Customer Reviews

SAP: Inside the Secret Software Power

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Certainly in the decade of the 1990s there was no development in the software industry as surprising as the phenomenal growth of SAP. Who in 1990 predicted the enormous success of SAP's flagship ERP product, R/3, and the billions of dollars that would be spent deploying R/3 throughout the Fortune 1000? Or the shortage of and frantic competition for SAP consultants and the huge premiums they could draw in the market? While Microsoft also enjoyed huge successes in the 1990s, the Redmondians occupied a well-established position in the IT world at the start of the decade. In 1990, SAP occupied a market niche. All the conventional wisdom of the time suggested that they would be lucky to hold even that.

Instead, new ERP systems (excuse me, ENTERPRISE systems) became a "must have" initiative for almost all large companies. R/2 evolved to R/3, which cemented its position as the undisputed market leader in the class. This in spite of being a devilishly complex product even by German standards, created by a non-American software company that was reputedly shy of publicity, thin-skinned, arrogant, and vindictive. R/3 was received its entre and initial sponsorship in the USA not by SAP itself, but by consulting firms Anderson Consulting, the (then) Big Six accounting firms, CSC, Cap Gemini, and others. The results have been mixed. In extreme cases, companies have sunk hundreds of millions both in deploying SAP and in the process re-engineering associated with its deployment. Even the "expected" ratio of software to implementation expense is 7:1 or 10:1. This suggests the reality that R/3 is more an application framework than a shrink-wrapped solution, as CEOs and CIOs quickly discovered. Nevertheless both the huge investment and the high-level executive sponsorship have made SAP a fixture in much of the corporate world today.

There is surely a facinating story to be told of SAP's capture of this market position. What exactly did the consultants see in R/3 that was missing elsewhere? How did they sell the huge implementation costs? How did SAP sell them on R/3, and on themselves? How did they cross the large cultural barriers? How did this compare with the competiton? Unfortunately, you will not find any such history in Meissner's book. This utterly dreadful volume reads like a translated German press release...if you can imagine a press release that is 200-pages long! Perhaps that is unfair to press releases, which have some clear content and direction, which this book sorely lacks. What you will learn is that six IBM "drop-outs" created an integrated transaction-oriented mainframe business software package during the 1970s, using mainframe computer time borrowed from their first customer. They enhanced and extended the product, launching a client/server version in 1992. Their sales strategy was to sell strictly to CEOs, and the doors to the executive office were opened for them by their implementation partners. Their expansion in the USA was driven by the feisty Klaus Beiser. You will also learn that the SAP culture is characterized by a flat organizational structure, open exchanges of information (strictly within SAP, it is understood by all), flexibility in work hours, and lifelong learning. Typical valley start-up stuff. You won't learn anything else from Meissner. The book has less depth than most any other discussion of SAP (a formidable achievement, that).

Perhaps a few examples will suffice. One Chapter is entitled "Washing Dirty Linen in Public - The Resignation of Cofounder Hans-Werner Hector". Just trips off the tongue, doesn't it? The book includes references to URLs which no longer exist, includes a few graphs and charts imported directly from Microsoft Excel, and numerous recycled sidebars, surprising in their location, but not their content. Just in case you wanted to know, it also includes the addresses and phone number of every SAP office worldwide(talk about filler!), although the order in which they are sorted is unfathomable (details, details!). The chapter on the SAP-Microsoft relationship ends:

"At the Sapphire user conference in August 1996 in Philadelphia, where the business framework architecture was presented for the first time, Hasso Plattner and Bill Gates showed how R/3 can be used with Microsoft software on the Internet. In the evening, the conference participants met at a party on the bank of the Delaware River. For this party SAP engaged pop star Stevie Wonder, and the people from SAP and Microsoft had a grand time joining in on the line "We've got to reach higher" as the customers listened with great pleasure."

Not a pleasure to read. This book certainly deserves at least a "B-" grade in any course in English as a second language, but it is hard to swallow a full volume of such drivel when so poorly written.

Meissner presents an interesting and balanced history of SAP. While this book will teach you little about the R/3 software, it will provide great insight into the people and culture that created and support R/3.

The history of the 5 co-founders and the interplay of the 5 throughout the initial stages of the company and the development of R/2 and R/3 are fascinating.

Meissner provides insight into the ever-changing relationships of SAP with the press and the industry analysts. He also explains the role of major, influential customers in the ongoing development of SAP's products.

My only disappointment with the book was the relatively little information about SAP developments since late 1996, early 1997 when the book was originally written.

Otherwise, a smart investment for anyone involved with SAP R/3, contemplating an SAP implementation, and for anyone who simply likes a good story.

This is a terrific book. As an American who has worked for US high technology firms in the UK, Germany and here in California, I can say that this book gives a wonderful insight into Germany's most successful software firm. It also helps one to understand how things are done in Germany and what we can expect from other German startups. Gerd is, in my estimation, the best-informed German writer covering the American high technology business.

Jim Heldman Berkeley, CA

If you own stock in SAP, perhaps the world's premier producer of the enterprise software that integrates such business functions as finance, distribution and human resources, this year's been a wild ride. But despite this patch of management problems, earnings pressure and roller-coaster stock price fluctuations, SAP remains one of the largest and most firmly entrenched software companies in the world. Gerd Meissner attributes much of this success to the corporate culture established at SAP's birth by its five German founders, and in more than 200 compelling pages, he proves his point by piercing the veil of this innovative and secretive organization. Meissner traces the history of the company back to its origins in the early 1970s, keeping his finger always on the thread of characteristics that set SAP apart from its competitors - for better or for worse. We at getAbstract.com strongly recommend this book both as a gripping biography of an industry giant and as an incisive study in employee empowerment, business alliances and corporate innovation. In other words, in reading this book, not only will you learn something about this thriving software company, you'll probably learn something about your own company as well.

It's true that this work by journalist Gerd Meissner is a thrilling look under the skirt of an otherwise secretive technology empire. SAP is reknown for its closed-door policy, to the frustration of enterprise applications developers everywhere.

But SAP's decision to embrace "Inside the Secret Software Power" should tell you something about the focus of this book: the company's recent blunders do not appear; nor is their disasterous attempts to forge an R/3 alternative with Intel. Still, the writing is compelling, and if Herr Meissner writes a followup, I'll be first in line to buy a copy.

I highly recommend this book as insightful, thought-provoking and very thorough. Actually, it is an excellent read for anyone in business, not just those in the software industry.

As editor of www.searchSAP.com, I am always looking for a greater understanding of the company and its success. This book was a fun read. A great view of the roots of SAP. I loved the story about the founders, who had no computer of their own in 1972, traveling to use other companies computers. While I wonder if some of this is slightly exaggerated. I still loved discovering the quirky fivesome who founded the software giant.

This book will give you a decent of idea of how SAP was created, its strengths, and its culture. If you want to learn a little about SAP and how it has gotten to where it is this is a book that will give that to you.

On the other hand, the quality of writing and the style of the writing, I found lacking. In the end of the book, the author claims that interviews with key players were used in writing of the book. That did not show however in the book. It seemed as if all the information was compiled from articles. A decent telling of the SAP story, but by no means a great book.

How did Gerd Meissner manage to dig so very deep into the inner workings of this german software empire ? Most interesting history and a fascinating business case wrapped in a brilliantly written documentary.

The book intrigues by its depth, due to unprecedented access to people inside the company. Good reading.