Some observations this week at the big SAP show in Philadelphia, SAPPHIRE '99:
Besides the global introduction of SAP's new MySAP.com portal for e-commerce, Citrix had a very modest booth at the show. In fact, I really had to hunt for it among the many Vegas style booths. They were in the back, non-descript little booth, 3 people wearing shirts, handing out CD's and literature. This from "the" player in thin-client, server-based computing? Hmmm....
So I asked them "what's Citrix going to be doing in the big vendor space with SAP, now that SAP has "gone Internet?" Hasso Plattner, Chair and CEO I understand is personally responsible for the MySAP.com initiative and made the keynote to explain it. It places SAP squarely in the web with XML connections out the backend to other companies for supply chain and B2B e-commerce. Cool stuff if they can really pull it all off.
Citrix replied that they cannot publicly reveal impending plans for SAP, but that I should keep an eye on the press for important announcements forthcoming about how Citrix will be co-releasing new functionality to enhance SAP and it's interfaces. I asked them for any specifics but they demurred. Still, they went on to explain that the client will need to view many things besides SAPGUI (SAP agrees on that) and that with byproduct from their acquisition of ViewSoft, they will have tremendous flexibility in distributing client side processing of software for things not yet seen in today's models - oh, and ICA will not be the transport.
Very interesting. Particularly if you look at Windows CE devices, the push that SAP will be making to equip these little demons with powerful data form SAP systems, etc.
I mention all this because the small booth at SAPPHIRE really struck me as contrived. I think there is something really big brewing for our friends at CTXS in the prestigious B2B space. The irony of it is, I was excited by this contrast in their presence. They didn't want to make a big statement here, now. Maybe they were just burned out from iForum99. Could be there's nothing to it and Citrix really has a declining role in the ERP space. But my gut told me otherwise. Then again, CTXS soft-pedaled the Linux thing at iForum as well, when clearly much work has been and is being done. Guess who else has plans for Linux? FWIW.
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