The biggest news for SAP this week wasn't actually made by SAP at all -- it was made by their friends at Oracle. Larry Ellison held court at Oracle's OpenWorld customer conference to explain the company's future offerings, and couldn't resist taking a couple of jabs at HANA along the way.
Much of what I covered in this week's Today in SAP blog posts for SAPexperts involved Oracle's comments and SAP's considerable effort at combating them. Ellison took a pretty generic jab -- mild by his standards -- and SAP responded like they had been challenged to an old-timey duel. Their honor had been questioned, and they had to refute the claims. Terabytes and DRAM and SSD later, and SAP seems to come away the winner. But Oracle demonstrated that even with HANA's considerable PR success over the past year, the ERP giant still knows how to ruffle SAP's feathers.
Here's what I covered this week:
Monday: What's Next for Ariba?
I'll also be curious to see how much press the Ariba CEO Robert Calderoni gets. Howlett thinks he won't be a major voice, at least this early, but SAP has certainly tried to use Lars Dalgaard's star power as much as possible. Might Calderoni get the same treatment?
Tuesday: Lucas Strikes Back After Ellison's HANA Critique
Oh, that Larry Ellison. When he's not spending eight figures on a mansion in Malibu, or basically trying to perform a hostile takeover of Hawaii, he's mixing it up with his competitors. The Oracle CEO just can't stay away from commenting about SAP, even when he's not supposed to.
Wednesday: SAP Continues the War of Words with Oracle
So Ellison's characterization of HANA as small is misplaced. I found it pretty interesting that Sikka uncovered Ellison's misstatement about SSDs being the same as DRAM in terms of memory. You'd think Larry would know that in the tech community he'd be caught in saying that.
Thursday: How APIs Play into SAP's Future in the Cloud
Chiefly, SAP's strength has never been its user interface or user experience. They're making gains, but nonetheless it is difficult to build robust, all-encompassing business applications without having to sacrifice some of the polish of simpler apps.
Friday: Oracle's Lack of Communication Hinders Its Future
How are IT professionals expected to make decisions if they can't trust what they're hearing? At least if a company will engage influencers and even answer questions with marketing spin, it gives you something to sift through -- something to think about.
And here's what's new this week for SAPexperts subscribers:
10 Key Steps for Empowering SAP Project End Users [Project Management]
How to Transport Projects in SAP Solution Manager [Solution Manager]
How to Control Process Chains Using Decision Variants [BI]
Copying a Project in SAP Solution Manager [Solution Manager]
Learn Two Methods for Providing Flexible Organization Unit F4 Help to Users [HR]
Use the Integrated Approach of SAP GRC 10.0 to Remediate Operational Residual Risk [GRC]
Use Head Office and Branch Information to Analyze AR Open Items [Financials]
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