While 2002 turned out to be a dismal year for most corporate applications sellers, the German software maker actually managed to eke out a modest 1 percent increase in sales -- good enough to help the company retain its No. 1 rank. More importantly, SAP registered 13 percent growth in the much-coveted category of licence revenue. That's important, because these higher-margin contracts are viewed on Wall Street as a barometer of how well a software company's core products are selling.
But it's not all milk and honey in SAPland, as the competition is growing increasingly feisty. Both Oracle and PeopleSoft are trying to bulk up through acquisitions, while Microsoft is elbowing its way into the fray. What's potentially even more worrisome to SAP is a reputation for making maddeningly complex software that's mammoth, rigid and doesn't like to talk to other business systems.
But as the company embarks upon a much-touted initiative to fix that problem, new leadership will be guiding SAP. Company co-founder and technology visionary Hasso Plattner, widely credited with being the charismatic force behind SAP's rise from an obscure start-up 30 years ago, earlier this year relinquished the job of co-chief executive.
One new leader SAP is grooming to fill the void is Shai Agassi. The 35-year-old Israeli joined the company in 2001 after SAP's acquisition of software maker TopTier. He was promoted to join the executive management board last year, and SAP further expanded his duties in February. As the youngest board member and the only non-German in the company's executive inner circle, Shai is considered SAP's rising star. But now, he has been handed the task of leading the company's technology development strategy -- an assignment that could either earn him more laurels or short-circuit a dazzling ascent through the ranks. Agassi recently sat down with CNET News.com to discuss the challenges SAP faces and changes in the enterprise software business.
Q: Larry Ellison's claim at OracleWorld was that he can make SAP and other business applications cheaper to run by operating them over a grid without any changes to the applications themselves. Is this possible? Or is he dreaming?
A: God bless him. I would like to see it happen.
You haven't seen it happen?
I haven't seen him do it without any modifications to the application. There is enablement that needs to happen. You need to wrap the application in the right way, so it knows that it is self-cognisant and self-described to know, "I need that much compute power to run."
Talkback
SAP is the slowest, most horrible POS i've seen out in the market. Let's be serious...the security is so tight you cannot integrate any of it in any current business application. Don't even tell me that SAP is good for reporting cause it is HORRIBLE. You cannot get a single GOOD printout. COnsultants are way too expensive, licensing is expensive, support is limited, the application is just HORRIBLE.
We put forth so much money into a piece of software that's probably worse than a basic access fe/be combo. Let's get real here...speak the facts..you may claim you're making software but for one you're charging an arm and a leg, and 2 your GUI sucks.
If this is the case what jon says,
why is SAP then the no. 1 company here,
jon? anybody?
Murt
Not so! Microsoft has run its business for years using SAP software, and I don't think they would accept a "POS" as you call it. In fact, considering how many business rules they are processing, the SAP applications are really amazingly fast and flexible. Just imagine adding that sort of auditability, security, scalability and internationalization to your own code....
Sounds to me like you're trying to write an "outside-in" program that leverages a SAP system. The simple fact is you can't do this until you've invested serious time and money in learning about their system. I'm currently advising on a PeopleSoft CRM implementation and the learning curve is just as steep.
It *is* worth the effort to learn SAP - I know that Microsoft built quite a few company-wide applications on top of their SAP system, because they used to demonstrate them at conferences and would invite SAP prospects to Redmond to talk about how happy they were. I worked for SAP for a while - after investing my own money in training - and I know they are 100% focused on producing exactly the features and performance that top companies demand.
Good luck with your project.