are an SAP buyer or contemplating its products or services then these are questions you should keep in mind.

Aside – the best coverage of Hasso’s call is on ComputerWorld. It provides a good context for the events and a sensible parsing of what Hasso did (and did not) say. A more pointed and acerbic view can be found on Helmuth Guembel’s site.

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• Apotheker is out as SAP’s CEO (infoworld.com)
• What SAP Needs After Apotheker (businessweek.com)
• Chief of SAP Steps Down After 7 Months (nytimes.com)
• SAP Leadership Shakeup: Leo Aptheker out, return to Co-CEO Structure (socialmediatoday.com)

Over the weekend, SAP announced that Leo Apotheker, the company’s CEO has resigned with immediate effect. He is replaced by two co-CEO’s: Jim Snabe and Bill McDermott. While this may be of peripheral interest, those of us interested on understanding the SaaS service Business ByDesign will want to hear how the company plans to get this much discussed service out into the wider world.

An analyst call is scheduled for 2.30pm CET today. It promises to be interesting.

There is a growing stack of early coverage. My more detailed posts can be found here and here.

In the meantime, here’s a bit of advice for SAP.

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• SAP CEO resigns, replaced by 2 co-chief executives (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
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For those interested in such things, there’s a terrific SaaS ‘food fight’ underway at AccountingWeb. After maybe 40 comments and a lot of yo-yo’ing among commenters on yet another SaaS discussion, Gary Turner calls time stating:

Those who are successful are winning for the same reasons people have always won – great product, great customer empathy, ability to deliver, attitude, customer service excellence, etc. etc. There is no cheat code.

Maybe, but that would be to over simplify what happens in technology. My colleague Oliver Marks makes interesting observations on this topic:

Everyone operates under the simple thought ‘what’s in it for me?’ including not only potential end users but also vendors, analysts, consultants, bloggers and competitors. These different voices inevitably distort, reinvent and mutate terminology to meet their own offerings and goals- to those following the fashion circus this can seem exciting and buzzy but often makes things all the more incomprehensible to the average Joe or Josephine.

Providing a jargon free, comprehensible rationale and use case for anything is the first step in being able to sell whatever it is, yet despite the poor economic situation there appear to be legions of folks intent on contradicting and second guessing each other in countless areas of the technology world, particularly online.  The result are larger legions of bemused and bewildered potential customers who took a look but were baffled by what they saw and went away again.

Thats’ one (among many) reasons why I wrote this 11 point piece that talks to saas benefits.

I’ve spent part of the weekend updating the SaaS Apps wiki. It’s quite bare in that I am still compiling vendor data even though it currently has 31 pages. I’m heading up vendor pages with essential ‘at a glance’ information, including links to pricing, contacts and references. (see image below as an example)

More information will be added once I’ve ground through the stuff that needs to be included for all vendors identified to date. I’ve also re-organize the front page, including links to other resources. It now includes links to current articles of interest. It also includes a What you need to know page. It briefly summarizes key advantages of the SaaS model. That in turn includes links to examples of benefit.

David Terrar of D2C and Ben Kepes have signed up as ‘writers’ which means they can edit pages. Thanks to both for contributing to this effort. If you’d like to contribute then feel free to ‘apply’ and I’ll add you to the list.

I hate being sold to and hate selling. I just don’t have it in me to say: ‘gimme your loot’ without feeling somehow dirty. Conversely, I hate having sales people’s BS rammed down my throat. You’d have thought the acres of digital space devoted to social media might have solved the problem. Not a bit of it. Still today if I want to get a whitepaper from a paywall site then I have to pay YOU by giving all sorts of information. You want to know my buying habits when all I want is to get information. Most of the time I try be honest but don’t be surprised if I tell you I plan to spend zero any time soon or of I give you 1st name: Donald 2nd name: Duck with an address somewhere close to Alpha Centauri. Gimme the option to ask anonymously and to say I am researching.

But it is coming to something when I do get an email from some sales dickwad who clearly hasn’t read the information I have provided, does a half assed attempt to get my attention and then launches into a spiel I’ve already gleaned from the freakin’ white paper. Talk about stoopid. Here’s an example:

What should they have done?

1. How about run a Google search on my name? See what you find and respond personally to what you see as might be my needs. What with email, Twitter, Facebook and the rest, there is almost certainly enough data out there for you to assemble a profile of what I am about.
2. Tell me about customers who are successful. Better still point to their stories. Even better, point to their stories on their web site.
3. Please don’t use ‘accreditations’ as a selling point at this stage. Maybe later and only if they’re credible. Most of them are not. But if you must do so then please show me the accreditation document.
4. Point me to the catalogue of services or provide links that help me. OK – so you might have to make some assumptions but providing examples is better than a simple link to your main landing page which on this occasion is bloody awful.
5. Research means I MAY be interested. It means I am information gathering. When people download these things that is usually what they’re attempting to do. Please respect that.
6. Please remember that many of those doing research have been tasked to do so. They’re not buyers. They MAY recommend so treat them like the valuable contact they can be. That doesn’t mean schmoozing them with some golf day out offer but attending to their request.

Regular readers will know that occasionally I talk about travel woes. International flight travel has become the equivalent of attending for an anal probe, domestic UK travel isn’t much better. But when you can’t get a refund and the scripted responses are bland and uninformative then what do you do? Why take a leaf out of United Breaks Guitars of course! That’s what Jamie Anderson has done under the song title of 54 Days and Counting. It only runs a couple of minutes but says it all

Long story short: Jamie booked some travel. Had to cancel. Asked for refund. 54 days later and no refund. He’s blogged about it under the title: First ScotRail and the Shitty Customer Experience. As of now, Jamie has gone FIVE rounds of call and email in an attempt to get his money back. Here’s an example at Round 4:

ROUND 4:

Customer (Jamie Anderson)
29/01/2010 02:42 PM
I have STILL not received this refund. I want to know the following:
1. Why is it taking so long?
2. When will I receive my money back?
3. I want this complaint escalated IMMEDIATELY to someone who can resolve this for me.
I do not want a ‘we will look into it response’ I want a response that tells me exactly when I will be getting my money back.
This service has been a total and utter disgrace and I have now been waiting 47 calendar days to have my account recredited.
regards,
Jamie Anderson

Response (Andrew Woods)
29/01/2010 05:56 PM
Dear Jamie,
Thank you for writing back to us.
I am sorry to learn that you have not received a refund till now.
I have raised this matter with the Refunds Department as it is still under investigation. I understand your dissatisfaction as it is taking a long time for this procedure.
Furthermore, I acknowledge your feedback about this matter. I have passed your feedback to the appropriate team to ensure this issue is addressed promptly.
I understand that your experience with us has not been good. However I assure you that at First ScotRail, it is our constant endeavour to meet and exceed our customer’s expectations and sincerely hope you will give us another opportunity to serve you better in the future.
Kind regards,
Andrew

ROUND 4 VERDICT: Another Round to Scotrail but at least someone with a sensible name this time. They still have my money and they are right they have exceeded my expectations. My expectation was that they were marginally incompetent but perhaps well meaning. Now I think they are just a shower of c*nts.

Does anyone actually know WTF is going on with this bunch of losers?

This is oh so typical of the parlous state of customer service. Why do we put up with it? Often we have very little choice. At a time when we are being encouraged to use public transport instead of gas guzzling, polluting cars you’d have thought First ScotRail would realize the value of keeping customers happy. Obviously not.