Strategy Shift Led To Agassi's Resignation

On 28 March 2007, SAP announced that Shai Agassi, president of the Product & Technology Group - who appeared to be next in line to become the CEO - is leaving the company. Leo Apotheker, currently president of Customer Solutions & Operations, will become deputy CEO and will now be first in line to become chief executive.

Research firm Gartner believes that the change in leadership reflects an ongoing change to a parallel, multi-product strategy.

Agassi was SAP’s technology visionary and internal change agent. The foundation of this vision was the development of the NetWeaver middleware platform, and a portfolio of enterprise services.

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According to Gartner, this strategy has changed over the past year and SAP will focus more on delivering a portfolio of products, rather than a single product with a focused strategy.

NetWeaver will remain the technology foundation of these multiple products and SAP will continue to support its flagship MySAP product.

Gartner believes that differences of opinion about this strategy shift, along with other issues about the succession of the CEO, attributed to Agassi’s resignation.

The research firm recommends that MySAP customers continue to make planned investments and those thinking about MySAP should seek further clarity on the product strategy, as well as new offerings planned by SAP.