New book: SAP Nation

[Former Member]

As my book, SAP Nation, launches (Amazon Kindle link) many in this Community will hear and read the media coverage. Pat Flanders of SCN and several SAP Mentors encouraged me to do a post here introducing the book. I am sensitive to the fact that this Community is not a place to pitch products, so will keep this short

The book traces the meteoric growth of SAP and is a nice walk down memory lane for anyone who has been around SAP. It is generous to executives like Dr. Hasso Plattner, Dr. Henning Kagermann, Leo Apotheker and Bill McDermott who have made SAP a global powerhouse.

The book also traces the growth of the economy around SAP to the point where it is almost as big as the GDP of Ireland. The book raises alarms SAP customers have spent over $ 1 trillion since the recession, when cloud, mobile and other trends and front office innovation opportunities would suggest a significant slowdown in back office IT investment.

The good news is SAP has recognized the need to tackle the complexity around its products and as its “Run Simple” initiative gathers momentum, the book provides a detailed inventory of areas of inefficiencies that could be tackled.

The book is also “voice of the SAP customer”. I profile conversations with over 30 C level executives. Many are customers who have started their own simplification efforts. They showcase 12 customer strategies - some are investing in HANA, some are changing outsourcing models, others are consolidating instances, and still others are ring fencing SAP with cloud solutions. Similarly, I included perspectives from several market analysts, user groups and SAP Mentors. Please feel free to download the book's Preface and Table and Contents here to get some more context to the book background and approach.

I believe (of course, I am biased) it is a balanced book with lots of divergent and historical perspectives.  I expect, similarly, a widely divergent reaction from the Community and look forward to your feedback as people read the book.

The link above is to the Amazon.com site where the eBook price is US $ 9.99. Depending on where you live, you may find it easier to go to regional Amazon sites like .de or .in, where the book prices may be more favorable to you.

In the meantime, I sincerely appreciate the open spirit in which Pat and the Mentors invited me to contribute this column. Here’s wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season!