SAP CEO Revelation: Costs Are Bad
December 31, 2008
The only reason I pay any attention to SAP, the German software giant founded on IBM-type thinking, is that the company has a search system called TREX (few know much about this puppy), the company pumped several million into Endeca (a search vendor), and demonstrated an interest in hooking SAP into SharePoint for information access. I have to admit that there is not much information available about any of these search related activities. I do get pumped into my digital playpen quite a few news items about annoyed SAP customers and resellers. Based on my narrow view in Kentucky coal country, I think these news items underscore problems with bloated, expensive, time intensive middleware. Search is not much of a priority, if my reading of the news items is accurate. Imagine my surprise when I read Spiegel Online International’s interview with SAP co founder, Hasso Plattner, here. The Der Spiegel article is in English, so maybe the translator muddied some of the crystal clear ideas. Herr Plattner is described as a “benefactor,” a surprising adjective for a fellow who can get millions from a client before the SAP system is up and running. Might be a translation issue? Several points warranted my jotting them down; to wit:
- No reference to search. I assume that its omission is related to the news hole into which the article had to squeeze.
- The present financial crisis is due to greed.
- Americans have minimal health insurance.
- Americans bought “massive cars”. (Some of these are German vehicles and some American companies bought massive, bloated, expensive middleware from German software companies I opined.)
For me the most significant comment was this whizzer:
The financial crisis was unbelievably quick to affect real business. Many companies are considering layoffs. Not even a success story like SAP can give a clear outlook for 2009.
SAP is a success story. I wonder if some of the stakeholders would agree with this view? Check out this interview. I wish information access, content processing and search had been discussed. I think 2009 will be a challenging year for SAP and those who have a big position in the company. A London investment banker told me that he was certain SAP would not go away. I am not as confident.
Stephen Arnold, December 31, 2008
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