New acquisitions, leadership changes, retooled cloudstrategies and possibly new products are some of the things industry watchersare speculating they will see from SAP AG this year.
HANA was the most successful new product SAP had rolled outin recent years.
While hype around the in-memory database will most likelypersist in 2013, Chris Kanaracus of Computerwold.com the following will alsograb headlines for SAP this year:
1) New acquisitions – In 2012, SAP partnered with socialanalytics vendor NetBase. It’s entirely possible that this year, SAP may decidethat it is much better to own such technology. Such a decision could pave theway to the acquisition of NetBase of companies like it such as LithiumTechnologies Inc. and Attensity.
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2) Cloud strategy – Expect some big announcement from SAP inthe upcoming Sapphire conference in May. The event could be the launching padfor new cloud applications that zero-in on particular business use and line ofbusiness issues like the company’s Financials OnDemand.
3) HANA’s road map – A HANA road map for 2013 is expected to beunveiled when SAP holds a major news conference in January 10. Many start-upsare building databases with HANA but in order to maintain its momentum a widerrange of high-profile deployment especially in mission critical workloads inessential.
4) C-level movement – Will either of SAP’s co-CEO’s BillMcDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe make a move for solo leadership of thecompany? There have been no “public indications or report of tensions” betweenthe two, according to Kanaracus but he points to persistent rumours linkingMcDermott to such intentions.
5) A new product – SAP’s reworked research strategy currentplaces emphasis on developing products which the company believes could lead tosuccess within three to five years. Will 2013 be launching pad foranother breakout product like HANA?