Compliance, risk and governance might not be the sexiest topics at your next cocktail party, but they're at the epicenter of much of today's business process management. SAP has been building up their focus on compliance and governance. Unlike today's other presentations, Doug Merritt's overview of the Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) business had the weight of metrics behind it. Nothing gets an analyst's ears perked up more than cold hard numbers; something we were all craving after the first four presentations.
Takeaways from Merritt
- GRC ASPs increased 63% year-on-year
- GRC is experiencing 15% quarter-over-quarter customer growth (2,000 GRC customers)
- Installed based has doubled in the last six months
- Additional modules added since Sapphire (May)
- Product Compliance
- Environmental, Health and Safety
- FDA Prototype
- Emissions Management
- Risk Management [pilot]
- Global Trade Services
- Process Control
- GRC Repository
- Cisco and SAP working on delivery of network-aware applications
Shai Agassi's Discussion
Shai didn't have many slides, but rather spoke for awhile about the importance of crossing the chasm and driving SOA adoption into the enterprise. Agassi articulated the goal of having 10,000 SAP customers live on BPP by the end of 2007, which is a massively aggressive goal [Jeff agrees its aggressive but also cautions against counting out his former employer]. Dan Farber does an excellent job of summarizing Shai's keynote, so rather than regurgitate the same things, I'll just point you to Dan's writeup.
- SAP Crossing the Chasm in 2007 [Dan Farber, ZDNet]
Note: At the time of this writing I, and/or funds I maintain discretionary control over, maintained long equity positions in CSCO, MSFT and SAP. We did not maintain a position, long or short, in ORCL. We also may, at times, carry derivative options on underlying positions as a hedge.
sap grc investor symposium strategy shai agassi soa software irregulars erp woodrow
Jason,
Thanks for the summary.
Thought your comment over at accmanpro was prescient. http://www.accmanpro.com/2006/12/05/sap-makes-strange-sounds/#comment-34783
I ran the field rollout of Virsa last year in EMEA NEWS (That is europe without the German speaking bits and benelux) GRC is simply the right solution at the right time. This space is so much more than just SOX. (I've written lots on this in the past) The concepts and the business case are compelling. It resonates with CFOs and the line, not just IT.
I'm v impressed with Doug, coming in from PeopleSoft to a leadership role at SAP is tough, and he has coped really well.
Posted by: Thomas Otter | December 06, 2006 at 07:19 AM