Great X-pollination by #Google on the Chromebook release to boost Productivity and lower $.

In case this news went under the radar for most of us, well we won't miss it as one opens a new tab in Google Chrome and get greeted by the "Get a Chromebook for the Holidays" advertising message.  People kept saying how Google doesn't get anything right beyond Ad-based search, but here's a new attempt to monetize on a gap in the PC/laptop market full of bloatware devices built on the 90's assumptions regarding user productivity and IT management.  Probably the biggest competitor to the Chromebook will not be in the PC / Laptop category, rather the Tablets (read: iPad onslaught in the consumer and business markets).

Here comes the elevator pitch for the businesses why to use Chromebook:

Price tag for the consumption of Chromebook is set around 28-30$ / month for 3 year contract, after which they let you keep the device.  That summs up to 1100$ over the full life, where as I wonder how much % the HW vendors get out of and what remains for Google.  Certainly sounds like a very good margin goes to googleplex.  And that's probably refreshingly new to see from the previous GTM approaches to flood the market with FREE apps, tools, mobile OS to as many users as possible, but rather take a page from Apple's market success with iPhone / iPad.  Even the outer shell design of the Samsung Chromebook looks inspired a bit by the Macbook.

Regardless of how IT giants recycle and borrow ideas, what I find fascinating with this Chromebook release is the cross-pollination of lot of good, individual products and services into a new end-to-end experience for users and IT in all stages - from finding about Chromebook to starting to use and to continue to love it.  It's just great to see a product that cuts across organizational silos, simplifies the architecture and layers inbetween, and applies design thinking principles across all phases while challenging assumptions of the past.

P.S.  Oh, if you need that mission critical desktop app like SAPGUI 7.20 in your enterprise to run, HTML5 Citrix^®Receiver is also available from the Chrome Web Store. 

Not Your Father's SAP NetWeaver - Perspectives from #SAPTechEd 2011

The highlight of the event were the two keynotes given by Jim Snabe and Vishal Sikka.  Both of them were at the top of their inspiration, giving great metaphors and proof-points on SAP’s 3-pronged strategy of innovation on top of our Core in various industries from Healthcare to Consumer Goods (and all done in the middle of major EU crisis).  Simple and catchy message of E=mc(imc²) did certainly stick with customers, where the Enterprise value is to be measured by the cross pollination of investments in Mobility x Cloud x In-Memory Computing.  Backed by two hip customer showcases of Skullcandy with presenter rolling on stage on a skateboard, and Red Bull with presenters dressed as Formula 1 crew – left lot of folks with impression that “this is not your father’s SAP” of the past.

Now where does SAP NetWeaver fit into this picture?  Let’s start with Björn Goerke’s rundown of the NW highlights: 

• Portal as the UI hub is 10,000+ installations strong, and seen by Gartner as “Leader” in the Magic Quadrant
• jPaaS BETA announced as Project “River” – showcasing Cloud adoption across our platform
• NetWeaver 7.3 gets HANA support for the 16,000+ BW systems – showcased by Red Bull

The UI Strategy and HTML5@SAP were one of the well attended pods & sessions.  Good summary in a post by an SAP mentor DJ Adams:

I learned that the library is built upon jQuery. So SAP are avoiding the NIH syndrome, that’s good. But there were other attendees that were questioning SAP’s decision to build Yet Another Javascript Ui Library. At the very least, the model implementation of the library’s MVC framework gives the wily Javascript hacker a head-start on using and consuming Gateway services. And in my opinion that’s the deal. Yes, we have a very nice UI library (and no, it’s not available until 2Q12, before you ask!) but we also have code that speaks the language of thousands of front-end developers on the one hand, and eases the connection to the proprietary back-end on the other.

Moving onto insights from various session on SAP NetWeaver Business Client, Page Builder, Side Panel, there's been lot of customer demand to make these user productivity capabilities available in lower releases.

Portal got also lot of attention this TechEd and one can feel the “renaissance” of topics and initiatives presented from Portal Mobile, Portal On Demand all the way to Portal 7.3 On Premise and Enterprise Workspaces.  One interesting spotlight was on the Portal On Demand as a new product coming in the first half of 2012.

Customer session on the first reported experiences of using SAP NetWeaver Gateway and OData enablement at Adidas for an iPad mobile solution on top of SAP CRM showed:

• Easy to set up, steep learning curve.  Feed-based protocol easy to understand and to debug
• Extensibility of standard services limited.  Custom developed services (OData Channel) required for customer-specific data retrieval and high performance
• Ramp Up means lots of new functionality and bug fixes through service packs (positive and negative). However, gives opportunity for being one step ahead.

All in all, SAP NetWeaver is back on track as a platform that has definitely improved its perception in the market since it’s revival at the last year’s TechEd and further confirming it this year.  Through cross-pollination inside the NetWeaver capabilities (e.g. Gateway, Portal, NW UI) and with the SAP’s 3-pronged strategy for Cloud, Mobile and In-memory, SAP NetWeaver can break new records in 2012.

More in-depth coverage of the technology event hightlights brought by Matthias Steiner:

• SAP HANA - Technology Innovation at SAPPHIRE NOW
• Announcing: Project “River” / jPaaS BETA

Voice-enabled Apps to shape the next practices of User Experience

What's all the "noise" about Voice-enabled apps, when your GPS device is still annoying the heck out of you while driving?

First, let's take a look at study from KPCB on the Internet Trends in 2011 predicting Noise, I mean Voice... to be the next "Touch" experience for the masses!

 

Not convinced yet? Here's Siri in action, your new Personal Mobile Assistant. Unlike your GPS assistant, this one allegedly works, has a flare of personality, will keep improving based on all the collected data, and will be open to 3rd party developers.

OK, so your browser or touch-based apps go from thumb to voice, but why is this such a game changer?

The idea is that Siri can take a user straight to an application and bypass Google or Microsoft intermediaries on the way to delivering your answers for weather, food, maps, entertainment content, and a few other things. Sounds like what Gadgets / Widgets / Dashboards were / are promising to do for the Web (and out-task the browser or search engine), yet I still use both complementary worlds in my daily work (and Google continues to thrive).

How applicable is Voice in the enterprise context? There were attempts in the past at least at SAP to build Voice composite apps. Some partners here and there, so the big questions remain what those killer use cases and scenarios for the m As one of the top analyst puts it: “The big thing to watch is the Siri integration … If it works well and is well integrated (as you would expect from Apple), it could very well be a game-changer.”

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