Please note that I was once a user of ERP and supply chain planning applications (never having worked in IT); and also a software vendor selling SCP solutions that integrated to many different ERP systems; and then a Gartner analyst covering SCM/SCP. For the last 5 years I have focused on information trust and governance, and MDM. Thus I used to have a great appreciation for SAP Sapphire keynotes and messages, positioned as they were, to business application innovation. I have been “away” from apps for a long time and so my understanding of apps, what they do, what the need, has changed. I suppose I am now a data guy; and perhaps focused on the weeds.
I’ve been going to Sapphire for a number of years. I have gone to TechEd when I was unable, in that year, to get to Sapphire. 2014 was one of those years. TechEd attendees tend to be a little more detailed, even “developer” level, though the actual keynotes tend to capture the highlights from Sapphire. Here are a few observations from my first day attending. The first is my main “take away” so far – followed by some more “official” perspectives we were guided to hear.
My Main Take Away: SAP Needs Repeatable Customer Problems for SAP Hana to Grow
Keynotes, Monday evening and Tuesday morning, were chock full of end user customer driven innovation stories using SAP Hana. Any software vendor would be proud to sport so many new, different and innovative case studies. Now the bad news: every one of the stories, showing off the power of SAP Hana, was a unique exploration into what can happen when you have almost unfettered processing power that describes the difference between on-disk and in-memory processing.
In the keynotes, 1-1’s and executive panels I was grabbed by a feeling of a vendor looking for end-user client problems to solve. It is as if the Innovators Overshoot has struck. I remember an SAP Sapphire keynote, a few years ago now, where Hasso Platner shared his vision for a new concept, then unveiled as SAP Hana. Within a few moments my fingers were typing into my iPhone. I didn’t text to my Gartner peers about real-time analytics (that was just too obvious); I emailed my supply chain and apps peers and said that SAP had just announced to the world the reinvention of business applications, and specifically S&OP as a good example. However it then took SAP three more years to figure out how S&OP should be designed to take advantage of SAP Hana. Why did it take them so long?
The exciting capability that is in-memory computing can radically speed up current business process and the supported applications. That same power of in-memory processing can also create an opportunity to reinvent an entirely new process. With such power, why would we not reinvent what we have? We should be able to do things completely differently, if we had fewer limitations, yes?
But why bother? And when do you bother? If you are making enough money, do you spend cycles reinventing yourself? Do you wait until the signs are that your competition is renewing? I think SAP is stuck in this paradox. They have an innovating technology that has few, burning-platform drivers to satisfy and too many opportunity-drivers to discover. This would not be bad for a small start-up, but it could be a killer for a software behemoth with a big belly to feed, and now.
So SAP is in search of business opportunities with credible or demonstrated value.
Now for the more official-like messages I saw emphasized today.
Co-innovation. This was Björn Goerke (Executive Vice President and Corporate Officer, SAP Product & Innovation), message. It was good, and aligned to SAPs new position. No longer the work horse ERP provider, and no longer the best of breed slayer or purveyor, but now the partner that brings innovation capability to build on and build out from that large investment in ERP that provides solid data. I felt this was a frank and fair message. SAP needs you, and now.
Openness: This was Steve “Open” Lucas’s message. Building on the platform and out to the network, Steve emphasized the new culture and new approach to openness that SAP is adopting. He explicitly suggested competitors would be sought to build on SAP Hana. There was talk of the SAP Hana Cloud Platform that will use Java (where did all the ABAP go?). I get the message though this is not a new one from SAP. I myself have been party to “partner” agreements with SAP in years past, albeit under different climate and time. I have seen other vendors “partner” in more recent times. I am not yet convinced the worm has turned, quite. It might happen…
Technology visionary again: This was Irfan Khan (CTO global customer delivery (ex CTO Sybase) message. In fact he said, “SAP is reclaiming its position as technology visionary”. I think that is the kind of thing analysts might say, not what I would expect from a visionary. A visionary should paint his picture and observers should exclaim the wonderment of the vision. I think Khan is a very strong and marketable executive, but to suggest SAP as a whole has shared. information around a new technology vision didn’t ring true for me yet. SAP Hana is a pretty cool technology and enabling platform. So now let me now contradict myself.
One of the demos in Tuesday’s keynote concerned the design, versioning, deployment of an app to client server, then native mobile platform. I tweeted that this was tantalizing. And yes, it worked on stage, live. It showed that a developer could, with some ease, go from concept to deployment, even mobile deployment, in relatively easy steps. Some few years ago though, the SAP’s first ever NetWeaver analyst day, there was a similar demo (less the mobile part). The demo was much more polished this time; the tools looked more stable- even real. And NetWeaver is no more anyway, even if the Net and the Weaver are now part of the fabric of Hana’s dress.
So here we are. SAP Hana is powerful innovation enabling capability, lacking customers with defined problems to solve. About 1,450 end user clients are running their SAP business suite on SAP Hana. Cloud has been added as a platform deployment option; openness is being adopted; application lifecycle management demonstrated. Does the amalgamation of these parts lead to technology visionary status? It is a good story. But it’s been out there for a while, in parts.
I would wrap up day 1 on a positive note though. SAP has now mastered how to explain what SAP Hana is. It can clearly demonstrate, with real world, even life-saving examples, some of its capability. It seems geared to say all the things a vendor needs to say to convince the wider market it can be an enabler of an organizations innovation platform. The bad news? It needs, desperately, a product strategy to monetize its new found clarity in vision (not new vision but stabilized, rounded) before its competition can come up with an effective SAP Hana alternative or blocking strategy.