Bimodal is all the buzz these days at our big SAP customers. Check out this Gartner overview if you’re unfamiliar: Bimodal IT
As enterprise software innovators, our biggest obstacles to building (and selling) really cool solutions are risk aversion, cost, or delivery timeline. Often SAP is at the epicenter of these obstacles with upgrade cycles that take years and an infinite amount of process to do even the most basic operation. What results is an outdated system, a poor user experience, and a business that finds every way possible to avoid ERP, diminishing its ROI.
What if there was a way to achieve the vision of Bimodal IT – keeping the core SAP system intact while enabling agile and highly responsive solutions at the same time? Welcome to HANA Cloud Platform.
This innovative strategy is built around the concept of merging a cloud and subscription model with a rock-solid on-premise SAP system. When we build a solution, we build it on HCP. When a customer subscribes to that solution, it simply and securely merges with their own data. Nothing to install or maintain.
For example, we have a solution on HCP that provides for simple self-service mobile reporting, BW for Fiori. The traditional approach calls for shipping the software, patches, a lengthy installation, and a long project. Upgrades are more of the same. Now with HCP, you simply subscribe and you’re running.
All those risky, costly business requests that you push back every year? Subscribe instantly to an app, and you’re done.
Is this vision of HCP perfectly executed today?
No. There is room for growth. Here are some gaps:
- Ideally there is nothing to install on premise, but that’s not quite true, yet. We have developed a technique to do just that for our BW Fiori app, but I’m not aware of anyone else using it yet.
- The subscription model – finding, buying, and getting software – is still flawed. We are working with SAP to streamline this.
- As a small software and services company, HCP’s imperfect execution creates a difficult barrier to entry selling enterprise software across the globe without help. SAP needs to step up here and help customers find and easily buy these solutions, something like the Apple Store.
Even with those gaps, you can take action today to enable your Bimodal IT with the Hana Cloud Platform. There are dozens of apps ready to go from SAP (get a free trial here), or try out BW for Fiori.
Happy innovating.
P.S. You can achieve part of this vision now, even without HCP, and even without HANA. Simply replace HCP with Gateway, and then replace HANA with SAP ERP:
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