I was just listening on the latest interview of SAP and Business Objects executives speaking about the value of these 2 companies coming together for SAP and Business Objects customers.

You can listen to the interview here: http://www.sap.com/community/events/2008_02_Bobj/index.epx

Putting myself in the shoes of an SAP customer here is what I took away from it:

 

  • If you are an SAP customer you should know that BOBJ is not a simple, light footprint addition to your existing investment, it is actually a major deal: Marge Breya, the EVP for BI at BOBJ, actually states towards the end of the interview that BOBJ is “ a real platform” with data and management and the whole 9 yards that sits on top of the SAP platform.
  • The key value for SAP customers, as mentioned in the interview, is the ability to go beyond and outside of the SAP NetWeaver platform in a good way.
  • SAP customers that have a NetWeaver strategy will probably find that in order to get a new and easy reporting and analytics tool to replace BEX that will require them to make an investment that is probably equal to what they already went through when deployed NetWeaver.

 

Which SAP should chose BOBJ in my mind according to this interview:

  • Customers that have most of their data outside of NetWeaver and are looking for a way to bring it all together
  • Customers that stick to the SAP strategy no matter how effective it is
  • Customers that don’t mind having an additional platform on top of NetWeaver to get a great usable BI solution.

 

Who should look for a 3rd party that does not have a platform:

  • Heavily invested in BW / NetWeaver
  • Not interested in adding a platform on top of a platform
  • Looking for a more intuitive UI on BW but not wanting to give up the investment in BW
  • Customers looking to give their users more self service capabilities on top of the existing BW infrastructure.

 

I really encourage every SAP customer to watch the interview here:

http://www.sap.com/community/events/2008_02_Bobj/index.epx

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