[UPDATED]. Apologies. This used to be a quick, irreverent overview of the brand-new cloud-based, software-as-a-service ERP offering from SAP, featuring the graphics you can see above.

But the video was declared off-brand, and has been deleted from YouTube by SAP. The following video is offered instead, with all of the original humor deleted.

You can now sign up to be a beta participant of SAP’s 12sprints project, “a collaborative environment for people to make better decisions based on data” or a “people-connecting, data-sharing, decision-making tool that actually sets work in motion.”

Early versions of the prototype were glimpsed during demonstrations by Léo Apotheker and Ian Kimbell at SAP SAPPHIRE in Berlin last year, and by Marge Breya at SAP TechEd in Vienna, and the project is now letting people sign up for pre-beta access to the prototype.

Beta users will get access to a “virtual war room” with various types of decision-making tools available. According to the www.12sprints.com site:

“It’s not just a place where things get discussed. It’s where things get done. Invite the right people. Bring in the pertinent data. And choose the most informed course of action with the help of pre-defined, interactive decision-making tools. It’s all built in. Everything you need to get everyone on the same page — finally under one roof.”

Marge Breya recently repeated her SAP Tech Ed demo for Information Week’s Fritz Nelson, with a scenario based on people collaborating on go-to-market strategy after a new company has been acquired:

“…[it’s] about a purpose-driven experience, and the user gets to design it. So I can set up my own purpose whenever I want, invite the people I want, and get the exact data I want and expertise at my fingertips.”

Marge is invited to review the current decision goal, timeline, data etc.

Marge decides that she disagrees with the current plan, so enters a new negative opinion:

And uses another labs project called “Kona”, the next generation of on-demand business intelligence, to get the data she needs:

Here’s the full video:

And here’s Fritz’s commentary:

“We began with 12 Sprints, which I can best describe as a collaborative workspace, with a combination of project management and data sharing. You can pull in rich data feeds and share knowledge and make decisions, all in real time. In some ways, it resembles the modern Wiki. Where we explored other tools that help find and analyze data, 12 Sprints is where you would bring the most pertinent information back for team decision making.”

“Both 12 Sprints and Kona are cloud-based applications, run by SAP. Neither are available today, but both are expected to enter beta testing in November, with full release set for the first quarter (Kona) and first half (12 Sprints) of 2010.”

Business intelligence used to be called “decision support systems”, but the tools available have typically focused on gathering information, not the real-world collaboration required to turn that data into actual decisions and actions.

But that’s changing rapidly. According to Gartner:

“2009, Collaborative Decision Making will emerge as a new product category that combines social software with BI platform capabilities”

If you’re interested in finding out more, you can get news by following the 12sprints team on Twitter or by signing up to be one of the first to get exclusive access to the beta.

The last few months has seen a lot of coverage of SAP’s directions on Web 2.0 technology including on-demand applications, social networking, and cloud computing. Here are some highlights, in the words of the leaders of these initiatives at SAP.

On-Demand

Phil Wainewright reported on SAP executive VP John Wookey’s presentation at the OnDemand Europe Conference in June:

“On demand is the next stage in the evolution of application development … It is absolutely essential from SAP’s perspective that we embrace this change,” he said. “On-demand is what our customers are looking to invest in. If we do our job well and listen to our customers, these are the applications we have to be delivering. We have to drive to leadership in on-demand applications.”

Here’s a video of John Wookey and Mani Gil, Vice President of OnDemand at SAP BusinessObjects, discussing the conference:

Here’s a copy of John’s presentation:

Links

• Wall Street Journal: SAP to Make Online Software Push
• Financial Times: SAP reshapes strategy for online software
• Mary Hayes Weier of Information Week: SAP Unveils SaaS Strategy
• Dennis Howlett: SAP’s John Wookey: the task ahead

Social Networking

A podcast from SearchSAP.com on how SAP’s Web 2.0 strategy makes way for social networking in business apps

“In that light, SearchSAP.com sat down with Zia Yusuf, executive vice president of SAP’s global ecosystem and partner group, and Mark Yolton, senior vice president of SAP community networks. In addition to managing strategy for SAP’s social networking sites like the SAP Developer Network (SDN), the two men play a role in what social networking tools may be integrated into SAP’s own software.

In this podcast, Yusuf and Yolton talk about SAP’s internal Web 2.0 strategy, including why sites like SDN have been successful and how SAP’s employees are using tools like Jive and CubeTree in their daily tasks. In turn, they discuss possible business scenarios in which tools like Twitter and LinkedIn could be integrated into SAP software.”

Cloud Computing

Information Week: SAP Sheds Light On Cloud Computing Plans

“In a keynote address and interview at the Interop Conference and Expo in Las Vegas on Tuesday, [SAP CTO Vishal Sikka] broadly outlined SAP’s cloud computing strategy and discussed the technical and business challenges the company needs to solve before doing things like ramping up the number of customers served by Business ByDesign.

SAP sees its opportunities in the cloud — which it seems to define very broadly as all Internet-based services — as threefold for now: enabling “business network service clouds” like iTunes that are powered by SAP Business Suite and Business Objects, complementary and integrated cloud-based services from SAP likeCRM On-Demand, and a mission-critical business application suite in Business ByDesign.”

Vishal’s slides:

Videos of Vishal talking about on current SAP strategy and technology trends:

Also see Vishal’s Timeless Software Blog.

In a recent interview with SearchSAP.com’s news editor Courtney Bjorlin, SAP’s CTO Vishal Sikka explained that mobile applications, the cloud and virtualization will be key technologies in SAP’s product roadmap. Here are some key excerpts from the article:

Entire economies going mobile in the next several years and companies running almost exclusively on mobile environments. So the way in which people access and support those applications will become increasingly important.

All of this technology fits into four categories: constructing the applications, delivering them, customers consuming them, and ensuring the change and lifecycle management of those applications.

SAP’s product roadmap is to continue to establish a framework for consuming these technologies in a way that doesn’t disrupt customers.

SAP customers want applications delivered in the cloud, but they don’t want to sacrifice the functionality they get from their on-premise applications.

More and more customers are running SAP in a virtual environment, and more want to do so.

Vishal Sikka’s Timelessness Blog: http://vishalsikka.blogspot.com/ for more about his vision of Timeless Software