I guess it’s pretty fitting that I totally butchered Shai Agassi’s name (he’s president of product and technology group at SAP and is one of seven people on its executive board). I’m so embarrassed. I was a bit nervous, which is a bit ironic because I didn’t even know who he was a few hours earlier, but the crowd that quickly formed to listen to Shai talk in the hallway at SAP’s big developer show going on now demonstrates that Shai commands the respect of everyday developers in SAP’s community.
Dennis Howlett nailed the real reason I hacked his name: I’m not astute in the enterprise world and I don’t have a good mental model of who the players and shakers are. He’s right that most of the time I think about more end-user stuff, but my whole career has been spent trying to figure out what drives developers and getting half a million developers to join a community in three years got my attention.
SAP is no Web 2.0 business. The cool kids like Mike Arrington don’t follow its every move like, say, the way we follow Google or Microsoft. On the other hand, name the business and it probably runs on SAP. Shai pointed out that they have had a developer community for a long time but that SAP only started paying attention to it three years ago.
Aside: one thing I notice about meeting intensely smart people like Shai (I’m in awe of his career track, he has shot to the top of SAP at age 34) is their focus. The ability to shut out everything else and focus intensely on what is in front of him is a skill I’m in awe of.
Of interest to me is that Ross Mayfield noted almost the same thing about SAP that I noticed, but he noticed it back in May. Over the next few months I’ll definitely be visiting SAP more often to continue my “reeducation” and I promise I won’t hack Shai’s name next time.
Also part of my enterprise reeducation was meeting with Dana Gardner (enterprise blogger and analyst) who spent most of the day yesterday with Maryam and me. His ZD blog is one of those that I look to first for information on enterprise players like SAP. Speaking of ZD blogs, sorry to hear that William Ziff (where Ziff Davis got its name) died today.
Anyway, thanks to the SAP community who invited me to come and listen. I wish I had spent the whole week. There’s a lot more I can learn from SAP’s developer community.
Oh, and thanks to Charlie Wood for making a photo of me interviewing Shai.
LayZ: when I spoke to those companies I was talking mostly about blogging, social software and all that. I wasn’t talking to them about their enterprise software choices. So, yes, I learned a lot from them. No, it wasn’t about enterprise software.
LayZ: when I spoke to those companies I was talking mostly about blogging, social software and all that. I wasn’t talking to them about their enterprise software choices. So, yes, I learned a lot from them. No, it wasn’t about enterprise software.
@11. It just gets easier and easier.
I do find your “modesty” interesting given anytime someone challenges your creditiblity you trot out your scores at some Google conference, the number of people you talked to at MS, AND the number of CUSTOMERS you supposedly talked to: Boeing, Amazon, Target.. I think those are the 3 you usually trot out. Hello?? Those are enterprise customers. Did you not learn anything from talking to them?
@11. It just gets easier and easier.
I do find your “modesty” interesting given anytime someone challenges your creditiblity you trot out your scores at some Google conference, the number of people you talked to at MS, AND the number of CUSTOMERS you supposedly talked to: Boeing, Amazon, Target.. I think those are the 3 you usually trot out. Hello?? Those are enterprise customers. Did you not learn anything from talking to them?
I’m not astute in the enterprise world and I don’t have a good mental model of who the players and shakers are.
Well, duh. But if you need a brain trust, you know where to find me.
And one thing, that you need to clear up right now, it’s not about the “players and the shakers”, not here, this isn’t Silicon Valley buzz partyfest — it’s about the performance of the software. Enterprise is where it’s all at, but the usual rules apply even so, overcharged, underperform, army of professional services guys to hover and create billable events.
previous employer had all the focus of an ADD kid mainlining sugar.
Wow great line…tho I’d change it to mainlining a Red Bull 4 pack.
I’m not astute in the enterprise world and I don’t have a good mental model of who the players and shakers are.
Well, duh. But if you need a brain trust, you know where to find me.
And one thing, that you need to clear up right now, it’s not about the “players and the shakers”, not here, this isn’t Silicon Valley buzz partyfest — it’s about the performance of the software. Enterprise is where it’s all at, but the usual rules apply even so, overcharged, underperform, army of professional services guys to hover and create billable events.
previous employer had all the focus of an ADD kid mainlining sugar.
Wow great line…tho I’d change it to mainlining a Red Bull 4 pack.
It was nice to finally meet you Robert! Keep on truckin’…
It was nice to finally meet you Robert! Keep on truckin’…
LayZ: I knew about Duet, there’s simply too much coming out of Microsoft for any one person to really keep on top of. Where’s your blog so I can see how smart you are? You sure seem to like telling us how stupid I am, that must mean you are the smartest of the smartest!
LayZ: I knew about Duet, there’s simply too much coming out of Microsoft for any one person to really keep on top of. Where’s your blog so I can see how smart you are? You sure seem to like telling us how stupid I am, that must mean you are the smartest of the smartest!
Scoble, you worked for a company that is making products to integrate with SAP and has a partnership with them for more than a decade. Was DUET not even on your radar? Are you not aware of what IBM is doing with SAP? As someone who was supposedly responsible for a developer community, how could you remain have remained so clueless? That is a rhetorical question, BTW.
