Last week I attended Sybase‘s annual analyst summit. The first since the formal SAP acquisition was jam packed with customer case studies and company high points. One of the key points Sybase aimed at conveying was its continued independence and focus on development as well as its complementary nature to SAP. With the following being the main focus of messaging surrounding the acquisition, it becomes possible to surmise long-term focus of the venture:
- Database and analytical database capabilities that now give SAP the ability to provide customers with a full BI platform outside the scope of SAP and SAPBW users.
- Mobile technologies and the ability to SAP to leverage that market and integrate its applications within a mobile infrastructure.
Both of these areas highlight the benefits of the Sybase acquisition to SAP and showcases where they will continue their focus in relation to development efforts and providing products and services to their current and future customer base. General messaging centered around the complementary nature of both companies and their ability to build out cohesive offerings due to their previous collaboration (integration capabilities), and lack of overlap in regards to general product offerings.
When looking at BI specifically, as mentioned above, SAP can now provide an overall BI solution that can be deployed independently of SAP only data. With 20% of cross over customers and Business Objects being Sybase’s largest front-end partner in terms of adoption, it remains to be seen how other partnerships will continue or maintain their presence over time. What can be said is that for Business Objects companies looking for stronger analytics and the integration of a columnar data warehouse, the acquisition may be of benefit.
Overall, due to the previous integration capabilities between BI solutions, integration efforts needed are far from robust. The benefits of this include the ability to take advantage of a full BI offering without having to wait years for proper integration to exist.
