SAPPHIRE ’06 and the 2006 Americas SAP Users Group Annual Conference

Well, everybody who’s even remotely interested in CRM and specifically SAP AG’s version of the service is in Orlando, Fla. this week for SAPPHIRE ’06 and the 2006 Americas SAP Users Group Annual Conference. Having already grabbed media and industry attention for its product launch – an interesting new hybrid of on-demand and on-premise CRM product known as SAP CRM 2006 – earlier in the conference, company heavy hitters CEO Henning Kagermann, executive board member Leo Apotheker and executive board member Shai Agassi broke out the philosophical ammo yesterday with the express purpose of describing “how the company will transform the business landscape during the next decade.”

Kagermann kicked things off early in the day at SAPPHIRE, speaking of how IT should be designed to support growth, a stand Kagermann sees as a departure from the “formerly prevalent view” which had IT merely as a driver of cost efficiency. The CEO imagines that his company can take things one step forward, as “the enabler of accelerated business innovation and operational excellence.” Kagermann went on to promise that SAP would address his three keys: the need to automate processes for speed and flexibility; the need to enable collaboration by integrating automated processes beyond the firewall with those of customers, partners and suppliers; and the need to “harness and amplify” the value of the knowledge worker. “In a new era,” said CEO Kagermann, “…enterprise software vendors must provide an evolutionary path to new technology adoption, not ‘rip and replace.’” Apotheker delivered a keynote address in which he hoped to demonstrate why companies must embrace enterprise service-oriented architecture (i.e. enterprise SOA) immediately. Thanks to globalization of markets (and in some cases, continued privatization), the consolidation and specialization of companies across industries, combined with the rise of business model innovation, are forcing companies to adapt their business models. “This,” Apotheker declared, “is a matter of being a best-run business versus an ‘also-ran’ business.” Soon thereafter, Aphotheker began pushing his company’s solutions.

Board member Agassi, doing double duty as president of the Product and Technology Group, gave a talk focusing on highlighting the move toward IT’s imminent embedding in business today. Again, SAP reps spoke of “the need to harness IT” and the importance of adaptation in the competitive sphere. In Agassi’s view, SAP is delivering simplified business processes. To back this all up, he demonstrated before a few thousands on stage a alternative graphic user interface for SAP software that promises to “extend core business functionality to greater numbers of end users.” Agassi also announced that SAP will migrate its entire CRM offering to their hybrid model by 2007. Aside from the obligatory product placement, Agassi’s keynote was to be considered fourth in his ongoing series of lectures regarding the future of the enterprise software industry.

The well-traveled Agassi has done episodes of his series in San Francisco, Santa Clara and Germany; later this month, he’ll be going to the City de l’Amour, Paris, to continue the talks. Again has SAP publicly delivered evidence of their bid to invest in all areas of the web-based service-oriented market. SAP representatives and high rankers have consistently spoken of fast-moving, revolutionary, evolutionary CRM systems and appear to be gambling on their unique philosophy. The SAP braintrust envisions a business world in which clients seeking to introduce CRM would start with an on-demand model and move to an on-premise model after CRM operations are built up.