SAP at a Crossroads
Enterprise computing is headed for "massive changes," according to SAP co-founder and former CEO Hasso Plattner. He vows that the recent boardroom shakeup at SAP, which he helped engineer, will change the company's culture and help drive technical innovation.
SAP announced this month that it has accepted the resignation of its CEO Leo Apotheker. The company immediately appointed Bill McDermott, the current head of SAP's field organization, and Jim Hagemann Snabe, the current head of product development, to serve as co-CEOs.
"We will have changes in our management style," Plattner said during a sometimes rambling, sometimes confessional press conference, in which he alone spoke on behalf of SAP. "We will have fewer hierarchy levels, we will have more agile project teams with a flat structure, and we are ready for critical decisions."
Incremental improvement was once a favored style of development, but radical changes have to be embraced when they are presented, Plattner said. "We are at a crossroads now in technology," he explained. "We will see radical changes in hardware technology this year and on the horizon—and SAP is more than prepared to take advantage."
Plattner cited super-large in-memory systems, parallel computing, on-demand software, cloud computing, and mobile phones as components that SAP will more rapidly embrace. Of course, competitors ranging from Salesforce.com, RightNow, and Workday to arch-rival Oracle are exploiting these technologies, too. In some cases they are well ahead. Rivals will no doubt air this month’s turmoil and admissions by SAP in competitive bids against the vendor.
Plattner's comments make it clear that he took the lead role, as chairman of SAP’s Supervisory Board, in replacing sales-oriented CEO Leo Apotheker with co-CEOs Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe. Plattner said SAP needed a unifying strategy and leadership that could end infighting and win back trust.
Table of Contents
3 SAP: Reorg Will Restore Trust, Speed Innovation
5 An Open Letter To SAP Chairman Hasso Plattner
11 SAP’s Last Chance: It’s The Customers, Stupid!
14 SAP Questions Gartner BI Magic Quadrant Ranking
16 SAP CEO Details Prospects For 2010
18 SAP Blows Huge Opportunity With Timid Support Changes
20 20 SAP Add-Ons That CIOs Will Love
22 Why SAP Won’t Match Oracle’s 22% Maintenance Fees
25 SAP Tells Oracle To Free Java But Keeps Own Software Closed
28 SAP Eliminates All-Up-Front Payment Requirement
30 SAP Preps For Cloud Future Via New Intel Partnership
32 SAP 2.0 Promises Business Value Over Products: Can It Deliver?
36 Have Oracle And SAP Hit Tipping Point With 22% Fees?
40 An Open Letter To SAP CEO Leo Apotheker
About the Author
Bob Evans is senior vice president and director of InformationWeek's Global CIO, where he's responsible for content strategy and execution and audience engagement.
Prior to jumping into this start-up position in November 2008, he was SVP and editorial director of TechWeb, which includes such brands as InformationWeek, Interop, Web 2.0 Expo, Black Hat, and other online and face-to-face products. Before that, Evans was editor-in-chief of InformationWeek for eight years, during which time the publication became the undisputed leader in the business-technology field in revenue, readership, circulation, market share and market authority.
He is an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University and a frequent speaker at industry events and universities.
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