The $16 Billion Software Company That No One Seems to Care About
I'm always amazed that people—even IT people—don't know enough about what's really going on with SAP or seem to really care about it. This is, after all, a $16 billion company whose software pumps the lifeblood of most large enterprises and, if SAP execs have their way, small and midsize companies in the near future.
Print
A snapshot of SAP's financial presence shows a market cap of some $60 billion. It has been the (or a) leader in the ERP (27.5 percent marketshare as of 2007), CRM and supply chain software markets for years.
Just recently, the German software giant proclaimed "a historic landmark in its product release strategy," notes an announcement from SAP. "The latest release of its market-leading enterprise resource planning (ERP) application, SAP ERP, has been selected or installed by more than 10,000 customers."
10,000 customers!
Yawn.
Maybe it's because SAP doesn't have a flashy or dynamic CEO, like its archrival Oracle's CEO, Larry Ellison. Maybe it's because ERP software is, in general, pretty boring stuff—a necessary evil at many companies (though everyone seems pretty jazzed about virtualization, and that's crazy boring). Maybe it's because back-office systems and software, no matter how critical to businesses, will never capture the buzz of, say, an iPhone or a new Facebook widget. It's just reality.
In the past couple years of covering SAP, I've also noticed that there's just not a lot of excitement in the SAP ecosystem. There's not the fervent passion in SAP's proponents or its detractors. Like with Oracle—people either love it or hate it. There's passion there.
You just don't seem to get that raw emotion, except, perhaps, from SAP's executives, long-time employees or Kool-Aid drinking public relations staffers. (Though, in a couple of my meetings with SAP execs, they're not the "Rah Rah!" types. More like: "Our software is very good. What else is there to talk about?")
I'm not alone in this thinking. AMR Research's Jim Shepherd, who's the senior vice president of research at the analyst firm and has been following SAP for much longer than I, told me that he is continually amazed by just how little SAP's own customers know about the software company and its future product and growth strategies in the enterprise software market.
"One of the things we find over and over again is that they are unaware of things that SAP has decided to do, and these things are publicly stated," says Shepherd. "[The customers] aren't thinking about it from a long-term perspective of what this means to me." (To get up to speed, see "Five Things About SAP's Strategy That You Need to Know.")
But, of course, Shepherd and I both maintain that ignoring SAP is risky business. First, typical SAP engagement costs run into the millions or multimillions, and most companies believe that SAP will be a core system for 20 years or so. Going with SAP is a career-maker (or breaker). Therefore, Shepherd contends, any major shift in SAP's product strategy, release schedule, target markets and partnership models, or license and maintenance fees can have a significant effect on a business's future.
In talking with SAP executives during the last 12 months, I get the sense that they are well aware of their status, and maybe that they've been "too quiet," and that they are now trying to raise the company's profile.
Now seems like as good a time as any. But will you care?
Previous Post: Apple Apple Apple Apple Apple AppleNext Post: SAP: Financials Are Rosy, But Trouble Is Brewing in the Ecosystem
What is Tech Briefcase?
TechBriefcase is a new, free service where IT Professionals can Search, Store and Share IT white papers and content like this. Learn more
Bookmark content
Speed up your research efforts with content across the web.
Search and Store
Find the white papers you need. Create folders for any topic.
View Anywhere
Open your briefcase on your iPhone, tablet or desktop. Share with colleagues.
Most Discussed Posts
Cloud computing has emerged as one of the most significant game changers to hit the technology landscape in the past 20 years. With this massive expansion of the cloud, the perception of the IT organization is shifting from a utility player to a change agent. This eBook breaks down five ways progressive organizations are using cloud-based IT Management solutions to help drive innovation and become more strategic, including: adding visibility and analytics, speeding up time-to-value, lowering costs, improving prioritization, and providing a blueprint for future cloud deployments.
Read the white paper to see how IBM helped Citigroup deliver new services and enhancements to their 200 million customers faster.
There are 3 ways to modernize legacy applications: rewrite completely, acquire packaged solutions or migrate existing code. This paper explains why it's best to migrate and how IBM® Rational® software can help.
Accommodating specific lines of business can result in a hybrid ecosystem of applications and servers. The resulting complexity of this architecture makes for an environment that is costly to maintain and difficult to change when addressing new challenges.
This whitepaper will help you to define a mobile device passcode policy. Security managers must attempt to reconcile two opposing goals. They must: 1) create a passcode policy that is strong enough to protect the device if it is lost or stolen, while: 2) not annoying users with needless length or complexity.
This whitepaper, authored by The Radicati Group, looks at the key reasons organizations should consider moving to a cloud-based archiving solution. Email archiving solutions enable organizations to store, monitor, and collect electronic data exchanged by their users to comply with internal policies and regulations.
ATERNITY will showcase a 30-minute demo on how Fortune 500 companies are leveraging its award-winning FPI Platform to deliver a user-centric approach to Proactive IT Management.
For businesses to move forward and tap into the ever-expanding universe of Internet users and network-enabled devices, it's critical to learn how to make the transition to IPv6. Learn the critical steps your organization must take to make a seamless transition-and keep your business world connected.
Learn how IT teams can protect against spear phishing tactics. Harry Sverdlove, chief technology officer of Bit9 offers a frank discussion about spear phishing - the most common technique used in today's advanced attacks.
Learn how to build a solid business case for your migration to Red Hat Enterprise Linux so you can run leaner, innovate faster, be more flexible and own the New Now.
Social media isn't about you; it's about everything around you. As you consider how your customers want to communicate with you, social media is something that can't be ignored. But what should your strategy be? Is social media "just another channel?" What kind of a plan makes sense for your contact center and for your customers? Join our experts as they share their insight and research results.
Hardware tokens were a popular method of strong authentication in past years but the cumbersome provisioning and distribution tasks, high support requirements and replacement costs have limited their growth. The additional log-in steps that hardware tokens require and the resulting user frustrations have limited adoption and make them impractical for larger scale partner and customer applications.
Sponsored Links
