While it is true that SAP does not do a good job of customizing / changing their core product, which is not always the best, their main competitors in CRM are basically the same. Maybe less time to do the customization, but the concept of taking a log time to change the core product remains the same.

I am quite certain that Brian did not mean much on the culture differences, but his point was a good point – especially so for SAP that is run at the highest level from Germany.

I do understand the concept of difference in cultures and countries working differently, having covered Latin America and Asia Pacific for some while for CRM. The differences between the three places (North America being the third – even with the smaller differences betweem Canada and USA) is outstanding in all aspects. Selection, deployment, proof-of-concept, expectations, time-to-deploy, sales-cycle-time… they are almost different worlds!

Thanks for the read and the comment, same apologies to you on the late reply.

This is a very interesting comment (albeit me responding so late, apologies). Not only because you are talking about ERP before and CRM now (which is a very interesting experience), or talking about BaaN (oh yeah, I knew them way back then for a screen-scrapper product they had either acquired, sold, or done something to it).

No, it is because you hit the nail in the head when it comes to SAP’s main perceived problem: the global company with clashing cultures for engineering and marketing. Anyone who ever worked at SAP at any time will tell you that it is an issue – and that is one of the issues that supposedly bringing people from the outside is solving. Supposedly.

Very interesting observation.

Thanks for the read!

I don’t know whether it is just these two countries or whether it’s Europe in general, but here you need to spend far more time proving that what you have to offer actually does what you promise. The RFP process is longer, and the Proof of Concept has to show that it meets the prospects’ specifications to each and every item. There is no selling on Powerpoint-only.

The current message that I hear from the market is that if you’re only after the standard functionality SAP is great, but anything non-standard means that you’ll be twoa and a half years down the road before you can cut off your old systems…so this may be the reason why they’re not keeping on blowing their own trumpet too much
.-= Mark Tamis´s last blog ..Social Learning and Customer Engagement =-.

Amusing post and an interesting read. I am going to be careful and this is your warning; the rest of my comment could be viewed as stereotypical, but should lead into more interesting dialogue about differences in reaching customers in different geographical locales.

SAP has always been a leading force in technology applications and engineering – consitent with many products that come out of Germany. I lived in Germany for nearly a year and the fabric of their society is much more focused on the mechanics of things happening than the presentation of how they will change your life.

In my ERP days, I sold and implemented BaaN, a Dutch based product with similar tendencies (sorry Dutch and Germans – your cultures are relatively similar). Great product – poor marketing (which ultimately led to their demise as an independent company). At the time, SAP was the leader, with BaaN, Peoplesoft, and Oracle vying for spot #2.

The US is the most marketing centric culture in the world. As you point out – this market expects hype, overpromise, and the WOW factor. Experiencing less is, in some twisted way, somewhat disappointing.

I am wondering if folks in Germany and the Netherlands receive the message(s) the same way that you (we) do, or if it is more relevant and effective there?

Interested if you or anyone could point me to more documented research on general tendencies and expectations of different markets around the world.

SAP, are you listening?
.-= Brian Vellmure´s last blog ..The 5 Stages of Customer Acquisition for the Social Business (Part 2) =-.

Of course, I never meant any vendor with whom you worked — I know you are far above that .

The interesting thing is that in spite of knowing that is not their stronger point SAP has not done a superb job of managing the message better. Their recent changes to the Influence Relationship program (which, btw, earned an award last year) is one strong step in that direction, as well as having brought new thoughts in the form of people from the outside at high enough places to make a difference. I am hoping that innovation from the labs will move to marketing (it is already in the product) in a short term so they can enjoy a better position… oh yeah, there’s that pesky execution thing also.

Thanks for the read!

Well, I would not call yourself “new”, but will give you that for now. I think that SAP has the same challenge they always had, but this time the product seems to be stronger than in past iterations — which may just work in their favor. Having brought new thoughts from the outside on how to do things may also help them. It will be a very interesting year.

BTW, thanks for the time to tweet while down there. You were a very close #2 in number of tweets – but you kept switching from English to Spanish, which made it more interesting.

Thanks for the read.
Esteban

On Demand Business ByDesign for the SME market in Latam could be a big hit since it is more than just CRM… and I like the fact that Business Objects will be available as an On Demand solution.
.-= Jesus Hoyos´s last blog ..Analisis de las conversaciones del #sapsummit =-.

re SAP. I think one of their biggest challenges is around innovation and ultimately execution. With google for example their labs (to some extent) their labs. It’s a shame that companies invent great stuff only to hide Nd never share it!