Ich bin ein SAPer
In 1998, I presented to a group of SAP customers in Dusseldorf. I invoked JFK and told the audience we were becoming citizens of the world of SAP. In return, their beloved SAP was becoming much less German I said - to the displeasure of many in the audience.
Today, at the Sapphire press conference Henning Kagermann, CEO said the Americas unit had been their growth engine in recent times. A German reporter in the audience asked him "How German is SAP today?" Henning's response "We are a global company with German headquarters"
One of the most attractive features about SAP over the years has been in multi-currency, language, country features. As globalization accelerates, it is another significant driver for demand for SAP products.
On the executive panel with him were Leo Apotheker, who is French; Shai Agassi, Israeli and Bill McDermott, from the US. The panelists got questions from press and analysts from Mexico, Brazil, Germany and several other countries. The partner expo hall has a number of Indian, Chinese, Dutch and other vendors.
A few miles away, at Disney World's attraction "It's a small world, after all" beckons. The Sapphire audience is not that interested. They have a slice of the world right here.
spot on Vinnie...
btw
Kennedy made a small German grammatical error. He should have said "ich bin Berliner"
By adding ein to the sentence, he actually said "I am a donut." ein Berliner is type of donut, orginating in Berlin.
Posted by: Thomas Otter | May 17, 2006 at 05:51 PM
how true...as a SAP consultant myself, I can say that it hardly feels like a 'foreign' software...it's so easy to configure an Indian 'challan form' and then move to configure an Argentinian withholding tax cert..all within the same menu and the sturdiness makes you never have to go to the code ever....
Posted by: sr | May 17, 2006 at 08:36 PM