Hana, HAnA, HaNA or SAP® HANA™.

Shouldn't it be correctly called HANA or even SAP® HANA™?

HAnA for High Performance Analytic Appliance or HaNA for Hasso's New Architecture, as the then SAP Chief Technology Officer Vishal Sikka once affectionately called the database, would also be conceivable.

What is right now?

From a spelling perspective, company and product names are proper nouns - and proper nouns are capitalized.

This does not always coincide with marketing requirements. Logos and wordmarks are designed by communications departments in sometimes elaborate corporate identity and design processes, and costly reception studies are commissioned so that the brand stands unmistakably for the company and the services it offers.

Company lettering should be as eye-catching and memorable as possible. A COMPANY NAME in capital letters on a poster still sticks in the mind of the passing car driver, even at 80 km/h.

What is good and right for advertising material and ads, unfortunately all too often slows down and disturbs the flow of reading.

pRo_DuK-T word creations that exhaust the repertoire of ASCII writing in a dubiously creative way are a no-go from a journalistic/editorial point of view.

In E-3 Magazine in particular, we delve very deeply into the technical subject matter in the specialist articles. New issues are often very complex, even for experts.

That's why we do everything we can to make it as easy as possible for our readers and try to remove unnecessary hurdles. Any interruption that disrupts the reading flow and distracts from the actual content is too much.

In the worst case, the reader breaks off before an article is even finished. As a German-language magazine, we are committed to German spelling and apply it to brand names as well.

The old adage that it's best to write as you speak also applies here: We write "Hana" (pronounced: H-a-n-a), but "the ENT doctor" (pronounced: "Ha-eN-O") or SAP ("eS-A-Pe") with capital letters.

Incidentally, this principle is also followed by the FAZ or the South German newspaper, for example, when they report on the "Ceta" free trade agreement.

The weekly newspaper Die Zeit also writes "Hana". Additions such as ™, ®, ©, GmbH, AG or SE (Societas Europaea/ European Company) are further reading stumbling blocks.

We use function designations and titles - from engineer to professor - sparingly in the body text. In E-3 Magazine, we decided to start with Professor first.

Bullet points or bullet points are the jewelry of any PowerPoint slide, but have little place in editorial articles.

Ultimately, we weigh each individual case: Software AG would change the meaning without the corporate designation.

And for ZUGFeRD (Central User Guide of the Electronic Invoice Forum Germany), we are still looking for a solution that meets the requirements described.