SAP compare themselves to Apple, staying true to their core

SAP's rival Oracle are making an executive suite reshuffle which from SAP's point of few sets the companies on diverging paths.

Oracle is bringing in a top-shelf executive who knows computer hardware, both from his years at H.P. and at NCR before that. That strategic and operational know-how is crucial to Oracle, since it acquired Sun Microsystems earlier this year.

Mr. McDermott, co-chief executive of SAP called the Sun purchase “Oracle’s wild move into hardware.”
By contrast, he said, SAP is “staying true to its core” in software.

The software-only strategy, Mr. McDemott said, insures that SAP’s major corporate partners, which are also hardware makers, like I.B.M. and H.P., remain allies. “For Oracle, they are enemies now,” he said.

SAP, according to Mr. McDermott, will focus primarily on three product lines. The first is business applications, its mainstay business of supplying the software companies use to manage their finances, customer accounts, manufacturing and procurement.

The second is business intelligence software, which companies use to mine data for insights that can increase sales and cut costs. Its Business Objects subsidiary, acquired in 2007 for $6.78 billion, is a leader in business intelligence software.

The third, Mr. McDermott says, is mobile applications for business. Sybase software is already widely used in transporting messages to and from smartphones, and SAP plans to invest heavily in the mobile business. The idea, he said, is to link workers with mobile devices — like smartphones and Apple iPads (SAP has already deployed 2,000 to its workers) — to all the back-end business operations software SAP makes.

“What Apple has done in the consumer space, we’ll do in business applications,”McDermott said.

iPad Making Fast Inroads into the World of Business

Apple are putting an emphasis on the fact that the iPad is a useful innovative and soon to be key Business Tool.

“Featuring built-in support for Microsoft Exchange, secure access to corporate data, and a powerful platform for apps, iPad is ready for work, right out of the box.”

Apple, known for courting consumers with sleek designs and easy to use software is making inroads with corporations at a much faster pace than the iPhone was able to achieve in its early days.

Wells Fargo spent two years studying the iPhone before letting bankers use the device at work. Apple's iPad, released in April, took just weeks to get cleared.

Apple, known for courting consumers with sleek designs and easy-to-use software, is making inroads with corporations that say the iPad can make workers more productive without putting sensitive customer information at risk. SAP, Tellabs, and Daimler's Mercedes-Benz are using the tablet-style computer for tasks as varied as accessing work e-mail, approving shipping orders, and calling up on-the-spot auto-finance options.

Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs announced the iPad in January, touting its ability to deliver games, video, music, Web access, and digital versions of books and magazines. Yet companies say it's widely applicable at work, too.

"This iPad thing has taken the world by storm," says Ted Schadler, vice-president and principal analyst at Forrester Research and author of Empowered, which explores how employees use new technologies. "It came in as a consumer product and very quickly the people who actually bought them were businesspeople."

Business Week