Tuesday, March 27, 2007
SAP chief talks up A1S for 'volume' business - ZDNet UK
SAP chief talks up A1S for 'volume' business - ZDNet UK: "When asked about the launch of A1S, Kagermann told ZDNet UK sister site silicon.com: 'It is different to a traditional product launch because it's not just a product.' Notably, he didn't go as far as to call the new play 'on-demand software' or 'software as a service' (SaaS), an area where upstarts such as NetSuite, RightNow and Salesforce.com have prospered and where even the likes of older rivals such as Microsoft and Oracle are moving.
Kagermann said: 'I have not dismissed it. I am saying that software as a service is not solving everything and I am still on this page. What we have seen so far [with SaaS] is more or less only pieces of what you need in a company.
'It's not been running the business, just a piece of it.'
He added SAP considers that 'a hybrid mode is the right one', saying SaaS should be about more than hosting applications off-premises and charging on a pay-as-you-go basis."
Kagermann said: 'I have not dismissed it. I am saying that software as a service is not solving everything and I am still on this page. What we have seen so far [with SaaS] is more or less only pieces of what you need in a company.
'It's not been running the business, just a piece of it.'
He added SAP considers that 'a hybrid mode is the right one', saying SaaS should be about more than hosting applications off-premises and charging on a pay-as-you-go basis."
