News Analysis: Hasso Brings More Changes to SAP's Management Team


New Changes Hint At Hasso's Priorities
In a not surprising update, SAP makes changes to Executive Board and management.  Here are the changes:

  • Gerhard Oswald becomes COO. Gerhard has experiences in support, consulting, education, custom development, and quality.Gerhard's contract has been extended till December 31, 2011.
    Point of View (POV)
    :  Gerhard's been a long-timer at SAP with 30 years of experience.  He replaces Erwin Gunst who's been out for almost a year with medical issues.  SAP needs a strong COO in place and Gerhard has the credibility and experience to execute.  Hasso's putting a trusted lieutenant in charge.
  • John Schwarz resigns. The former BOBJ leader leaves.  He was responsible for SAP BusinessObjects, Ecosystem and Corp Dev.
    POV:
    After being passed up for the CEO job, it was obvious that John would be leaving.  Expect many of the BOBJ members in product management,  product marketing, and development to be reshuffled as their support will be shifted.  Those who didn't fight hard for embedding T-Rex (inMem) and pushing out "Timeless Software" may be most impacted.
  • Peter Lorenz named as a corporate officer. Peter currently is the Executive Vice President for Small and Mid-size Enterprise (SME).  He reports to Jim Hagemann Snabe.
    POV:
    The corporate officer position serves as an extended board member role.  This hints at the importance of SME to SAP's strategy.  SAP also needs to build bench strength in SME.

The Bottom Line - SAP's Making Big Changes.
Hasso's acting fast to make changes.  John Schwarz will be missed by many of the BOBJ team. Expect a ripple of changes as the management shake out finalizes over the next 8 to 12 weeks.   Look for new product road maps to arrive prior to Sapphire 2010.
Your POV
Are you an SAP customer?   How do you feel about the transition?  Would you like to learn more about:

  • Building a next gen SAP roadmap?
  • Improving your SAP apps strategy?
  • Augmenting SAP with SaaS?
  • Putting third party maintenance and optimization to work?

Please post or send on to rwang0 at gmail dot com or r at softwaresinsider dot org and we’ll keep your anonymity.

Related Links And Resources
Official SAP Press Release

Here's a list of related reports.
20100114 News Analysis: SAP Revives Two-Tier Maintenance Options
20091211 Event Report: 2009 SAP Influencer Summit - SAP Must Put Strategy To Execution In Order To Prove Clarity Of Vision
20091125 Speaker Notes: Keynote - SAP UK & Ireland User Group Conference 2009
Here’s a list of related links of news during Léo's tenure.  They will be added on an ongoing basis and updated as appropriate.

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