Comments on: The Need for Timely Software – SAP TechEd 2009 http://www.redmonk.com/cote/2009/10/27/sapteched09/ One foot in the muck, the other in utopia Thu, 24 May 2012 14:45:32 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Lotus – IBM Software Analyst Connect 2009 http://www.redmonk.com/cote/2009/10/27/sapteched09/comment-page-1/#comment-340907 Lotus – IBM Software Analyst Connect 2009 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:39:25 +0000 http://www.redmonk.com/cote/2009/10/27/sapteched09/#comment-340907 [...] crew has their own problems – see the enterprise rosary above – and other elder companies like SAP have similar problems (and, even worse, bi-directional Stockholm syndrome), but tend to buy themselves the needed catch-up. From past performance, I have to be professionally [...] [...] crew has their own problems – see the enterprise rosary above – and other elder companies like SAP have similar problems (and, even worse, bi-directional Stockholm syndrome), but tend to buy themselves the needed catch-up. From past performance, I have to be professionally [...]

]]> By: People Over Process » Lotus – IBM Software Analyst Connect 2009 http://www.redmonk.com/cote/2009/10/27/sapteched09/comment-page-1/#comment-340901 People Over Process » Lotus – IBM Software Analyst Connect 2009 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:14:00 +0000 http://www.redmonk.com/cote/2009/10/27/sapteched09/#comment-340901 [...] their own problems – see the enterprise rosary above – and other elder companies like SAP have similar problems (and, even worse, bi-directional Stockholm syndrome), but tend to buy themselves the needed catch-up. From past performance, I have to be professionally [...] [...] their own problems – see the enterprise rosary above – and other elder companies like SAP have similar problems (and, even worse, bi-directional Stockholm syndrome), but tend to buy themselves the needed catch-up. From past performance, I have to be professionally [...]

]]> By: cote http://www.redmonk.com/cote/2009/10/27/sapteched09/comment-page-1/#comment-340710 cote Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:49:23 +0000 http://www.redmonk.com/cote/2009/10/27/sapteched09/#comment-340710 KK: yup, that's the perspective I hear from almost every SAP consultant, so it's nice to hear it again in a comment. And I think you're right in what you're outlining: it's not only SAP's job to nudge new technologies, but the enterprises themselves should figure out if being so risk averse with respect to new technologies is always the way to go. Part of the issue is in the details there: for all the excellent stability and avoiding shutting down the Porsche factory (my favorite old SAP story I often hear), there doesn't seem to be commonly used framework to figure out when change is worth the risk vs. staying the same. KK: yup, that’s the perspective I hear from almost every SAP consultant, so it’s nice to hear it again in a comment. And I think you’re right in what you’re outlining: it’s not only SAP’s job to nudge new technologies, but the enterprises themselves should figure out if being so risk averse with respect to new technologies is always the way to go.

Part of the issue is in the details there: for all the excellent stability and avoiding shutting down the Porsche factory (my favorite old SAP story I often hear), there doesn’t seem to be commonly used framework to figure out when change is worth the risk vs. staying the same.

]]> By: KK Ramamoorthy http://www.redmonk.com/cote/2009/10/27/sapteched09/comment-page-1/#comment-340709 KK Ramamoorthy Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:20:56 +0000 http://www.redmonk.com/cote/2009/10/27/sapteched09/#comment-340709 Cote Thanks for this nice article. A balanced perspective indeed. I see your point that SAP should be less risk averse when it comes to the latest and greatest in technology. However, the hard fact is that enterprise level software, changes at a far low pace than technology in general. For e.g., SAP came up with WebDynpro architecture (a move from traditional SAP GUI based Dynrpo framework) way back in 2005/2006 but at least in my customer base, it has only started pulling traction since last year. This is because customers generally want to stick to the proven frameworks when it comes to enterprise level software and don't want to be guinea pigs. As a consultant, even if I try to educate and offer the customer the latest and greatest, it is most often killed because of resource issues in post go-live support. An answer to that is developers/architects should educate themselves about the cutting edge technology more readily than what we see in majority of cases. My 2 cents and as always, thanks for bringing your insights free of cost :-) Cote
Thanks for this nice article. A balanced perspective indeed. I see your point that SAP should be less risk averse when it comes to the latest and greatest in technology. However, the hard fact is that enterprise level software, changes at a far low pace than technology in general. For e.g., SAP came up with WebDynpro architecture (a move from traditional SAP GUI based Dynrpo framework) way back in 2005/2006 but at least in my customer base, it has only started pulling traction since last year. This is because customers generally want to stick to the proven frameworks when it comes to enterprise level software and don’t want to be guinea pigs. As a consultant, even if I try to educate and offer the customer the latest and greatest, it is most often killed because of resource issues in post go-live support. An answer to that is developers/architects should educate themselves about the cutting edge technology more readily than what we see in majority of cases.
My 2 cents and as always, thanks for bringing your insights free of cost :-)

