It is not SaaS unlike what the WSJ reported, then redacted. It is not a sleep aid unlike what the Hastens CEO suggested to the audience as he was interviewed lying on one of his mattress products. It is not an magic potion which turns competitor marketing executives back into industry analysts. It is not part of the economic stimulus package though there were repeated references to the economy throughout the day. No, get your mind out of the sewer, Tom, the "enhancement packages" have nothing to do with Viagra.
But SAP's BS7 is a substantive new offering. Plenty of new functionality - Roche Pharma CIO Jennifer Allerton told the EIs she had implemented new features around clinical trials (a pharma vertical feature),warehouse management and succession planning in HR. As Larry Dignan reports, it makes enterprise apps a bit more "social". As Ray Wang of Forrester reports, it makes upgrades easier, licensing modular, and has pre-packaged "value scenarios". Compared to the minimal tweaks the other major enterprise application vendor has been doing to its products, is a milestone new release.
One thing I am sure of - BS7 will definitely be used as a showpiece to justify "value for the money" for the increased maintenance SAP wants to charge its customers. Minor detail if few customers actually leverage it anytime soon - more than half the customer base has balked on upgrading to the current version even after years of availability.
