By Nathan Dukes
SAP AG co-CEOs Jim Hagemann Snabe and Bill McDermott have written an open letter to all SAP customers.
The letter aims to answer a number of questions and clarify issues which have arisen from recent changes to SAP’s upper management.
Words like ‘passion’, ‘creativity’, ‘commitment’, ‘responsibility’ and ‘new generation’ set the tone of a letter aims to rally customer support while it moves through this period of renewal.
The document focuses on SAP’s effort to improve customer relations and innovation; widely recognised amongst analysts and SAP themselves as the key factors moving forward.
Snabe and McDermott said they wrote the letter in the ‘spirit of openness’, with the hope their answers would dispel the myths born out of SAP’s management restructure.
The letter first addresses the topic of customer commitment.
“Our mission remains to make your business a best-run business. Customers are the very centre of our strategy,” the letter reads.
“We also recognise that you have made a substantial investment in SAP and built at least part of your business on us, which is why we want you to know that the investment you have made in SAP is protected and valid.”
SAP also said they would open communication lines to gather feedback from the community on strategy.
Regarding innovation, Snabe and McDermott said they aim to ‘unleash the creativity at SAP’ by changing employee culture and speeding up the product development cycle.
“(We will) accelerate the pace of the innovation we deliver to you. We will do that by energising our entire company to become even more open to and informed by the needs of your company. This is not a new task, as innovation has long but quietly flourished in many groups within SAP.”
The letter focused on ‘on demand, on premise and on device’ markets as key areas of innovation where customers will see movement in the coming weeks, and noted the much anticipated return of SAP Business ByDesign.
