OK, folks. FIFA World Cup is over and with that ended the biggest distraction – also known as football. Therefore time to regroup, rethink and rekindle our relationship with the world we know and love as “SAP Land”. Welcome back !

• Forrester’s John R Rymer sticks up for SAP – “SAP is good enough”.
• Silicon.de joins into Rymer’s tune by emphasising “SAP bleibt SAP” (“SAP remains SAP”). English translation here
• Jon Reed with an excellent podcast interview with Skyytek’s Ray Tetlow (download link), a SaaS Consulting Business and SAP ByDesign partner.
• Dennis Howlett with some food for thought for all those who want to be SaaS consultants. Dennis does a great job of reflecting on parts of the Netsuite/ByDesign/Salesforce consulting model. It means a new way of working and making dosh – on several levels.
• Reality Bites: Thomas Wailgum’s pledge for a more instrumental role of the CIO (rather than mopping up afterwards).
• SAP Me Sideways with what looks like a follow-up on the Confidence v Ignorance post the other day.
• Richard Hirsch with an insightful SDN blog on impacts of In-Memory Technology on Process Environments.
• Eric Kimberling’s comprehensive list of ERP lawsuits.

Between several Twitter downtimes, I managed to capture the following:

• dahowlett: This from @twailgum had me in fits of laughter: “SAP: The Big Made Easy” http://is.gd/dhFvR #sap
• thomas_jung: One of the more useful UI prompts I’ve seen: http://flic.kr/p/8gh3Mi
• jonerp: Wondering what’s next in the wacky story of the @SAP Twitter account, once possessed by a teenager with attitude…
• ConsultantBox: Why do many SAP consultants not want to work with SAP agents when searching for SAP jobs? http://nblo.gs/5CLmR
• ddav: Check out the SAP Uber Geek app now on the ‘new and noteworthy’ in iTunes store! http://twitpic.com/24x19b
• dparnas: RT @scottwambler: Certified #Scrum Master training = 16 hrs. Starbucks Barista training = 24+ hrs. #agile
  

Brazil, Argentina, England – World Cup favourites come and go, but This Week in SAP can’t be knocked out that easily. This little project of mine is a labour of love and therefore might experience the odd blip in broadcast. Blame my clients who keep me busy.

Anyway, what have we got?

• Vinnie Mirchandani explains on Enterprise Irregulars how his new book The New Polymath has drawn on virtual communities in general and -for example- on SDN sources / SAP Mentors.
• SAP extends offer to acquire Sybase. As not all conditions for the merger are met, like the approval for the European Commission, there has got to be another 25 day review period by the EU. Nothing too serious there? Au contraire! “This is not something SAP needs right now”, says Enterprise Irregular Dennis Howlett.
• gingle posted a few “Full Monty” blogs on SDN with installation guides etc on popular SAP trials. A great resource from a mysterious man Down Under.
• SAP Me Sideways strikes again with a good piece on “Confidence vs Arrogance”, which very much resonates my own experiences in larger parts of SAP Land.
• about time: Angelika Dammann becomes SAP’s first female board member. (english version here. nb: translated second part of title is misleading)
• fellow mentor John Appleby explains “why the iPad is the most important sales tool since the cellphone“.
• a bit older, yet still worth mentioning is a silicon.de post re SAP’s ambitions to triple users by 2015. (english translation is here). Execution for the app strategy might still throw up the odd question mark and the next months need to provide more clarity with regards to this. One example will be the upcoming ByDesign SDK entitled Copernicus.

And here comes the Twitterverse:

• jonerp: There is such a thing as overthinking SAP career options. Hot skills chase – avoid. Passionate pursuit of excellence – that’s more like it
• vendorprisey: RT @hrportal: SAP Records Management is now called “SAP NetWeaver Folders Management”: . >more renaming games???????
• openczun Hint : just because SAP says some functionality is supported, doesn’t mean it works.
• schucci @enterprisegeeks did anyone notice that “innojagd” is really an anagram for “ninja god”…must be Craig’s nickname.
• qmacro Overheard: “I can’t code anymore. I’m going to have to do Architecture” (!)

