By Siobhan Kennedy in Philadelphia
SAP AG chief Hasso Plattner used his keynote speech on the opening day of the company’s Sapphire user conference yesterday to shake off the vendor’s image as a stuffy, back office ERP-only shop and re-position the giant as a web-based application content provider. During a nearly two-hour long presentation, Plattner detailed the company’s much-hyped web strategy, mySAP.com, and outlined ambitious – some say over-ambitious – plans to transform the enterprise software vendor into the number one desktop portal of choice, giving users seamless, integrated access to SAP, third party and internet-based applications and services.
We want to own the desktop, Plattner told the audience in Philadelphia. We want to be the portal through which business users access business applications. He added: With this show there will be a shift in focus from business processes to users…they are the center of the universe in this internet based world. Admitting the mistakes of the past, Plattner said that SAP doesn’t want to limit users to a system that was only based on its own software. It’s clear that we cannot build all the apps that other companies have built, the internet has taught us that, he said, but instead we will become a content provider for all the business applications within an enterprise.
Plattner acknowledged that SAP was late delivering its strategy and said the company had taken a beating from Oracle in the process. But he said that the benefit of waiting for mySAP.com was that it comes delivered with access not just to SAP software – as is the case with Oracle, he said – but to every other enterprise application. In addition, through the company’s business to business procurement application, partners can use mySAP.com as the vehicle to buy, sell and collaborate with their business partners offer the web. Plattner also used the stage to roll out industry heavyweights IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco, as well as a live link-up with Bill Gates, to endorse SAP’s new plans.
As expected, the CEO used the keynote to give SAP customers their first glimpse of the components of mySAP.com and in particular the much-hyped workplace and marketplace portals. He said the workplace portal was the manifestation of SAP’s commitment to shift to a user-centric model. This is not just a marketing slogan, he said. We’ve changed the whole design principle to focus on the user.
Plattner said the beauty of the workplace portal was that it provided a single, centralized access point to all applications an employee might need. In the past, users had to access each application in isolation, but Plattner said the workplace interface gives users single sign on capabilities within the context of a personalized AOL-style portal interface. So now there’s no difference between R/3, BW (business warehouse) or CRM (customer relationship management), he said. Every employee can use these applications exactly to his or her own business needs. The workplace portal will go into the early testing phase at the end of the fourth quarter, he said.
The second component, the mySAP.com marketplace, enables customers to form online trading communities, with the aim of obtaining goods and services at the best possible prices and in the fastest times. SAP says that nearly one thousand companies have signed up to make their goods accessible to SAP users through the portal, which goes live on September 30. SAP said it will target the portal at vertical markets, which will tally with the 19 vertical industry solution maps announced at last year’s Sapphire. The first eleven markets will be available at the end of the month; five more will be rolled out at the end of year; and the last four will go online in the first quarter of next year. During a demonstration, Plattner showed how the portal will enable companies to search for other companies registered within their vertical market and directly link to their web sites. It will also provide community-based content, complete with chat forums and news on industry trends, he said.
One thing that’s not clear is how SAP intends to charge for its new infrastructure. Plattner was characteristically tight-lipped about the model, saying only that companies would be charged according to the different types of users – power users and casual users – and how long each spends accessing the applications and services. Alternatively, if all employees access the software equally, SAP will calculate an average price per user, he said. Although more details are expected to emerge during the week, Kevin McKay, CEO of SAP America told ComputerWire that customers will end up paying more for mySAP.com than they did for a typical R/3 installation. But that’s because when you sign up for the strategy you get access to all SAP’s software, not just R/3, then you configure it the way you want it. McKay said that SAP will offer to maintain the software on behalf of the user for an annual fee, or alternatively companies could choose to go with one of SAP’s applications hosting partners which would house and manage the applications on a per user per month basis.
Analysts were mixed in their reactions to the news. Joshua Greenbaum, head of Enterprise Applications Consulting in Berkeley, California said that SAP still has a long way to go to establish leadership in the internet marketplace. The message outlined today doesn’t do much to help SAP clearly differentiate itself from its competitors, in particular Oracle, he said. I think Hasso did a poor job of articulating what e-commerce is to SAP customers; he assumed too much knowledge. Customers need more hand-holding than that. He added: Customers are looking for an explanation of the basics. Oracle in particular has done a tremendous job of spelling out the nuts and bolts.
But John Hagerty, an analyst with Boston-based AMR Research was more optimistic. I think they’ve done a good job tying stuff together considering the previous fiascos, he said. Today’s announcements give SAP a platform to compete with the likes of Oracle. Specifically, Hagerty said he was impressed with SAP’s attempts to address the market from a business angle, with supporting technologies. They’ve looked at how a business can go out and collaborate with companies that are beyond its own four walls. That’s in contrast to rivals Oracle and PeopleSoft, which Hagerty said are focusing more on the technological underpinnings of their offerings and less on what they can do for businesses. The conference runs through Thursday. á
