On Tuesday, we had the opportunity for some Q&A with Shai Agassi. Shai is the President of the Product and Technology Group at SAP and one of the seven members of the SAP Executive Board. (And I'm glad I don't work for him, because he apparently likes to say no a lot - I'm glad I don't have to ask him for my vacation approvals and raises).
When asked whether SAP was a technology or ecosystem company, Shai made it very clear that "SAP is an applications company". They are "a company that knows how to codify business practices". And yet, they are trying to transform somewhat to support the ecosystem. Shai used the analogy of tariffs to protect local manufacturers. Right now, those tariffs are in place, but once they are lifted the playing field is a little more level - and you have to actually be better.
One of the points that really stood out for me was when Shai said they "have a lot more innovation than they share". I'll be honest, I never really thought of SAP as an innovative company, but it's obvious that they are in fact doing some interesting things, as evidenced by the Konfabulator widgets, Rails support, the Duet interface and so on. This is going to be a major challenge for SAP going forward, and I truly believe that only transparency is going to help. For a long time, Microsoft was viewed as a similar "dinosaur", and it was only with the mass blogging explosion that Scoble apparently spurred that we got to see some of that innovation. SAP's products, by their nature, are probably less exciting to most (or certainly to a smaller audience), and yet they are still managing to do some interesting things. I'd love to see more SAP bloggers (on SDN and elsewhere) to share this innovation.
Another key point that came up a few times was the shifting landscape of their product in light of SOA. In response to a question by Ian Finley of AMR Research, Shai discussed how the Switch Framework is simplifying their deployment. Previously, each of the 26 industry offerings had a separate code base, Most companies even within a given vertical need on or more of these offerings, and as a result "the permutations kill you". The move towards myERP 2005 and Enhancement Packages is the next step in making their offerings more flexible. It is also in line with world Shai envisions in which companies will shop on a functional basis instead of buying specific products.
Shai also emphasized the work they've done in the open source world. "In the open source worlds", Shai said, "actions speak louder than words. Look at what they've done not what they've advertised." He then rattled off SAP's actions in this space: they were the first ERP to run (and be certified) on Linux. They've invested financially and contributed code and developers to the MySQL project. They are investors in PHP. Unlike "others" (read: Oracle), they "didn't go out to buy open source competitors and try to eliminate them". Instead, they're trying to support those products on which they have built their own applications. Shai also said that SAP has made the biggest move towards "openness" than any other company - they've taken their apps, sliced them in the middle, and opened connections to SAP that they are committed to supporting. They have standard WSDLs and are not blocking anyone from becoming an ISV. Shai believes that SAP has done more than any of its competitors in the "true spirit of open source".
Charlie once again asked whether SAP is competing with Google, and once again he got the party line. (I'm still waiting for a post from Charlie to link to!). Shai said that Google does "one function very well, billions of times per hour". In fact, he said they've done it so well that they have changed all of our information consumption habits. Google, he said, ends with search, while SAP begins with search. When you search for an employee, for example, you get a list - but it's the actions you can take on the results that is important. In other words, "search is the new interface to start your interactions with applications."
And no, SAP is not going to "natively support .NET", but Shai said that doesn't really matter in an SOA world.
Also, listen to Scoble's interview with Shai (which was separate from this session).