UPDATED 08:31 EDT / JUNE 15 2012

A Busy Week at SAP: Social Investments, Trial Delays and HANA’s Anniversary

SAP seems to be having a busy week. The company announced social improvements to its StreamWork collaboration solution. SAP integrated Mikogo, a desktop sharing and meeting tool, into StreamWork, which will enable users to host web conferences or share content without leaving SAP. In addition, SAP released a new StreamWork Brainstorming iPad app to iTunes that helps users structure their brainstorming process. As with the new social features, users don’t have exit SAP StreamWorks to use access the brainstorming features, which is consistent with SAP’s strategy of integrating social and collaboration directly into user work streams.

In addition to the social updates to StreamWork, SAP also announced two new initiatives for entrepreneurs and small and midsize businesses. SAP has partnered with Endeavor, an organization established in 1997 to mentor and accelerate the growth of startups in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, to create an analytical dashboard that visualizes the impact of entrepreneurs in Endeavor’s portfolio on their community. Endeavor is using SAP’s Crystal Dashboard Design software to analyze revenue and job creation data across countries, industry sectors and company sizes to measure and depict the economic and social impact of its entrepreneurs.

SAP has also partnered with Ashoka Changemakers, an association that provides assists social entrepreneurs with mentoring and funding, to sponsor a global online competition, “The Power of Small: Entrepreneurs Strengthening Local Economies.” Participants must submit solutions for providing entrepreneurs the infrastructure they need to support their growth. The contest runs from June 20 – September 5 and will award four winners $10,000, a technology donation and networking opportunities with SAP executives and customers at the SAP SAPPHIRE NOW conference.

Although SAP is taking time to invest in social good, the company isn’t neglecting business matters. SAP’s CTO, Vishal Sikka, reaffirmed SAP’s ERP software will be running on its in-memory database, HANA, by the end of 2012. HANA has now been generally available for a year as of this week and exceeding original revenue forecasts by 100 percent. According to Sikka, the platform currently has over 350 customers, although, only 150 have completed an implementation – the rest are still piloting HANA. Earlier this month, IDC reported SAP had the fastest rate of revenue growth in relational database market largely due to the rapid growth of HANA. Monday, June 18, SAP is holding an event to celebrate HANA one-year anniversary, which will be broadcast live over the web.

In less cheerful news, the SAP-Oracle trial that was scheduled to kick-off on June 18 has been delayed because of a conflict for Oracle’s (very busy) legal team. SAP already admitted liability for illegal downloads of Oracle software and support materials by a former subsidiary, TomorrowNow. A jury in the first trial awarded Oracle US$1.3 billion, but that award was set aside. Oracle declined to accept a lower amount and opted for a new trial arguing for damages.


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