Experience Matters

And yes, it's not just outstanding products that count, but also experience, explained SAP Executive Board member Adaire Fox-Martin at the Field Kick-off Meeting (FKOM) in Barcelona in mid-January.

At the beginning of each new year, SAP sales employees and partners are regularly reminded of the sales targets to be achieved. However, the consistency with what is said and the experience is diminishing from year to year: Ariba, the SAP trading platform on the web, is really no longer a new topic.

Yet once again, an SAP-owned company failed to invoice via Ariba. As the end of the year was approaching, the pleading call came to issue the invoice directly to SAP again and the amount would be transferred manually immediately - Ariba was left out in the cold.

A large SAP partner showed more ambition and perseverance when, after a year, it was finally able to release the outstanding amount to its service provider via an Ariba account. There is no shame in inconsistencies and anomalies occurring in a complex ERP system. But the bright and colorful world of SAP-FKOM has less and less to do with the "experience" of the SAP community, something Adaire Fox-Martin should think about.

SAP's existing customers sit at home and keep the ERP/CRM system alive, while in Barcelona SAP makes flowery promises and demands tough sales targets. It's time to show who the real boss is.