SAP Exec Sees Banks, Energy Leading 2010 Recovery

Companies in banking, energy, and manufacturing are starting to open up spending a bit as they begin to prepare for an economic turnaround, SAP executive John Schwarz said in a recent interview. As for acquisitions, many software companies are looking to be bought but have inflated views of their value.From the Wall Street Journal:

Of particular interest to Schwarz, who's a member of SAP's top-level Executive Committee, is SAP's resurgence in the white-hot business analytics space around its product line from Business Objects, where Schwarz had been CEO when SAP acquired the company last year for $6.8 billion. While SAP's longtime strength has been in automating business processes with its ERP applications, the Business Objects product set is intended to help SAP customers anticipate future trends and market opportunities.

In that context, it was interesting to see the Journal article say that SAP "has begun to build up [Business Objects'] sales force to recapture some lost momentum, particularly seeking out non-SAP clients."

If the sales force was broken up or weakened during the integration with SAP, wouldn't it make more sense for the rebuilt team to pursue SAP clients where the company already has established relationships and brand equity? Then again, could it be that SAP feels its traditional applications don't yet work as smoothly as it would like with the analytics software from Business Objects?

After noting that the rebuilt Business Objects will seek out non-SAP customers, the Journal article says that SAP "is developing tools to enable the analytics software to work more tightly with the process software."

Hmmm-so perhaps for at least the short term, SAP seems to be saying that the analytics software for which it paid $6.8 billion will work better outside the SAP ERP applications environment than in it.

No doubt that dynamic is front and center in the minds of Schwarz and other SAP Executive Committee members as they evaluate potential acquisitions that he told the Journal are plentiful right now.