deal architect

Ich bin ein Republican!

Good friend Brian Sommer says SAP customers are Republicans - conservative, patient. Good analogy (and overall a very good read).

I just want to see how Germans react to being put in Dubya's party! A few years ago, invoking JFK, I told a group of SAP customers in Dusseldorf "Ich bin ein SAPer". The crowd beamed about the global success of its native son, but grew less excited as my presentation focused on how global customers would dramatically transform SAP's product and support. But at least I did not call them third generation Republicans!

But I am scratching my head trying to explain why the majority of Deal Architect clients have SAP as a backbone. They are trying to renegotiate with SAP, reduce cost of  SAP implementations, reduce cost of SAP application management. Not very loyal if you ask me.

Here, I think, is the explanation. Push comes to shove, come election time every 2 years and they are loyal and vote the party line, but in between they are pretty independent. That explains Bush's low ratings for the last few months. His Republican base is not raising its hand enough for him. I would suggest if you did a straw poll of SAP customers today, its value-for-money rating would approach Bush's.

Its customers are pretty committed to the platform, but day to day make logical decisions on value, what to renew etc.  And if you piss them off enough, as the Republicans may find in 2008, they may even cross the party line.

Unless the option has a leader whose first name ends in Y -)

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The Wizards of Oz...and Oops

On the travels in India last week, cricket came up quite often. Richard Gere's arrest warrant was not news yet to overshadow the grumbles about the Indian team's performance in the World Cup.

The Australian cricket team is unbeatable. 3 World Cups in a row. I thought it was Sri Lanka's year. But there were plenty of conflicted loyalties. The Tamil rebels were bucking for the Aussies. The British consul in Colombo for the Sri Lanka team. The Caribbean hosts just wanted to party.

Here is my previous post on how technology is reshaping cricket. And a video of the ultimate wizard - Shane Warne and his selection of his 8 best balls.

I would like to send Indian politicans a video of the country's 8 biggest potholes - and have them focus on more important things in life. In the mean time I will await Gere's best 8 kisses -)

Because I am worth it!

In a software industry filled with big egos, Henning Kagermann, CEO of SAP stands out as a humble, open minded executive. So his candor in his speech and in his conversation with Dennis Howlett
is not surprising. He worries about "over-dependence" on his software. He does not mention it, but being good with numbers, knows well about the "crowding out" effect of his software. The annual amortization of capex spend around SAP (the accountant's revenge for the SAP project spending orgy) and the annual maintenance SAP expects sucks out most IT budget oxygen for future years at its customers. One reason his own new products find little enthusiastic adoption  in his customer base while his folks hype up innovation.

But while reading my Irregulars reporting from Sapphire  in Atlanta and the AMR summary, I did not see much indication of how things will be different. Last Sapphire in Orlando I was told pricing was being revisited. That SAP would get tougher with its services ecosystem. I asked when a TomorrowNow like reduced maintenance would be offered to its own customers. No answers yet. This year A1S was supposed to be the new way of delivering software and support - at exciting new price points. But as Dennis complains little was formally showcased.

If anything, I see Thomas Otter invoke "L'Oreal" - buy our stuff because we want YOU to kick ass! A version of  YOU are worth it! I see Dennis Moore talk about "co-innovation"  - which is code for while the ecosystem, partner members through SDN, and customers like Colgate deliver innovation,  SAP continues to deserve full maintenance rates.

I have been kindly invited to Sapphire Vienna next month. While grateful to SAP hosts Mike Prosceno and Stacey Fish for their generosity, I am not sure I want to spend a week to go listen to "more of the same". Besides, I am staring at a 30,000 air mile month in June which will make April look like a picnic. What I really need is a massage to soothe my jet lagged bones and nerves.

Because I am worth it!

The only good thing about redeye flights

The older I get the more I dislike redeyes. But I have found a silver lining for them. Many of the hotels in India on this trip were outrageous. Sleeping on the plane at 11c a mile is a much better option.

I have bitched before about the Leela Hotel rates in Bangalore (I hear they are now $ 500 a night). But most other hotels in that city are just as bad. And at those rates, the government adds a 12% luxury tax. Of course, everything is dearer. The wireless prepaid card you can buy on the street is 4X at the hotel and uses the same hotspot network. And in a borderline unethical move, the hotel converts your dollar rate in to rupees at almost a 5% premium. As a foreigner you cannot pay the rupee rate. You have to pay the dollar rate converted at an unfavorable rate.

On one of the flight magazines I saw an interview with the Indian minister of tourism. She talked about authorizing  home owners to convert extra rooms in to bed and breakfasts and other ways to increase room capacity. Lady, don't just focus on tourists. Businesspeople are coming to India for the economics...these pricey hotels negate all your marketing efforts. Encourage, subsidize, beg mid sized hotel chains to move in to the country. Clean bed. Hot shower. Workout facility. Hot spot. Reasonable, healthy restaurant.  Mint on pillow optional.

