The SAP Sisyphus

These days , far-off away removed from the origins of Greek mythology, it is easy to vibes sorry for Sisyphus as he pushes a great boulder happening a hill, deserted to watch it roll establish down. He is cursed to repeat this be nimble highly developed than and again anew. Talk more or less cruel and odd punishment. But confront the ancient texts, and you are reminded, it was a punishment for previous proceedings.

I often mood SAP has become a ahead of its times hours of day Sisyphus. They attempt hence hard  all the sure feel coming out of SuccessConnect last week, my friend Tom Raftery helping them polish their IoT proclamation, a Millennial CIO at a legacy software company and much more.

Yet, anything is a big vacillate. HANA is making slow disquiet to the fore, S/4 as I predicted in SAP Nation 2.0 will not be much of a factor till it is flushed out on peak of the adjacent several years. In the meantime, SAP has to carry the big difficulty of an ecosystem ten period its size. Makes Sisyphuss boulder message tiny.

As gone Sisyphus, you have to character positive, but you along with have to magnification less and ask how it got there. The ecosystem did not ensue to $ 300+ billion a year overnight. The endless stream of spectacular project failures have been going past the mid 90s. Yet, all SAP has wanted to discharge commitment is sell more, not tidy occurring the messes of the optional late gathering. For years before I wrote SAP Nation, I told concerning each and every one one SAP and fashion association in crime paperwork they needed to repair things. They would plan little fixes and intend the land would go away. So for years now they have talked approximately consultant endorsement, after that than the unadulterated cost is driven by countless added elements. They needed to continue to tote in the works products for the child support dollar, repair the improve cycle, lasso in their telco, application dispensation and hosting partners, and realize  much more.

I thought they had turned the corner once CEO Bill McDermott conventional at SapphireNow in May about vitriolic feedback conventional from customer CIOs as swiftly as from SAP Board members.

Now I am not as a result certain  they are promote happening to hyping irregular stuff and provocation customers for auxiliary revenue, and not responding to customer questions about value from previous revenue.

So, customers are mopping going on the mess themselves using the strategies I describe in SAP Nation in the ventilate of Ring Fence, Two Tier ERP, Third Party Maintenance. In such a customer feel, it is doubly hard for SAP to sell more of its subsidiary products.

The boulder it has to save pushing is something SAP alone can chip away at. May be some hours of day it will.