Between the chairs

At the moment, SAP is dancing at all the parties. No IT topic is left out. Obviously, you have to celebrate the festivities as they fall. But the catcalls will be inevitable, because SAP lacks the basis for many excursions into non-ERP areas.

No festival wants to be left out. But if neither the knowledge nor a roadmap exist, the event can quickly turn into a disaster.

Someone who has no precise knowledge of himself and his environment also likes to sit between all the chairs. SAP meanders between the IT worlds - and not just because it is the title of the current DSAG annual congress.

SAP has recognized cloud computing for itself, but generates the highest contribution margins from its on-premise ecosystem.

SAP has discovered cloud computing for itself, but has no answer to the transparent, flexible, high-performance offerings from Microsoft, Amazon and Google.

SAP has discovered cloud computing for itself, but is hopelessly inferior to the specific IoT clouds of Atos, Siemens, QSC, Bosch, etc.

SAP has confidently and successfully sat down on some IT chairs that were bought in at a very high price: Hybris, SuccessFactors, Fieldglass, Ariba and Concur - where cloud computing also works sufficiently.

Other, expensive acquisitions such as Sybase proved less accurate - here SAP is sitting between all chairs. However, the topic of acquisitions and takeovers is complex for all players in the IT community and ambivalent in the medium term.

When it comes to technological topics, however, the SAP community would like to see a clear directional decision. A clear commitment to one's own core competence and what one knows and cannot do - that would be helpful.

The meandering between everything that is trendy at the moment remains nothing but embarrassing: AI with Machine/Deep Learning is definitely one such trend. Everyone talks about it, only very few can deliver.

SAP also claims that the Machine/Deep Learning component would be available in the Leonardo framework and that there are even prototypes for it already.

The fact is that a few test applications from the field of machine learning were constructed with the help of the graphics card specialist Nvidia. A closer look reveals that even the modern and new database Hana is not predestined for AI tasks.

That doesn't have to be a mistake, but more transparency and honesty would be desirable. There is no shame in not dancing at all weddings. But it is a shame if you pretend to be able to do so.

What remains is a picture that shows SAP caught between all IT worlds and chairs.

Why not choose one IT world and leave the rest to ambitious partners? Cloud computing? Yes, of course - but Microsoft with partner Suse can do it better. Machine/Deep Learning? Yes, of course - but IBM Watson, Nvidia and Amazon can do it better.

If SAP does not meander between IT worlds, but takes a clear stand, everyone is helped. And a DSAG should not support SAP's unstructured and unspecific approach with an annual congress title. Otherwise, the trip to Jerusalem will become a K-fall for everyone and no one - SAP, DSAG, existing customers - will be able to find a dry spot.