SAP Business Suite 7 - what's new?

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 10 February 2009 09:52

IT Industry - Market

SAP launched a new version of its Business Suite, but - apart from the addition of analytics - it isn't obvious exactly what it delivers in terms of new functionality as opposed to technological changes.

It's hard to get excited about a new software release when the first feature trumpeted in the announcement is "industry-rich value scenarios". That brings to mind the 'banter' sketch from Monty Python - the words are recognised, but the meaning escapes the listener.

(The sketch doesn't appear to be part of the official Monty Python channel on YouTube so I won't provide a link, but it would be surprising if it wasn't somewhere in YouTube.)

Leaving those "value scenarios" aside, what else is new?

There's "the harmonised user interfaces that present similar views across the applications of SAP Business Suite to deliver a coherent user experience that helps to reduce user training effort and cost."

But that seems little more than an admission that for some reason the company previously provided an incoherent user experience that increased user training effort and cost - not to mention user frustration.

How about "a synchronised release schedule for <I>all</I> applications"? (SAP's emphasis.) Isn't that what you'd expect?

If SAP's previously given little attention to 'hygiene' factors, you can see why it has a reputation for expensive implementations.

What do customers say? See page 2.