SAP and Sybase Form New Mobile Business Unit in Response to Kevin's Blog Article

Last week I wrote an article, Do SAP and Sybase Recognize What is Happening?  to encourage SAP and Sybase to add resources to support the increasing demand for enterprise mobility within the SAP ecosystem.  I think Jim Hagemann Snabe and Bill McDermott (SAP's co-CEOs) must have read my blog.  At least that is what I tell myself.  This week SAP and Sybase announced a reorganization around mobility.  The stated purpose is to further support customers and facilitate the rapid adoption of enterprise mobility.

DUBLIN, Calif. and WALLDORF, Germany, Oct. 6 - In line with SAP's strategic growth plan, SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) and Sybase, an SAP company, today announced two key milestones in a continued effort to lead the mobility and on-demand markets. These changes include the creation of a new Mobile Business Unit, designed to deliver innovation more rapidly across the SAP and Sybase portfolios. It also includes an approach of joint leadership and aligned resources within SAP across development and go-to-market to further drive the business across all on-demand applications.

To accelerate the mobilization of SAP® solutions, SAP has created a new Mobile Business Unit, comprised of both SAP and Sybase employees, under the leadership of John Chen, chairman and CEO of Sybase, who will lead SAP's overarching mobility strategy and business. The new Mobile Business Unit will be responsible for helping customers unwire their enterprises by developing the world's best mobile business applications, accelerating the mobilization of SAP solutions to all devices via a new software development kit (SDK), and delivering a single mobile development and deployment platform to provide customers easy access to all applications and data (SAP and non-SAP) securely across all devices.

To ensure the success of mobile applications, the SAP Executive Board has appointed Bob Stutz, SAP corporate officer and executive vice president, as general manager of the Mobile Applications Group, reporting to Chen. In this new role, Stutz will oversee the direction and development of packaged native mobile applications across SAP and Sybase. In addition, Stutz’s team will simplify and accelerate the innovation of mobile experiences within SAP and within the SAP ecosystem, leveraging the best infrastructure and tools in the market, and developing complementary mobile solutions that deliver fast time to value for customers.

Also reporting to Chen are Billy Ho, Sybase senior vice president of product and technology operations, as well as Marty Beard, president of Sybase 365. Ho will oversee SAP and Sybase teams of the Mobile Business Unit in the development of the single mobile platform leveraging the integration of SAP and Sybase technologies, along with the creation of the SDK. The platform and SDK are both scheduled for delivery to customers in 2011. Beard is leading the mobile services team.

"With Sybase as the mobile arm of SAP, we're best positioned to capitalize on one of the most important trends in the industry to deliver the full value of business processes anywhere and on any device," said Chen. "Bob Stutz has significant experience in developing enterprise applications, and I am confident that under his leadership we will continue to lead the way in technology innovation and market share."

Thanks Jim and Bill for listening!

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Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
Phone +1 208-991-4410
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Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant, mobility analyst, writer and Web 2.0 marketing professional. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.