SAP Web 2.0 » Acquisition

SAP Acquires SkyData for Agility and Mobility

Timo Elliott — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:38:50 +0000

On May 25th 2009, SAP acquired innovative startup Skydata, a new type of business mobile “mashup” application that provides fast and easy access to all your business data on RIM, Windows Mobile and Apple iPhone devices.

The company is part of SAP’s long-term strategy to support the new “business users” who need to access information from multiple systems easily and intuitively.

As SkyData company founder and CEO, Kevin Nix, puts it:

“The problem is not that we don’t have data – we have a lot of data. The issue is access. SkyData is the first mobile business application that integrates all of this information together. The business information I need, when I need it. That’s SkyData.”

SkyData offers SkyData connects CRM, back office, newsfeeds, social networking and business profiling information so that any of this information is a quick click away during a phone call, email, text message or calendar event.

It unifies personal and business networks ranging from Outlook address books, Google and Yahoo contacts, Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo and Jigsaw business networks, and finally formal CRM applications such as Salesforce.com, SugarCRM, Microsoft and NetSuite. The SkyData application runs on most RIM Blackberry, Windows Mobile, and Apple iPhone devices on AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile USA and Sprint networks.

According to Brad Reed of Network World,

“One of the application’s key features is that it keeps data within the cloud to be pushed out to devices, rather than requiring employees to log on to a Web browser to extract it. In other words, SkyData is a distributed Web application that brings data to the user, rather than having the user get the data themselves.

“The result will be an increase in more collaborative computing that will allow more users to make direct decisions in corporate projects, and not have to rely on typical top-down approaches where only project managers get to call the shots.”

SkyData was featured at DEMO 2008:

“It’s the holy grail of mobile computing: distribute corporate data to mobile devices on demand. A simple goal bounded by complex and expensive, IT-intensive projects and a diverse array of mobile devices. SkyData Systems has altered that dynamic, moving data into the cloud and making it available to any device in a fast, affordable and self-managed service. In effect, SkyData is doing for corporate data stores what RIM did for business email: make it easily accessible anywhere it’s needed.”

Here’s an overview of the main SkyData features, from the now-retired web site.

Search Across all your Enterprise Applications

Michael Hickins of BNET has written about SAP’s plans.

“SAP is determined to hold onto its large enterprise customers by offering them on-demand software that complements their existing on-premise SAP implementations. That’s something Salesforce.com can’t promise, even though such links could be achieved with custom integration work.”

“According to [Shailesh Rao, the senior vice president of SAP’s large enterprise on-demand software division], SkyData technology provides a “very unique way of aggregating data regardless of what form it’s in,” and said that SAP will integrate use that technology to change how it delivers software to smartphones.”

One thing SkyData has to offer in this area is mobile enterprise search. For example, at minute 4:00 of the DEMO video above:

“At this point, SkyData is doing a structured search across all of my personal and business contacts and related information, so I don’t have to go to 29 different places. The information is right there, and it’s tied to this opportunity.”

And the SkyData search box will do a scan of structured and unstructured data across all your applications:

“It’s not just Google search – databases, newsfeeds, profiles, and I get a complete list”

This obviously fits in with SAP’s long-term strategy around information integration and access, including the SAP BusinessObjects portfolio and SAP Netweaver.

Links:

Skydata Integrates Everything, Put it On a Smartphone

SkyData to Offer Unified Personal & Business Networks

SAP Getting Agile and Mobile

SAP’s New Cloud Platform

Timo Elliott — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 16:22:51 +0000

SAP has purchased a cloud computing company, Coghead, a “next generation platform for building web applications.”

The vendor was struggling in the current economic climate, SAP Ventures had previously invested in the company, and the company already offered integration with SAP environments. “SAP is one of the premier tech companies in the world and we’re really happy this transaction took place,” said Coghead CEO Paul McNamara in an interview with InformationWeek.

Coghead will cease operations, and SAP will not be supporting existing customers, but will integrate many of Coghead’s employees.

A Platform For the Future

Coghead provided a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) that allowed its customers to build applications over the web, using an Adobe-Flex-based environment, hosted in Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) Web service. It called the platform “the fastest and most efficient way to build and deliver applications in the cloud.”

As TechCrunch said in their early coverage of Coghead: “Every company in Silicon Valley wants to become a platform for other companies to build cool stuff on top of.” Customers had praised the platform for its flexibility, using language typically not associated with more mature application development environments from SAP and others:

Coghead works the way we work “We need applications that work the way we work, not the way a software vendor thinks we should work. Packaged software often ends up delivering more than we need in some areas and less than we want in others.” - Paul Fu, VP and CIO, Morrison Express
Coghead was the difference “Coghead wasn’t just the difference between creating my app directly myself or doing it by remote control through I.T. It was the difference between getting it done and launching it instead of watching the grass grow while it percolated high enough for I.T. to attack.” - Ron Dion, Housing Authority of the County of Alameda (HACA)
A revolution in business process applications “From the moment we made the leap to using Coghead actions, we knew that a revolution in business process applications was right in front of us.” - Govind Davis, MCF Tech
Say hello to software that works the way you need it to “Coghead provides a unique way to look at software, one that allows for total user control in design and functionality of your application. Say goodbye to one size fits all, say hello to software that works the way you need it to.” – Mark Palmer, PeopleWerx
Coghead is going to change the way developers create applications “I believe Coghead is going to change the way developers create applications and how business is done in the software application industry … The open architecture and flexible platform allows developers, consultants and programmers to build applications as they want it … I think there are a number of companies in this space but Coghead is a leader in this aspect.” – Derek Tay, Consultant, Photographer, Derek Tay Productions

Coghead Highlights

Example products page built with Coghead	Example opportunities screen
Drag and drop forms editing	Widgets, Data Structures & Functions
Create Workflows using the Action Editor	Custom Alerts with Variables

For more details on the Coghead platform and features:

Platform – In-depth look at the Coghead technology stack
Features – Comprehensive list of product features and capabilities
Screenshots – Visual tour of the Coghead user interface, editors and admin tools

The SAP Advantage: Cloud Computing with Enterprise Backup

The Coghead platform is now part of SAP’s product portfolio. According to Vishal Sikka, SAP CTO:

“Coghead was a true pioneer in platform-as-a-service and cloud computing in general. Coghead’s IP and expertise will help SAP in various aspects of our Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) technology and application initiatives. I have always seen delivery of application capabilities from cloud as a key component of the total capability we need to deliver to our customers.”

There has been no formal announcement as to how or whether SAP will be selling the product in the future. The existing Coghead service will continue through April, and customers are scrambling to download their data and find alternatives for their hosted applications.

Lack of long-term security is one of the often-cited dangers of cloud computing. As a prescient commentator said in 2007, as a comment to a Techcrunch note on Coghill: “I build a business on coghead then coghead goes bust – guess what happens to my business?”

SAP is now in the position of being able to combine flexible, easy cloud application development with the kind of robust backup expected from mature application vendors – it will be interesting to see what it does with this opportunity.