Market forces, including globalisation, industry consolidation, mobility and an explosion in data, are changing the way businesses operate. The convergence of these trends is forcing companies to run their enterprises in real-time, with unwired and sustainable operations.
So said SAP co-CEOs Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe at the SAP Sapphire conference, held simultaneously in Frankfurt, Germany and Orlando, Florida, this week. Marking their 100th day in administration, the two CEOs outlined the company's strategy to extend its on-premise, on-demand and on-device product offerings.
Speaking live from Orlando via simulcast broadcasting, McDermott explained that creativity is creating data at an explosive rate. He argued that today's needs for insight exceed yesterday's technology - a driving force behind SAP's in-memory technology offering.
“SAP's commitment to in-memory computing and technologies that enable real-time transparencies is helping companies gain the insight they need to make decisions that are best for the business,” said McDermott.
The emerging mobile workforce is another trend driving the need for business applications to be mobile and closer to the point of action. “Mobility is the new desktop,” he opined.
He referenced SAP's recent move to acquire Sybase as an example of the company's commitment to mobile technologies. The combined company will be the only provider of a full suite of enterprise software and next-generation business intelligence on any device at any place at any time, McDermott stated.
Lastly, McDermott emphasised the company's commitment to sustainable businesses. Along with managing environmental concerns such as carbon emissions, smart companies are running lean to feed the innovation machine and compete in the global marketplace, he stated.
“From our exhaustive conversations with customers to our revitalised development approach and product strategy, we are aligning ourselves to enable companies to take advantage of this defining moment, this convergence of market forces, to emerge better than they were before,” McDermott concluded in his keynote.
Hagemann Snabe then took over from the Frankfurt leg of the conference to outline SAP's product strategy in relation to these market forces.
Premise, demand and device
SAP is pursuing a product strategy based on three strategic pillars - on-premise, on-demand and on-device applications - to evolve IT with the key business shifts of this new converged inflection point, Snabe began.
He reiterated the company's commitment to extending its leadership in on-premise solutions and to continuing innovation in its flagship SAP Business Suite and the SAP NetWeaver technology platform, enabling customers to adopt new features at their own pace.
“We will deliver Innovations 2010 which significantly enhances the business processes in SAP Business Suite and delivers them, without disruption, through enhancement packages,” Snabe told customers.
Discussing the company's on-demand offering, Snabe told delegates SAP would take a two-pronged approach. The first approach is line-of-business extensions for smaller-step processes such as sales force automation, expense management or talent management.
The second is an “integrated on-demand suite approach, where companies have a collection of best practices to run their business end-to-end,” and do not have to install and configure hardware or software, he explained.
Lastly, Snabe announced a SAP Streamwork application that will support person-to-person collaboration, business processes, and analytics across all leading mobile platforms. SAP will also provide a gateway for partners and customers to create complementary applications, he stated.
As their Sapphire Now keynote speeches fell on the 100th day of their tenure as co-CEOs, McDermott and Snabe took a moment to note their achievements so far in the new role. Noting the solid start with a strong first quarter performance, they revealed a first priority was to create a strategy focused on doubling SAP's current addressable market.
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