 "Vishal's departure from SAP may hit customer confidence: Analysts")
German business software maker SAP AG said Vishal Sikka, head of products and innovation, has stepped down and that it had named two new members to its executive board.
Sikka was leaving SAP for personal reasons with immediate effect, the company said in a statement on Sunday. A computer scientist by training, Sikka was key in developing SAP’s flagship product, Hana, which helps firms analyse large amounts of data quickly, and bringing it to market.
[caption id=“attachment_75319” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]
 Reuters[/caption]
Sikka joined the company in 2002 as head of its technology group and was appointed Chief Technology Officer in 2007. He has been a member of the executive board since 2010.
Sanchit Vir Gogia, Chief Analyst & CEO of Greyhound Research says, “Vishal’s departure from SAP is unfortunate - he has been the key anchor for the HANA platform and has played a critical role in the move to integrate all apps to the platform. While the platform has surely reached stability and is a mature solution in the market, SAP has had trouble in driving sales for both the platform and its related cloud services. This departure is critical since post the failure of SAP to sell ByDesign, HANA is effectively the only new innovation the company has been betting big hopes on. Vishal is an innovator and such a sudden decision to depart the company only mounts worries about the company’s taste of success with the platform. The timing of the move is also critical - this is happening as Bill (McDermott) emerges as a sole CEO shortly and is expected to have his own set of leadership. This among other sources of confusion doesn’t help shaky customer confidence.”
SAP, based in Walldorf, southern Germany, also said it named Robert Enslin and Bernd Leukert to its executive board. Enslin will continue to lead global customer operations and Leukert will assume responsibility for the global development organisation, the company said. SAP also appointed Helen Arnold, who will assume the role of Chief Information Officer, and Stefan Ries, who will lead human resources, to its global managing board.
Vishal’s departure indicates a greater change at SAP, finds R “Ray” Wang, Principal Analyst & Founder, Constellation Research. He feels many will see this as Shai Agassi part 2 (Agassi was President of the Products and Technology Group (PTG) at SAP AG until 2007.). Wang shares the deeper changes:
1. The shift from platform focus to a growing set of apps focus with Leukert
2. Board composition is changing. We would not be surprised if Bill McDermott will be named sole CEO soon
3. Power is shifting at the board level. Hasso’s (Hasso Plattner, SAP Co-founder) influence may be changing as at one point Vishal was supposed to be a candidate for CEO
“This should make for an interesting SapphireNow,” Wang says, speaking of SAP’s annual SAP user group conference and must-visit for thousands of leading SAP practitioners, users, and partners every year. SapphireNow takes place in less than a month, in Orlando, Florida.
With inputs from Reuters
 "Russian drones over Poland: Trump’s tepid reaction a wake-up call for Nato?")
 "As Russia pushes east, Ukraine faces mounting pressure to defend its heartland")
 "Why Mossad was not on board with Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar")
 "Turkey: Erdogan's police arrest opposition mayor Hasan Mutlu, dozens officials in corruption probe")
 "Russian drones over Poland: Trump’s tepid reaction a wake-up call for Nato?")
 "As Russia pushes east, Ukraine faces mounting pressure to defend its heartland")
 "Why Mossad was not on board with Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar")
 "Turkey: Erdogan's police arrest opposition mayor Hasan Mutlu, dozens officials in corruption probe")
](https://images.firstpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/SAP380.jpg){kind=link}