SAP

Oracle wins the cash war, but SAP is way more punk

The Oracle vs. SAP war has been a long and vicious one. The ERP giants battle constantly for market share and big-time customers. Meanwhile, their CEOs – Oracle’s Larry Ellison and SAP’s Henning Kagermann (who holds a co-CEO role) – have lived outsized personalities on the tech world stage. For every clash between the companies comes another reminder that they are led by two very different men.

Both men have made the news in the last few days. The Associated Press has declared Ellison the highest-paid CEO in America, with an estimated Fiscal Year 2008 take of $84.6 million.

And a New York Times profile on Kagermann points out that SAP had only a 26.7% profit margin last year, paling when compared to the stunning 35% Oracle pulled off.

It has been a tough year product-wise for SAP, especially in the midmarket, where the company’s Business ByDesign, an on-demand ERP, has failed to take off. And the German company’s acquisition of TomorrowNow turned into a complete disaster.

So Ellison must be kicking back in his absurd, Japanese village-themed mansion feeling pretty good about himself right now.

But wait. This round goes to Kagermann by a long shot. Why? Four good reasons. Continued »

“Are you serious?” or: Dumb things press flaks say

“What we’re doing is providing an enterprise-level product at a price point that’s affordable to the midmarket.”

Or something like that.

This is my life. I take these phone calls all the time. If you’re a CIO or IT manager in the midmarket, you probably do, too.

Sometimes it gets really out of control, as if it can get any more inane that using a phrase like price point instead of the much better option: Price.

“It’s like buying an Audi at Honda prices,” a press flak once told me about the product she was pitching. Alright, I can’t remember the exact car brands, but you see what I mean? Please tell me where this mythical Honda-priced Audi dealership is.

But maybe they’re catching on. The other day I had a briefing with James Thomas, vice president of business intelligence tools at Business Objects, which is “an SAP company.”

Thomas would like all of you to know that Business Objects is ready to go with Edge 3.0, the latest release in its Edge business intelligence product line. Crystal Reports Server 2008, a report management server, is also out.

“So what’s new?” I ask Thomas. This is the part where he’s supposed to tell me about how these products are going to revolutionize business management for the midmarket.

Except he doesn’t. Thomas explains some of the new features. Crystal Reports now lets users embed reports directly into Microsoft Office documents. Nice idea. Makes sense. And certain mobile device applications can now be used to view Edge reports. Reasonable. Intuitive. Simple.

This is by no means an endorsement of these products. For a good rundown of the features and price, check out my colleague Courtney Bjorlin’s report at SearchSAP.com.

So, no, it’s not for me to say if you should buy Business Objects’ new toys. But I can say that I appreciate Thomas not trying to convince me his company just changed the IT world. He’s got a product. He just wanted to talk about it for a minute.

And that, I must say, is a call I don’t mind taking.

Design Flaws?

The folks over at the SearchSAP.com blog are reporting that SAP has delayed its Business ByDesign rollout. Apparently, there are some bugs to be worked out in the on-demand ERP program, which is still less than a year old.

The delays could push as far as late 2009, according to German news source Handelsblatt. What’s not really clear right now is where it is delayed. The service, aimed at midmarket companies, is currently available in the U.S. though it has been a slow climb in user adoption for SAP. To be fair, the thing is still less than a year old.

Will SAP CEO Henning Kagermann hit his 10,000 users by 2010 promise? It was already looking like a tough road and now the spring potholes are starting to show up.

I’ll be in Orlando next week for Sapphire, SAP’s big annual conference. So hopefully I can learn a bit more down there. There’s even a free Eric Clapton show for attendees, though I won’t be attending. I prefer my rock without a layer of extra-thick smugness.