This week SAP expanded the ability of StreamWork, its enterprise 2.0 software-as-a-service, to integrate with other enterprise SAP software. StreamWork released its enterprise edition in December. Up to now its integrations have included SaaS offerings such as Box, Doodle, Evernote, Google Apps, MindMeister and Scribd. Integrating with other enterprise-class SAP software is a major step forward for StreamWork.
SAP bill StreamWork as a “collaborative decision making” (CDM) solution. Instead of generalized discussions, the software is specifically structured for decisions through the use of pro/con tables, SWOT analyses, and polls and other tools. That may help it stand-out in an increasingly crowded space, if SAP is able to communicate what StreamWork actually does and how, which it so far hasn’t been very successful in doing.
For those of us that follow enterprise technology, SAP’s choice to integrate with software like Evernote before more enterprise type software was somewhat surprising. Sameer Patel of the Sovos Group wrote in March: “Trying to be relevant / hip / cool, SAP is looking to get its mojo back in its old age.” He contrasted this with younger companies like Jive, SocialText, NewsGator and Moxie which are all trying to be taking seriously by large enterprises. He likened SAP to a man having a mid-life crisis and the younger companies to kids wearing suits.
Patel is probably at least part right. My take is that StreamWork is aimed at both SMBs and large enterprises. The enterprise version of SAP, which introduced LDAP and ActiveDirectory integration, just shipped in December. The first set of partnerships were clearly SMB-oriented because that’s the market StreamWork was ready for. However, it certainly has taken SAP a while to get those enterprise-class integrations ready. But now that it’s ready to integrate with the SAP stack, watch for SAP to finally be competitive in the large enterprise social software space.
