Tech people are always fretting about the wide divide between the “IT side” and the “business side.” I’m convinced that the gap is mainly a language gap – the business side simply can’t figure out what the IT side is talking about. Even the leaders of the IT industry seem to take a perverse pride in never saying anything that a normal human being might understand. Take SAP. It didn’t invite me to its big Sapphire pow-wow in Boston last week, but I did go to the company’s web site and download transcripts of Sapphire keynotes. They were all more or less impenetrable, but Shai Agassi’s speech set a new standard for opacity that will give his counterparts something to shoot for. Here’s an excerpt, in which Agassi introduces a new metaphor (the old one apparently involved a refrigerator) to explain what SAP’s NetWeaver software does:
“Let’s look through this thing. Remember we had the fridge. We decided to retire the fridge. We’re going to talk about a new metaphor from now on. What is NetWeaver and how does the whole thing come together? We talk about what we call the body of information. If you think about how the body of information is constructed, there are multiple pieces in there. It’s the mirror, if you want, of what we had with the fridge. The only difference from the fridge is that all the pieces have to work together. The face is the portal. If you think about the brain behind the face, there are two halves. The analytics, the structured side; knowledge management, the unstructured side. The brain is critical not only for storing information but for processing. Anything that comes through the brain gets context. Through this brain, and what’s supporting it, is probably the backbone of your body of information: master data management. If you don’t have master data management, your body may be there, but it may not be able to move. And that’s very critical to understand. Every information that goes through, every transaction that goes through, at some point in time touches master data, and if you don’t have a coherent master data strategy and a coherent master data management server, you will not get an agile body. MDM is one of the biggest things that is happening right now in NetWeaver. Through the backbone, you get a lot of events. The events contextualize themselves through master data into the brain and then get back and thrown into the rest of your body. That network is like your nerve system.
“Now, why is it important that the nerve system, why is it important that XI actually is connected to BW and is connected to master data management? Think of what happens with your body. You pick up any element, and your body gets events from it, real-life events. You pick up a hot glass of tea, hot cup of tea. If it’s too hot, your first instinct, which happens at the node, is to let it go. Then it goes through your backbone into your brain, and the brain says, ‘That’s Grandma’s china!’ And what you do is, you go, ‘Haaaah!’ and you put it somewhere. That’s the brain. It all has to work together; you can’t just let it go. The pieces are not a piecemeal approach; it’s a body of information; it’s all powered by a single unified muscle system. Your application server. And it all comes together in NetWeaver. We’ve talked about this for the last two years. It really has to come together. Now the question is, what kind of body of information, what kind of power structure, what kind of infrastructure powers your house? And the other question is, not only are you agile, not only is it connected, but are you flexible? And do you have all elements? One of the things that we’ve seen now, the latest part, if you want, of the body, the new part, the new limb that somehow grew on all of us, is this thing that goes on the hip. When you get an event that comes into your new body part and you start using it, how scalable is it? Can you work with high bandwidth? Does it go right to your brain? Can you process it? Can you do this?”
I’m not sure, but I think at the end he’s talking about getting an erection.
SAP: Opacity Rules!
If you thought this was bad, SAP strives to exceed its previous level of obsfucation.
Nicholas Carr quotes from the transcripts at the Boston SAP Sapphire conference.
Let’s look through this thing. Remember we had the fridge. We decided to retire…
LOL…. that speech gives new meaning to the term, “blather!” I’d had to think anyone would be looking for guidance from this guy.
Nick,
what is wrong about being exited about IT
or what does IT matter?
Guido
Nick,
You have arrived I believe. Shai now believes you have a grudge against him . In his latest blog on SAP Developer Network he quotes. “Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing personal against Nick (although some people who read his blog entry about me feel he does harbor some personal grudge against me, or is it just the people who pay him that do?)”. I think Shai really excelled himself when he compared the arrival of Netweaver to the parting of the Red Sea May 2004. Of all the industries I have worked in IT has the greatest level of spin and vapourware. IT claim to drive innovation, change and maybe the promise land (maybe that is the Red Sea Link ?) Is it any surprise that your article has generated such a reaction and a following from both IT and business people “The man (Shai) does deny too much?”
I find your article very immature. There seems to be no logical point except that you needed to get some web grafiti, childish and imature at best. If you want to technically challange a spech by someone, start with some technical / functional / operational information. You are not the author of a soft porn website!
Grow Up!
Geez man, you got your cheap shot in. Power to you. But what have you done lately. This guy Shai has overseen the most comprehensive SOA plan among all the ERP and enterprise platform vendors. Whereas, you have played the part of a the deplorable cynic. Wow I’m surprised you have a following. I came here because the guy had a link to you in his weblog, elevating you from your obscurity.
Hi Nick,
I used to like reading what you wrote. Especially the article ‘IT doesnt matter’. I came to this url expecting to read some indepth analysis of the evolving trends in the IT-Industry and how businesses can benefit from it. But sadly, I found nothing interesting.
Your comments on Shai’s Boston Sapphire keynote address is unbecoming of your stature.
Please refrain from comments that sound similar to articles written in soft-porn tabloids. Get back to writing articles that are interesting to read. Articles that make the world’s head turn around and look/read with attention. Thats the Nick I have read earlier.
On a personal note: I feel sad to see a good thinker/writer/analyst just fading away. Takes away one more from an already depleting pool of good writers on contemporary business topics.
Regards,
B.K.Seshagiri
Take a cold shower, guys. It was only metaphorical.
I agree about the disjointedly circuitous ambiguity of the metaphors used in Shai’s keynote (hey, did I just do that myself?).
But, ignoring that for a moment, having met the guy and spoken with him, he really does have a good vision of next generation apps and architecture – and believes it with every cell of his being. He just needs better speech writers…
Did you ever think about the difference between regular written language and the body language.
I am sure, if Nick had gone to Sapphire and Listen to (what was Spoken by) speaker, instead of Reading, he would get the idea and figure out the metaphor used by speaker.