OK, there’s been a little gap in weekly updates. I knew that the title “This Week in SAP” would come to haunt me one of those weeks. I blame the World Cup and Konrad Zuse’s birthday. But now, after some dire performances from Germany and England, I’m desperately looking for some distraction in the vaults of the SAP world… let’s see.

• Redmonk on Software AG’s global approach, giving it to us straight; interview with Dr Peter Kuerpick.
• fellow SAP mentor Sandy Kemsley is not happy and lets rip on Enterprise Collaboration. A very noteworthy and apt insight.
• Talking Bay Area, Crossroads, Sapphire and Crossroads Cafe: Mark Finnern interview with Anne Petteroe
• Jon Reed and Andy Klee interview each other on ASUG-SAPPHIRE Orlando 2010, SAP training trends, SAP certification, and other conference takeaways…
• Thomas Wailgum on a new TV series: “ERP Undercover”. I’d really like “ERP Vice”, but that’s me.
• ex-SAP Steve Mann hits hard with his criticism re SAP’s presence on Twitter.
• For the second time now, SAP Inside Track London didn’t disappoint. See here an initial wrap-up by Dennis Howlett and Martin Gillet’s Flickrstream.

selections from Twitter, not necessarily from the last 7 days.

• PuruGovind: I have shifted most of my SAP-context tweeting to SAP talk, our inhouse microblogging tool.
• dahowlett: Resetting my #sdn password for the 3rd time in as many days…..grrr…..

Decompressed and recovered after SAPPHIRE the Blogsphere and Twitterverse was back on track… I thought… but it was rather quiet.

• SAP begins tender offer for Sybase. The deal is starting to take shape.
  
• a few days older, but still good: Thomas Otter with some interesting compairsons between ERP sofwtare and buying a (virtual) piano in “What buying a piano taught me ab out enterprise sofwtare“

Tweet, tweet, tweet….

• rhirsch: ROFL – my daughter just saw @dahowlett avatar and said “Look, there is Santa Claus” – if only she knew the truth
• twailgum: RT @pgreenbe: My post on SAP and SAPPHIRE goes up on ZDNET.http://bit.ly/cEUebn
• dparnas: RT @hkisker: New #Forrester blog: ‘SapphireNow 2010 – The Quest for Innovation’ #SapphireNow http://bit.ly/bIWVnD
• ccmehil: bit.ly/innojagd Game is on for those up to the challenge in the SAP ecosystem #Cinch: http://www.cinchcast.com/ccmehil/61544
• timoelliott: In Europe waiting for your iPad? There’s the first app you should download! (#SAP #BusinessObjects Explorer for iPad):

Welcome back! It’s been a Sapphire-tastic week both in Frankfurt and Orlando, so most pickings of mine are still influenced by that. I’m glad I went over to Frankfurt to witness all the action. Co-Mentor Nigel James summarised it best by saying “SAPPHIRE WOW”.

• numerous Sapphire wraps have been posted (including mine here, here and here). Those most noteworthy in my mind are the ones from (a very complimentary) Ray Wang, Vinnie Mirchandani, Dennis Howlett (note: also check Vinnie and Dennis’ latest after thoughts, now the “drugs have worn off”! follow their links), CIO.com and also the summaries on Craig Cmehil’s FMR for day1, day2 and day 3.
• more thoughts by Dennis Howlett on SAP’s SME SaaS offering Business By Design and its pricing. Dennis also mentions the SDK for BBD which is supposed to hit the community later in 2010. Generally there seems to be concerns around entry level for partners, infrastructure (what if SAP decides to outsource the hosting?) and pricing. Personally I would like to see a clearer strategy announcement from SAP around partnerships – hopefully this will be in place by the time the SDK is released.
• two excellent Enterprise Geeks podcasts around Agile and (of course) the Certification 5 and their efforts to move the needle on SAP Certification. Unfortunately I missed out with all the fun as 4/5 of the group gathered in Orlando.
• I can probably get away with mentioning Dennis Howlett a third time by pointing to his excellent blog on the Certification 5 experience with Bill McDermott. Goosebumps guaranteed!

