What is SAP afraid of?
Yesterday’s news that SAP hit its targets for growth etc in 2008 while announcing 3,000 job cuts was largely well received. For my part, I see this as a time for opportunity. SAP has Business ByDesign hanging in the wind and seems to have few plans for its future. I don’t understand this. My estimate is that SAP’s topline software revenue sales will have fallen around 12% between 2007-9. That’s a fairly hefty drop but is more than compensated by increases in maintenance and services revenues. Most of my colleagues are of the view the high end ERP market is saturated but there is always room for innovation along vertical market lines. Looking solely at maintenance as a profit saver isn’t a road I’d want to tread. It assumes a level of lock-in that history has shown does not exist. Sure, very large organizations have huge investments but the ERP software element is often a relatively small fraction. Assuming the market will turn at some point and re-ignite top line sales sounds like a re
