SAP and Open Source
June 13, 2009
Gwyn Moody and I seem to be on a similar frequency. I like his work. The article “SAP: Open Source’s Friend or Foe?” is an excellent example. Gwyn Moody tackled SAP’s reluctance to cozy up to open source. He wrote:
For an outfit that calls itself “the world’s largest business software company”, the German software giant SAP is relatively little-known in the open source world.
Now SAP wants to support the Eclipse Foundation. Gwyn Moody reported:
There are many well-known benefits that accrue from mandating open source for European contracts – level playing-field, absence of lock-in, ease of moving between suppliers etc. More generally, it creates a bigger software commons that everyone can draw upon – not just companies, whether giants like SAP, or small startups, but educational establishments too (an important but often-overlooked sector). Companies that have adopted a mixed model can simply re-jig their product line, offering wholly open source versions for European government consumption, and making money through their proprietary add-ons elsewhere; adoption by Europe would be a huge marketing boost, making it much easier to do this. And if they won’t adapt to the situation, that creates an opportunity for new players who *are* willing to do so. That’s not the only place where SAP’s attitude to open source is ambiguous, to put it mildly.
My hunch is that SAP is feeling pressure from its fee boosts, customer push back, and escalating demands for cash from SAP engineers who have to keep the complex SAP solutions up and running. Innovation, well, that’s another hungry mouth begging for euros too.
In my opinion, SAP has to find a magic hat and start pulling bunnies from it. I am not sure open source will yield the bunnies SAP needs.
Stephen Arnold, June 13, 2009
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