I got very nice feedback from tech executives I respect who had seen early copies of the book
"Don't be fooled by the title - the book is not just about SAP. It is about drama in enterprise computing. As Vinnie points out, few would have speculated in the late '90s that Apple, near dead or Google, not born yet would have many times revenue of SAP or its peers. I’ve been fortunate enough to have a front row seat overlooking this market both as executive and as investor. With new startups and developer communities reshaping the industry, SAP’s opportunity to reshape itself is still on the table, but only if it is willing to take a zero-sum approach. Platform vendors have to use their market cap and sales organizations to offer new services. Otherwise Amazon, Google and Microsoft will within a few years position to operate enterprise workloads, anywhere at any cost. Vinnie deftly brings out the trajectory at SAP and its enviable blue chip customer base, but also its many missed opportunities."
Raymond J. Lane,
Managing Partner, Greatpoint Ventures.
Previous Leadership/Board Roles at Oracle, HP, Kleiner Perkins and Carnegie Mellon U.
“A prolific writer and prescient observer of technology trends, Vinnie Mirchandani has produced an intriguing look at the many forces shaping enterprise applications today.”
Francisco D’Souza
Vice Chairman and CEO
Cognizant
"In previous books, Vinnie has painted a rather dim view of SAP as an expensive, back-office system, grudgingly accepted by business as a necessary evil. The fast changing and rapidly expanding digital landscape in the enterprise now presents incumbents like SAP a fresh opportunity to move into front-line operations in many industries. Will they be able to dominate this new digital space or will they squander the opportunity? This book does an excellent job of examining this question, taking a somewhat optimistic tone about their chances of success supported by a number of examples. Time will tell how the story ends."
Phiroz Darukhanavala (Daru)
CTO , BP (Retired)
"We are in the midst of massive digital transformation. Software companies are not immune. The shift from on-premises to cloud and now the shift from clouds to data driven digital networks will leave some vendors behind as the industry consolidates and evolves into digital duopolies. Vinnie’s book looks at the shift and asks key questions about how SAP and other software vendors will make this transition. More importantly, he raises the question on how the software market will look like post a financial engineered world, asking what strategies they should take, where they should invest, and whom they should partner with. A must read for those who want to know how the software market will evolve in the next decade."
R “Ray” Wang
Founder and CEO of Constellation Research
Author of Disrupting Digital Business
As usual, Dennis Howlett was the first to publish a media review on one of my books. His summary "SAP Nation 3.0 is very much a book of its time that will surprise, delight, infuriate and more."
Dennis did not, however, get the first review in on Amazon. Marco gets that honor.
"This is the third volume in Mirchandani’s unfurling saga of the SAP software juggernaut and its ecosystem of clients, app providers and other partners. As in the previous two installments, he manages to *animate* the enterprise computing space like no other commentator I’ve encountered. His secret weapon is that he is attuned to – and integrates throughout the book – all the key aspects of the Big Picture: the technological dimension, the business side, user experience, market behavior, vendor dynamics, etc. While this approach succeeds at dramatizing this ongoing technology/business story, and even instilling an element of intrigue – will the software giant rally and prevail? – Mirchandani does not shoehorn the narrative into any pat conclusions, but rather lets the dozens of sharp voices of the interviewees tell the tale in their own words. He subtly emphasizes what the subjects bring up, such as how SAP has or hasn’t succeeded at addressing individual vertical markets or cloud deployment and what styles the firm uses in negotiations, etc. As with any picture drawn with great detail, the eventual image is loaded with complexity and yet it is coherent. This detail is culled from many dozens of diverse participants from throughout the business and technology value chain … and for anyone with a stake in enterprise or application software, the insights they continually offer are gold nuggets. Perhaps the book’s biggest takeaway – and the main reason this work could be vital to the whole C suite, not just CIOs and CFOs – is the myriad ways that technology is driving innovation and business success."
There will be plenty more reviews. I am sure there will be reaction from SAP, its partners and its competitors.
As one of the sections in the book says "It's not your Dad's SAP". I see a lot of one-dimensional commentary on SAP - related to rumors of its recent restructuring, about its Indirect Access stance, its SI ecosystem. To me, SAP Nation is a fascinating, complex, evolving organism. It deserves a fresh look every few years. I hope I start that process this time around for a number of readers and with customer executives I advise.