and finally from the Twitterverse…

• DearingGroup: the # of times we’ve seen Sustainability in tweets from SapphireNow almost equals the amount of consultants it used to take to implement SAP
• bitterer: Bill McDermott looks, speaks, and acts like the other Bill. Clinton, that is. #sapphirenow
• rhirsch: RT @bitterer: Real real-time from SAP. Unreal. #sapphirenow >> now that is reality
• vendorprisey: just googling Virgin’s IT set up. Lots of Oracle, some SAP, some netsuite. #sapphirenow
• SAPProJournal: Must say this is the first time at an SAP conference that colonizing another planet had come up in the discussion. #SAPPHIRENOW
• njames: Ash #ash go away Go away and stay away I don’t care why I don’t care how I want to get to @sapphirenow
• dahowlett: All the smart people are in the lobby bar #sapohirenow (nb. couldn’t resist, Dennis! 🙂

60 hours to the start of Sapphire. With all the SAP/Sybase Acquisition news you’re obviously in for a treat. Ladies and Gentlemen, come closer and have a good look at a larder full of SAP news. You won’t be disappointed ! For your convenience, I’ve split the news into “SAP/Sybase” and “Other”.

SAP/Sybase

• SAP News Room: SAP to acquire Sybase, Inc.
• Heise.de sees SAP pushing onto Oracle’s patch (english translation here)
• Deal Architect’s (Vinnie Mirchandani) first and later reaction. On the whole, he says that SAP probably had already enough on its plate, but senses a lot of buzz (similar to the Business Objects acquisition). He’ll encounter SAP’s statement of “Sybase is about customer choice” with a question about incorporation Zoho, Netsuite and Rimini at next week’s Sapphire press conference. Let’s see what they’re going to say.
• Several blogs chimed in with what I see as the most important outcome from all this: clarity. I remember walking around the stalls at the last TechEd and speaking to the Skys and Sybases etc of this world. It was like a game of Mikado – everyone tried to stay in the game without making a hash of it and clinging on to what they’ve got. The Sybase acquisition “reduces options” in a good way (Forrester’s Stefan Ried). The blogs I found which emphasised this were: William Newman’s “View from the C-Level”, and John Appleby’s blog on SDN (another new SAP Mentor!).
• CIO.com’s Thomas Wailgum thinks “SAP stays classy” and I do agree with him. Whilst others like Bob Warfield seem to think that SAP just wanted to make a big splash (“This deal is a classic example of a wounded elephant crashing through the jungle”…), I think it is clear that Sybase was a clearly thought through, carefully executed move.
• analysts and pundits seemed to be quieter on the In-Memory-Ambitions that SAP links to the acquisition. Dennis Howlett gives his view (amongst other things) here, remaining slightly unconvinced, citing an example of a recent Deutsche Bank announcement.

Other

• A good article by Panorama Consulting’s Lena Laakso on Overcoming ERP Project Fatigue.
• rather strange post in InformationWeek talking about the “SAP Recession”. I guess we all agree that BI has had an effect (or maybe IT in general?), what about electronics or mathematics? Fine. Let’s all agree it’s been a “human kind induced recession” then.
• Ann Rosenberg, SAP, announces the new .
• SAP’s latest Sustainability Report went live.
• Craig Cmehil with a little more detail on Innojagd, SAP’s new innovation initiative
• Jon Reed with a great podcast on “SAP Soft Skills – Myth vs Reality”. Accompanied by the magnificent Guy Couillard.

and here’s the Twitterverse for you

• Vendorprisey: Early call on SAP licensing challenges. SAP product naming is confusing and frustrating.
• chriskanaracus: Business ByDesign interface is more colorful than before, but still won’t be mistaken for a Wii game or anything
• steverumsby: Stupid Java stack. Whoever in SAP thought this was a good idea? Please can everyone go back to coding in ABAP?
• z_basis_adm: @steverumsby SAP on Java makes me laugh. Tons of useless logs. Really poor memory management. Apps that just die without gening errors. Fun! (in response to @steverumsby)