This is the 100th or centennial post of this blog and I thought I should write something hopefully in the "centennial" league! But first about my trip to Vancouver. The trip was great as was the in-depth exposure to SAP and the various Universities that have included SAP in the curriculum. On my way back I had the 11.20 pm flight to Montreal from where I was supposed to get onto the Hartford flight. But Air Canada canceled the flight due to non-arrival of the crew and I found myself on standby for the Toronto flight that finally left at 1.30 am and could get to New York La Guardia. My travels over the past one year have been always interesting with such changes coming up quite unexpectedly. This time, I thought positive and thought of the great scenery at Vancouver and felt that I was far better off than the poor Jet Blue Passengers who were stranded on the iced runway!
Coming to the centennial bit of this post I have been thinking about how different the assumptions of Web 2.0 and the ERP world is. Web 2.0 is about open source, collaboration volunteerism and a certain element of uncertainty that can be tough if you are running a business and have to be accountable to customers,suppliers,employees and other stakeholders. That’s where ERP systems like SAP come in. Every transaction is recorded for posterity and links to every other part of the organization and it’s processes and therefore become more SOX compliant. Going forward global suppliers and customers would probably combine elements of the wonderful flexibility of Web 2.0 and the comforting rigidity of sound ERP systems and this blog will be watching the evolving "balance" with interest. ….