Wednesday, January 31, 2007
» What’s up with SAP’s ‘game-changing’ A1S | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com
» What’s up with SAP’s ‘game-changing’ A1S Between the Lines ZDNet.com: "Enterprise Irregular David Terrar goes in depth parsing recent statements made by SAP CEO Henning Kagermann at an event eariler this month. He came away with five key points:
1. The phrases “on-demand” or “Software as a Service” were never mentioned. Admittedly SAP will be presenting a hybrid model, but the product is going to be available web-deployed on a subscription basis. Are they avoiding those terms because they are inventing another one? Is it down to marketing and they want to avoid comparisons with the likes of NetSuite and Salesforce.com? Do they believe that their approach is something different?
2. Wow - taken on face value, if the product is as good, flexible, and cost effective as they say then this really is a significant announcement for the mid-market.
3. This will mean that SAP’s mid market approach will involve three products - B1, A1N and A1S. How much overlap and channel conflict will there be?
4. If the A1S approach is so good, so flexible, and with cost of ownership better by a factor of 10, what effect will that have on the rest of SAP’s traditional business, including ERP 2005?
5. Why haven’t they said more about the underlying architecture of the new product so that the SAP detractors can see that this is a new product rather than an evolution of one of their existing products?"
1. The phrases “on-demand” or “Software as a Service” were never mentioned. Admittedly SAP will be presenting a hybrid model, but the product is going to be available web-deployed on a subscription basis. Are they avoiding those terms because they are inventing another one? Is it down to marketing and they want to avoid comparisons with the likes of NetSuite and Salesforce.com? Do they believe that their approach is something different?
2. Wow - taken on face value, if the product is as good, flexible, and cost effective as they say then this really is a significant announcement for the mid-market.
3. This will mean that SAP’s mid market approach will involve three products - B1, A1N and A1S. How much overlap and channel conflict will there be?
4. If the A1S approach is so good, so flexible, and with cost of ownership better by a factor of 10, what effect will that have on the rest of SAP’s traditional business, including ERP 2005?
5. Why haven’t they said more about the underlying architecture of the new product so that the SAP detractors can see that this is a new product rather than an evolution of one of their existing products?"
