An intriguing post by Steve Mann suggests that SAP is looking to move beyond the largely inward looking SDN/BPX communities:
I have this gnawing at the back of my brain that we could be doing this so much better if we actually had a unified strategy that plugs into our overall Go-to-market strategy.
As part of his rationale, Steve references an SDN blog post by Mark Yolton that in turn talks to a paper written by Robin Fray Carey. The paper's title: SAP: A Company Transforms Itself Through Social Media is certainly provocative but a tad misleading in my opinion.
My main problem is the title implies something that has happened. Robin's paper is certainly a succinct summary of stuff most external observers already know and I can understand why SAP execs get excited. It affords a veneer of gravitas more usually associated with the analyst community. But I am far from convinced that SDN, the main example Robin uses, is indicative of transformation.
My second problem is in the expression of success measures. There is plenty of growth but only one measure that indicates qualitative improvement: member satisfaction. There is no hard evidence that SDN has contributed to sales. Indeed, I'd be amazed if there is given the SDN community are overwhelmingly those who work with SAP products post sale.
I believe the best way to assess transformation is through an analysis of what is happening in the conversations between SAP, its customers, observers, analysts and prospective customers. This is a much more complex landscape to navigate than that which exists today.
How far has SAP actually traveled? SDN has opened the door to developers and outsiders. Heck - they've even allowed a curmudgeon like me inside! But as Craig Cmehil explained to me, SDN has really proven itself as a valuable resource for engineers and implementation folk who are looking to discover alternative ways of solving problems or implementing functionality. In other words, SDN is an extension of the well understood forum that geeks have used for many years.
On BPX - the community focused on business process experts - its leader Marilyn Pratt acknowledged to me that SAP is very much at the beginning of its journey.
Mike Prosceno notes that other communities are springing up. These will be on show in Vienna. I look forward to seeing how they're working.
But is this a business transformed? SAP has embraced social media tools like blogs and wikis but that's not the same as 'transformed.' I find the most interesting conversations to be those occurring among people who have externally hosted sites. They're more readily digestible than the river of material hitting the SAP communities, are far more balanced in their content and seek to address important business issues. Steve's post provides an excellent example:
What else do we need to do? What aspects of our business should we be looking at? Marketing? Development? GTM?
The very fact Steve posts these questions in an outward facing site indicates these are big questions SAP feels a need to answer. It is brave in posing them in the manner Steve choose and for that SAP should be applauded.
On marketing and go-to-market (GTM), I'd welcome vibrant external discussions. Especially around A1S, the current product/service topic du jour but also around BusinessOne, A1N and the R/3 Suite. (I have a long list of questions) Equally, I'd like to see at least some of that balanced by discussions from within the communities.
I believe there is a place for a pure business led community at SAP. One that explores many of the issues that concern external observers and analysts like pricing, functional completeness, the operation of the partner ecosystem and which engages with the more senior SAP execosphere (hat tip to Thomas for that expression.)
There's no doubt that SAP is taking a leadership role in demonstrating how a company might be transformed. It is a proxy from which others may learn. The fact SDN garners some 4,000 forum posts per day is indicative of its progress. The fact SAP PR made a huge effort to get top execs in front of what it believes are influential bloggers at SAPPHIRE Atlanta is another indicator. But if you accept my 1/9/90 Rule then SAP has a long way to go.
In that sense, I am reminded of the words used by Thomas Harris's Red Dragon character Francis Dolarhyde: It is becoming though hopefully not in as tortured a fashion.
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