Jeff Nolan of SAP welcomes us bloggers to Sapphire with a shockingly effective When Everyone has a Suitcase Nuclear Weapon. For my turn, I joked to someone at SAP this morning, I was walking in to a lynch mob of SAP executives - and even more of its partners IBM, Accenture, EDS, Infosys for everything I have written on this blog in the last year. When Sheryl Crow sings "The First Cut is the Deepest" at the show on Thursday, she will be way late.
Seriously, Jeff Nolan (and Mike Prosceno and Stacey Fish and Steve Mann and Bill Wohl) are sticking their necks out by inviting bloggers to the show. I want to thank them in advance for their hospitality. I have been to several Sapphires before (while at Gartner) and even last year's (where I blogged from but few noticed - amazing the difference a year makes). I think my fellow bloggers are in for a treat. This is the Paris Air Show of the enterprise technology market. And Jeff and gang have been unbelievably gracious hosts so far in getting us situated.
And yet, Jeff and company are not really taking that big a risk. Because it has been there for all to see over the last year.
That we love technology and innovation. Unlike some, we do not say IT doesn't matter - I celebrate how technology is changing the way we work and live at my other blog New Florence. New Renaissance.
But that I do have several concerns about the enterprise software industry and about SAP (and my fellow bloggers have other issues from an investor, partnering or other perspectives)
- I happen to believe enterprise software is too expensive and we are encouraging buyers to build more than buy.
- I do not like the fact that the industry spends 3-4 times as much on SG&A as it does on R&D.
- I do not like the amount of labor it takes to implement and maintain software. And that after years and thousands of implementations we cannot show economies of scale and repetition.
- I am concerned about yet another architectural shift and the expected chaos and cost those shifts bring - and the inability of the industry to quantify the payback
- I find it concerning that the established software vendors are not leveraging web 2.0, SaaS and open source enough- radically different and potentially disruptive economics and thinking.
We come to Sapphire with an open mind. But do not blame Jeff or Mike if we leave with many of our concerns lingering. Us bloggers are fiercely independent - we do not agree with each other on many of these areas. And do not worry about bias - we are just as hard on Oracle (and I am on my former employers, Gartner and IBM)
We come in peace - and with plenty of transparency. And we expect to be alive and kicking and jiving with Sheryl - with rest of the SAP community. Thanks for having us.