]]> By: SAP TechEd 2009: Open Thinking http://www.redmonk.com/cote/2009/10/27/sapteched09/comment-page-1/#comment-340708 SAP TechEd 2009: Open Thinking Sun, 01 Nov 2009 17:14:10 +0000 http://www.redmonk.com/cote/2009/10/27/sapteched09/#comment-340708 [...] that reflects the feel of a company in transition and a tad unsteady in its beliefs. Perhaps the best detailed wrap comes from Michael Cote, one of the Redmonk boys – it’s worth the reading and especially for detail around the [...] [...] that reflects the feel of a company in transition and a tad unsteady in its beliefs. Perhaps the best detailed wrap comes from Michael Cote, one of the Redmonk boys – it’s worth the reading and especially for detail around the [...]

]]> By: cote http://www.redmonk.com/cote/2009/10/27/sapteched09/comment-page-1/#comment-340692 cote Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:02:13 +0000 http://www.redmonk.com/cote/2009/10/27/sapteched09/#comment-340692 Thanks for the internet of things cheering on there, sounds nice to me ;) Thanks for the internet of things cheering on there, sounds nice to me ;)

]]> By: Rick Bullotta http://www.redmonk.com/cote/2009/10/27/sapteched09/comment-page-1/#comment-340691 Rick Bullotta Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:33:17 +0000 http://www.redmonk.com/cote/2009/10/27/sapteched09/#comment-340691 The Luddite-ish perspective that the internet of things/web of things has no value for consumer products companies is equivalent to those who declared the Internet the next version of the CB radio... The old axiom "the customer is always right" is utter hogwash. If you ask customers to define their problems and challenges, they subconsciously bound/limit their responses to what they perceive as possible. Only 1% or so of customers are wired to think creatively as early adopters, and often they are the few who gain long-lasting competitive advantage as a result of discontinuities. Your "rotting carrots" example may not be the ideal one, but what about "rotting milk"? The supply chain from cow to school cafeteria is incredibly short, and what CEO wants to wake up to a WSJ article about how his company impacted hundreds of 8 year olds? The applications go way, way beyond the traditional supply chain - despite the ignorant focus of even many researchers and practioners in the field on RFID as the "internet of things". It isn't. Not even close. There will be some staggering, transformational, and permanent changes to how we think of applications and the way they interact with the "real world" in the next couple of years. There are some interesting computer science problems to address to enable this, but there's plenty of work underway. And the social implications will be significant as well. We're transitioning out of the industrial age into the information age (we most definitely are not there yet), and our schools and businesses are wired to educate us to think in "industrial age" ways - a factory and assembly line mindset, even in regards to IT. That'll change. For a refresher, read or re-read Alvin Toffler's seminal work, "The Third Wave", and see if it doesn't rewire a few synapses. Stay tuned. And think big. The Luddite-ish perspective that the internet of things/web of things has no value for consumer products companies is equivalent to those who declared the Internet the next version of the CB radio…

The old axiom "the customer is always right" is utter hogwash. If you ask customers to define their problems and challenges, they subconsciously bound/limit their responses to what they perceive as possible. Only 1% or so of customers are wired to think creatively as early adopters, and often they are the few who gain long-lasting competitive advantage as a result of discontinuities.

Your "rotting carrots" example may not be the ideal one, but what about "rotting milk"? The supply chain from cow to school cafeteria is incredibly short, and what CEO wants to wake up to a WSJ article about how his company impacted hundreds of 8 year olds?

The applications go way, way beyond the traditional supply chain – despite the ignorant focus of even many researchers and practioners in the field on RFID as the "internet of things". It isn't. Not even close.

There will be some staggering, transformational, and permanent changes to how we think of applications and the way they interact with the "real world" in the next couple of years. There are some interesting computer science problems to address to enable this, but there's plenty of work underway. And the social implications will be significant as well.

We're transitioning out of the industrial age into the information age (we most definitely are not there yet), and our schools and businesses are wired to educate us to think in "industrial age" ways – a factory and assembly line mindset, even in regards to IT. That'll change. For a refresher, read or re-read Alvin Toffler's seminal work, "The Third Wave", and see if it doesn't rewire a few synapses.

Stay tuned. And think big.

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