But why just blame India? My stay at the London hotel at the $ 2 exchange rate gave me heart burn. At those rates, give me a beach or ski resort - not a city block with noise and other pollution.

Never thought I would sing praises of an emergency exit row seat on a redeye.

Please put on the transparency cloak

Justin Kestelyn, Editor-in-Chief of Oracle Technology Network says he does not get it...why Oracle has such low mindshare in blogging world.

Justin - welcome. I wish you had engaged several of the Irregulars after we wrote this a year ago. But glad you are now reaching out to bloggers.

But talk to J. K. Rowling about the transparency cloak.  If you take the attitude your AR group does about punishing those who do not toe the Oracle line, let's wait another year or two.

Update: Dennis Howlett fits Oracle for that cloak ...

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The Dead Sea Blogs

In KC with my kids for a chess tournament last week, I dragged my son to go see the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit in town. Brought back memories from my visit to the area a while ago. The sheer hostility of the sea and surrounding desert is striking. And yet such an amazing discovery in that barren land.

There's been lots of talk recently about dead technology companies. Like the Dead Sea they are not dead in a literal sense. But they sure seem inhospitable to innovation - not too many scrolls being found in their labs, while just a short distance away are lands of milk and honey.

This week in Sapphire a lot of attention will be paid to SAP's ecosystem (who will be the next Virsa?), the SDN and the blogging community (that SAP has smartly cultivated). What's striking is, while SAP deserves credit for facilitating,  all this has little to do with its labs. For the $ 15 billion it charges its customers each year, you think it could deliver more innovation on its own, not just a widget here or a Duet there?

Look at IBM - the most innovative things it has done in the last few years is sponsor the Global Innovation Outlook and get close to the Open Source community. The pride of tech R&D now mostly acquires smaller, innovative companies.

How do you explain Microsoft and AT&T asking for Justice to look at Google's acquisition of DoubleClick? Microsoft and AT&T afraid of a vendor one tenth their collective sizes which a couple of years ago was not even on their radar screen?

My son and I also managed to catch the Mystery of the Nile on a big, IMAX type screen. Both the Scrolls and the movie were awe inspiring. But you could see how mighty dynasties atrophy. The Sun Gods. The Babylonians. The Romans. Many of our larger vendors are in similar decline.

Make that 11c a mile

Sorry about the limited blogging but I am in midst of an unusually busy travel time. In the 3 weeks leading up to this Friday, if all goes well, I will have flown 18 airline segments on 6 airlines, and this site estimates my total at 26,143 miles. While most of my non-flying time has been with clients or doing client related work, I have managed to squeeze in meetings with 2 Irregulars – David Terrar in London, and Sadagopan in Hyderabad (who travels even more than I am doing). Of course, I could have met most of the contingent this weekend at Sapphire in Atlanta, which is just 400 miles from where I live!

So far 2 delays – including one with a re-routing. And 2 reprimands for using my GPS. I am spoilt by Southwest – I must have used my GPS on 20+ flights without any murmurs. But on Alaska Air, the airline magazine specifically prohibits it as the flight attendant pointed out. Delta was a bit stranger. Its magazine does not specifically prohibit it.  Joe Mehaffey who tracks a lot of GPS matters including airlines which allow usage lists Delta as a yes. But the flight attendant came with red book in hand and showed me a section with says tethered GPSes are not allowed (in my car the GPS talks by Bluetooth to my PDA. On a plane, it is connected by a USB cable to my laptop and rests under the plane window shade). On my way out I asked the pilot why Southwest is so accepting of it, and his response “In that case they are breaking FAA rules”. In fact, as Joe points out it is the captain’s prerogative - the FAA has nothing to do with it. If it is unsafe, wish Delta would decide one way or the other not let individual crews decide. I can tell you the GPS entertains every passenger who sits next to me (it also means that flight is usually a write off in terms of doing work). On my travels I sat next to an army guy headed to the Middle East, and a lady who has been to 116 countries.  Even such seasoned travelers enjoy seeing the trip progress on my laptop. And one was relieved that we flew over Blacksburg,VA without an incident.

Back to my clients. They should be delighted my airfare for all this travel is around $ 2,800 or little less than 11c a mile. Only two of the flights were booked more than 2 weeks out. And four segments are upgrades. May be I was too generous in offering the airlines a flat 12c a mile in this post. Nah, keep the change. Just be safe and on time... and let me use my GPS -)

GE and Lou Dobbs

Take a look at GE's first quarter results. Shining star -   Global revenues of $19.6 billion, up 9%, and developing markets revenues of $7 billion, up 14%. Yup, those countries which "import" our jobs as Lou Dobbs would say, are also spending with our companies. Those that invest in products and sales forces that sell abroad.

The dog this quarter - GE Money with the sub-prime mortgage problems in the US. Lou, somehow we need to find a way to also blame the mortgage mess on Chinese trade and immigrants...