The current SDN homepage features another link to a blog about the SAP’s new Premium Access Zone (PAZ). As previously mentioned on here, I have some reservations about this move and I do feel that TechEd visitors are -compared to the old DVD delivery- being short-changed. This becomes even more apparent when ones takes the high SAP TechEd attendance fees of (GBP 1500+) into account.

On the whole, I don’t understand why these sessions

• are only made available online (despite SAP claiming that you can access the sessions “anywhere”)
• come with limited access for only 12 months (despite SAP claiming that you can access these sessions “anytime”).
• can not be downloaded (only the PDFs of the slides are downloadable)

Not every topic is covered at every single TechEd. Also, given the time until latest SAP developments really “hit you on the ground”, 12 months is unrealistic as an access period.

It will also be interesting to see if this “cynical cost cut by SAP” (as one commenter puts it) will be reflected in lower attendance fees for SAP TechEd.

Comments below the blog post indicate that I am not the only one who criticises this move. In fact, one of two positive feedback comments actually comes from a SAP employee.