Scoble, you worked for a company that is making products to integrate with SAP and has a partnership with them for more than a decade. Was DUET not even on your radar? Are you not aware of what IBM is doing with SAP? As someone who was supposedly responsible for a developer community, how could you remain have remained so clueless? That is a rhetorical question, BTW.
Robert,
As a developer I understand what constitutes good user interface design. Our company recently moved to SAP SRM to handle T&E’s and let me tell you, the product is a horrible web application for me as an end user. I’m not sure if it is the base product that SAP sells or the enhancements that the “consultants” added, but it really hoses.
The problem for SAP is that their name is on a product that they may have not butchered. At least with Microsoft you know if Vista sucks it is because Microsoft butchered it.
Maybe you could take a look at their product and tell me your thoughts.
Robert,
As a developer I understand what constitutes good user interface design. Our company recently moved to SAP SRM to handle T&E’s and let me tell you, the product is a horrible web application for me as an end user. I’m not sure if it is the base product that SAP sells or the enhancements that the “consultants” added, but it really hoses.
The problem for SAP is that their name is on a product that they may have not butchered. At least with Microsoft you know if Vista sucks it is because Microsoft butchered it.
Maybe you could take a look at their product and tell me your thoughts.
Thanks, Robert, I really enjoyed the time with you and Maryam. The pleasure was all mine. Don’t forget to check out Martins Beach. BTW: Did you ask SAP about moving the licensing to subscriptions? How about the marketshare of NetWeaver for non-SAP applications? Cheers.
Thanks, Robert, I really enjoyed the time with you and Maryam. The pleasure was all mine. Don’t forget to check out Martins Beach. BTW: Did you ask SAP about moving the licensing to subscriptions? How about the marketshare of NetWeaver for non-SAP applications? Cheers.
So I wounder why you are following SAP? Disclosure! Don’t forget Disclosure!
Molly
So I wounder why you are following SAP? Disclosure! Don’t forget Disclosure!
Molly
Aside: one thing I notice about meeting intensely smart people like Shai (I’m in awe of his career track, he has shot to the top of SAP at age 34) is their focus. The ability to shut out everything else and focus intensely on what is in front of him is a skill I’m in awe of.
Of course you’re in awe of any company with focus, since your previous employer had all the focus of an ADD kid mainlining sugar.
Aside: one thing I notice about meeting intensely smart people like Shai (I’m in awe of his career track, he has shot to the top of SAP at age 34) is their focus. The ability to shut out everything else and focus intensely on what is in front of him is a skill I’m in awe of.
Of course you’re in awe of any company with focus, since your previous employer had all the focus of an ADD kid mainlining sugar.
Frank, we’ll try to have the audio up this week. The video? I’m going to try to have it up next week when my show starts.
Frank, we’ll try to have the audio up this week. The video? I’m going to try to have it up next week when my show starts.
Robert, nice of you to be modest about it. The enterprise is also about toys - except we spend a lot more on them! As Dennis mentions at least a few of us want to encurage the consumer oriented tools and entrepreneurs to play in the enterprise sandbox.
BTW - on SDN, I can see your developer centric excitement. But from a SAP customer perspective SAP has not even scratched the surface in terms of cost and delivery impact as I wrote below in SAP’s SDN: Such Delightful News
http://dealarchitect.typepad.com/deal_architect/2006/05/saps_sdn_wheres.html
Robert, nice of you to be modest about it. The enterprise is also about toys - except we spend a lot more on them! As Dennis mentions at least a few of us want to encurage the consumer oriented tools and entrepreneurs to play in the enterprise sandbox.
BTW - on SDN, I can see your developer centric excitement. But from a SAP customer perspective SAP has not even scratched the surface in terms of cost and delivery impact as I wrote below in SAP’s SDN: Such Delightful News
http://dealarchitect.typepad.com/deal_architect/2006/05/saps_sdn_wheres.html
Wow. The second I saw your previous SAP post I thought “Robert should really interview Shai Agassi”. Talk about wishes coming true
. He gave a lecture at my university a few months ago, very interesting person, very interesting life story and very interesting business insights.
Wow. The second I saw your previous SAP post I thought “Robert should really interview Shai Agassi”. Talk about wishes coming true
. He gave a lecture at my university a few months ago, very interesting person, very interesting life story and very interesting business insights.
Robert, where and when will you be posting the interview?
Robert, where and when will you be posting the interview?
Robert - us enterprisey guys have a similar problem but from a different end of the proverbial telescope - we’re trying to figure out how to give end users consumery looking tools in the enterprise that help them do ‘serious’ enterprise stuff so they winkle out big ‘edge’ value. It ain’t easy. It’s important because ‘we’ think the value add to business and on to consumers is enormous.
It’s fair to say that a year ago, this kind of meet up would be unthinkable - how quick this game changes…?? Thanks for your attention.
Robert - us enterprisey guys have a similar problem but from a different end of the proverbial telescope - we’re trying to figure out how to give end users consumery looking tools in the enterprise that help them do ‘serious’ enterprise stuff so they winkle out big ‘edge’ value. It ain’t easy. It’s important because ‘we’ think the value add to business and on to consumers is enormous.
It’s fair to say that a year ago, this kind of meet up would be unthinkable - how quick this game changes…?? Thanks for your attention.