This past week, SAPPHIRE 2010, held for the umpteenth time in Orlando, Florida, was a joy (perfect logistics, layouts, scheduling), a relief (no more Leo Apotheker), a revelation (the first 100 days of Snabe-McDermott have restored dialog between SAP-analysts and SAP-customers), and a near 180 turn of the analyst view of SAP.
In 2008-2009, SAP seemed far more inclined to cater to its shareholders than to its clients and continued to tout technologies (Duet, Solution Manager, et al) that simply failed to capture the client imagination. Leo Apotheker appeared to be hearing-impaired and when SAP threatened to raise its maintenance fees from 17% to 22%, the analyst-client-community (SUGEN, ASUG, et al) cut bait. I could not count the number of articles I read about the coming demise of SAP as the firm a) was not cloudy, b) was not SaaSy, c) was too ABAPY, and d) had retreated into a Walldorf shell that could comfort itself with maintenance profits. While I only agreed with point d, it was a damning point.
My own track at this year’s SAPPHIRE was highly customer-centric. I did not join the analyst community at all and have instead relied upon those analysts I know and follow closely to provide the coverage. I will next post upon my activities, which centered largely upon Centers of Excellence, end user competency, and a host of post-implementation strategies. For the analyst coverage, I would begin with Oliver Marks:
SAP Gets Mojo Back: Enterprise 3.0 http://snipurl.com/wltaz
and then on to three of SAP's greatest critics over past years:
Dennis Howlett SAPPHIRE 2010: the wrap http://snipurl.com/wlto1
Dennis is the Hunter S. Thompson of the analyst industry, so that article comes well-earned.
Vinnie Mirchandani Things to compliment at SapphireNow http://snipurl.com/wltmw
SAP's greatest critic and toughest sell is Ray Wang. Therefore, his post is also a revelation:
Event Report: Sapphire 2010 Brings Customers Back To A Sense Of Normalcy
http://snipurl.com/wltvr
Trust that I am not drinking any Kool-Aid here. I continue to be deeply disappointed in SAP in a number of areas (consulting, education/training, the user experience, the constant "technology will fill any gap" mentality) but after a two-year winter of SAP discontent, this event provided welcome sunlight.
In 2008-2009, SAP seemed far more inclined to cater to its shareholders than to its clients and continued to tout technologies (Duet, Solution Manager, et al) that simply failed to capture the client imagination. Leo Apotheker appeared to be hearing-impaired and when SAP threatened to raise its maintenance fees from 17% to 22%, the analyst-client-community (SUGEN, ASUG, et al) cut bait. I could not count the number of articles I read about the coming demise of SAP as the firm a) was not cloudy, b) was not SaaSy, c) was too ABAPY, and d) had retreated into a Walldorf shell that could comfort itself with maintenance profits. While I only agreed with point d, it was a damning point.
My own track at this year’s SAPPHIRE was highly customer-centric. I did not join the analyst community at all and have instead relied upon those analysts I know and follow closely to provide the coverage. I will next post upon my activities, which centered largely upon Centers of Excellence, end user competency, and a host of post-implementation strategies. For the analyst coverage, I would begin with Oliver Marks:
SAP Gets Mojo Back: Enterprise 3.0 http://snipurl.com/wltaz
and then on to three of SAP's greatest critics over past years:
Dennis Howlett SAPPHIRE 2010: the wrap http://snipurl.com/wlto1
Dennis is the Hunter S. Thompson of the analyst industry, so that article comes well-earned.
Vinnie Mirchandani Things to compliment at SapphireNow http://snipurl.com/wltmw
SAP's greatest critic and toughest sell is Ray Wang. Therefore, his post is also a revelation:
Event Report: Sapphire 2010 Brings Customers Back To A Sense Of Normalcy
http://snipurl.com/wltvr
Trust that I am not drinking any Kool-Aid here. I continue to be deeply disappointed in SAP in a number of areas (consulting, education/training, the user experience, the constant "technology will fill any gap" mentality) but after a two-year winter of SAP discontent, this event provided welcome sunlight.