The tune is different, the atmosphere is humble, but the reward is tangible.
At its peak, SAPTeched‘s # of attendees was over 10k, this time it’s about ~3500.
To our surprise, no top, legendary SAP board members showed up. Maybe SAP was testing water with its new generations of executives. If they work, great; if not, damage was limited.
Nevertheless the keynote by Ray Kurzweil was fantastic. The evidences of exponential growth in IT and in value provided by IT is in tune with Adventier’s belief about future.
During his “Timeless software” keynote Vishal Sikka and his team conducted an interesting demo: leveraging unstructured data analyzer to work ERP software.
I wrote about a similar idea in an internal SAP business proposal 4 years ago; then in 2006, after I left SAP, I started XGNSOFT with a few friends. In our business plan, we also had a plan developing a PC-based intelligent agent to enhance a variety of enterprise experiences. At the time, SAP product development cycle is about 3 years for any approved business plan. We thought we could do it faster through XGNSOFT. Now 3-4 years later, SAP beats me handsomely. It’s a lesson learned. But no regrets, I’m only more excited about next round of innovations. As Ray Kurzweil pointed out, the speed of innovation is exponential, so there will always be more opportunities in the future!
Two years ago, a friend asked me what I dreamed of doing. I said next generation of ERP. We both laughed, it was a joke. Actually I wasn’t joking.
Finally, during #SAPTechEd 2009, I gladly learned that SAP is moving GRC to BI platforms. This was precisely my idea. I had spoken to many customers and SAP executives about it. I’m glad they are doing it. But there is much more to be done.
We have several other ideas cooking. This time, we are ready to tackle it ourselves…
Eric Kang, 11/1/2009, on the road driving to the heartland of America …
