Reflections on SAP eCommerce Certification

“I like it. Not a lot. I don’t like it.”  Gru from Despicable Me 3

Today’s post is brought to you by my 5 and 7 year old grandchildren who expose me to the most important cultural trends worth knowing. 

The world is about to find out that Corevist has recently received SAP certification for our SAP B2B eCommerce solution.  It’s something that we’ve been contemplating since the day we founded the company in 2008.  Back then, we decided that as a startup we didn’t need to make the certification investment but when we got into growth mode we would have to pull the trigger.  Well, I guess we’re now officially in growth mode because six months ago we decided the time had come to make the investment and today we’re certified.  I want to publicly thank Damian DellaVecchia and Ray Mannion for leading our certification charge.

Woohoo!

I like it

SAP certifying our solution is great news for our clients, prospective clients and partners.  While we’ve always made sure that our solution would be upgrade safe (we support from R/3 4.6 to ECC 6.0 and we’re working on S/4 Hana) this stamp of approval from SAP takes the worry out of the equation for everyone.  That’s important because as we grow our company we’re starting to work with companies that are less “adventuresome”.  Our clients are not only looking for an alternative to SAP hybris’s cost and complexity, they are also looking for a safe solution.  Well…now they have one.  Thanks SAP for giving our clients and partners the freedom to talk to us in public.  Your endorsement means a lot to us…and them!

Not a lot

It’s a pretty grueling (pun intended) and expensive process to get SAP certified.  That’s why we put it off for so many years.  I would much rather spend the time and money delivering real value to our clients as opposed to simply paying the “SAP tax”.  Granted we did take the opportunity to refactor some of our ABAP code in preparation for certification so I guess we are somewhat better off :-).

I don’t like it

SAP’s schizophrenic mixed messages drives me crazy.

Partner friendly to them means pushing their latest and greatest and never disagreeing with them.  I get it.  Everyone wants to make a buck.  But shouldn’t that start with listening to clients and providing them solutions that they can digest based on their unique requirements?  If your latest and greatest fits…then wonderful!  If not, ignoring them or worse…suing them…just doesn’t make sense to me at all.

You want to build an application on Hana?  SAP loves you.

You want to fill in market gaps that the hybris platform can’t fill?  SAP hates you.

You want to integrate with S/4 Hana?  SAP loves you.

You want to support ECC clients?  SAP hates you.

SAP has done nothing, and I suspect will continue to do nothing, to help Corevist grow.  In fact, it’s just the opposite.  They seem to be doing their best to take unfair advantage of their monopoly position in the market to make it difficult for all of us “partners”.  Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not whining.  I believe in Corevist’s mission of providing the SAP B2B market a world class eCommerce solution without the world class cost, complexity or effort.  We deliver on that mission every day and the great news is that we have plenty of world class companies that appreciate our efforts.  With that said, I don’t have to like the fact that I’m paying SAP a lot of our hard earned money just so that I can have a line item on an RFP checked off.

I like it. Not a lot. I don’t like it.

But the fact is that I am now an SAP Certified solution!  :-)

Onward.

Sam