There’s no need to spread Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt about SAP’s commitment to the cloud. SAP (or “The Mothership” as one of my colleagues likes to refer to them) does just fine all by itself.
Over the last few years, analysts and industry observers have questioned SAP’s cloud commitment. The latest example occurred just this weekend, when SAP indicated it was pulling back development of Business ByDesign—here are just a couple of reactions.
ZDNet: SAP to halt development of Business ByDesign:
The company's mid-market business software suite will be wound down but not shut down, according to a German magazine.
AllThingsD: SAP Cutting Back on Development of Business ByDesign:
German software giant SAP appears close to ending active development of its Business ByDesign suite of applications.
Forbes: SAP Reducing ByDesign Investment - A Cautionary Tale
SAP rushed to spin the news, with an update to Larry Dignan’s story on ZDnet.
SAP spokesman Jim Dever told ZDNet that "Business ByDesign will become part of the SAP HANA Cloud" as part of the company's effort to move all of its cloud offerings to the HANA platform.”
“SAP HANA will be the single, unified platform," he said. "Business ByDesign will continue to be supported and actively promoted in its current functionality and scope through our extensive partner ecosystem."
But let’s examine that statement. Current functionality? Supported through partners?
At NetSuite, as if you needed reminding, we are still committed to releasing two major updates per year —each of which is designed to either deepen existing or add new functionality.
So while SAP decides where to allocate resources and worries about how the market perceives their cloud service, we already have our roadmap laid out for the next two years with four releases.
So should there be any Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt related to SAPs cloud service and commitment?
Absolutely!
For Business ByDesign customers who have had enough and would like to see their cloud ERP system evolve with new features and functionality, we’re offering existing Business ByDesign customers the “Business ByDesign Sunset Migration Program.” This program offers one FREE year NetSuite subscription and free data migration.
-Gavin Davidson, Vertical Market Expert, Manufacturing