Having spent the full week in ultra-authentic and super-humid Orlando, I wanted to wait a bit and reflect before sharing my perspective of SAPPHIRE NOW.
This was my 8th SAPPHIRE NOW, and I must say, it was the most exciting and upbeat for a number of reasons. The energy level, buzz and enthusiasm from our customers, partners, and yes, employees(!) was greater than ever. Perhaps it was the humidity, not sure, but the enthusiasm was palpable. I would highlight that the partners in particular seemed to be more engaged, striking deals, speaking with analysts, and the like than ever before.
Regarding SAP Rapid Deployment Solutions, SAPPHIRE NOW Orlando 2012 represents a “tipping point” (to steal an oft-over used term). I started working with Rapid Deployment Solutions three years ago to the day (June 1) when it was merely a skunks-work, conceptual idea (internally dubbed “Productized Solution Packages”). Back then, we wanted to build “some packages” that allowed customers to go live quickly on many of the business applications, such as CRM, SRM, and various SCM-related functions. Launching with just five packages in October 2010, we have grown dramatically: 70+ packages today spanning both mature software and our latest innovations (e.g. Mobile, HANA); To date we have sold over 1,400 packages; to more than 1,000 customers; across all industries; to both large and midsize companies and have over 100 qualified partner offerings. Why have we seen this market adoption? It is because the offering is simple (at least relatively simple…this is enterprise software, after all), it allows companies to start small and grow over time; and the value proposition is clear (fast, simple, extensible, low-risk), and we now seeing case studies and proof points to back up these claims.
That said, we are not anywhere close to where we need to be. We see rapid-deployment solutions as a great channel for partners to help their customers, thereby extending SAP’s reach dramatically. And partners are just now ramping up these past 4-6 months. And customer adoption, while encouraging and trending very positively, is only a fraction of where we believe this model should move. Internally at SAP, we are committed to making rapid-deployment solutions work because we understand that customers do not gain value by buying software. Rather, they gain value by USING the software, and rapid-deployment solutions provides that vehicle to get organizations to actually deploy and run SAP software as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible.
Please check out the rapid-deployment solutions material from the event by visiting SAPPHIRE NOW online. You can easily find all of the rapid-deployment solution related sessions by filtering on the rapid-deployment solution “Hot Topic”. And if you haven’t heard enough from me yet, check out my video on what excites me about rapid-deployment solutions.
And as always, your feedback is more than welcome.
