SAP CEO Henning Kagermann called it “the most important announcement I’ve made in my career.” Henning called it a “complete solution” designed for “end to end, flexible, adaptable, business processes within the company and beyond the boundaries of a company.”
SAP is hoping that the new platform will be adopted by more than 10,000 companies by 2010 — right now about 20 companies are using it.
But analysts were quick to criticize SAP’s on-demand strategy. The new platform is called “Business by Design” and is SAP’s first attempt at the SaaS market. Comments included:
Forrester: “Key features like easy access to reporting, quick portal construction, and easy integration to Office remain missing.”
Information Week: “SAP will struggle because many employees will fear that on-demand software will cannibalize sales of conventional software licenses.”
Internetnews.com: “SAP got immediate and what can only be called less-than-enthusiastic feedback from the very people it most hoped to please.”
Cohen and Company: Business by Design is “too horizontal to sell into the mid-market, particularly the low end of the mid-market which demands a high degree of vertical expertise.”
Microsoft: “While we certainly recognize other vendors as formidable competitors, at the end of the day the SMB spot is our sweet spot. We’ve been servicing this space for years.”
IDC: “They need to have some kind of focus on what type of [small business] they are targeting… You wonder where all these [customers] are going to come from.”
BusinessWeek: “If mishandled, SAP’s approach could present opportunities for competitors, including Oracle… Smaller rivals are also sniffing the same ground.”
