http://gapingvoid.com/2007/04/16/sap-and-thingamy/ "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards" Wed, 23 May 2012 20:07:07 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= http://gapingvoid.com/2007/04/16/sap-and-thingamy/#comment-17993 hugh macleod Wed, 18 Apr 2007 18:46:42 +0000 http://gapingvoid.com/?p=3663#comment-17993 Hey Thomas, thanks for dropping by. Agreed with your last sentence. Luckily for Sig, he has structured Thingamy to remain extremely flexible in its early days... to allow whatever happens, to actually happen. Hey Thomas, thanks for dropping by.
Agreed with your last sentence. Luckily for Sig, he has structured Thingamy to remain extremely flexible in its early days… to allow whatever happens, to actually happen.

]]> http://gapingvoid.com/2007/04/16/sap-and-thingamy/#comment-17992 Thomas Otter Wed, 18 Apr 2007 18:36:48 +0000 http://gapingvoid.com/?p=3663#comment-17992 Hugh, Thanks for the link. One of many points where Sig and I agree is that making too many assumptions about who is your target market is dangerous, and often if way off the mark. One of the best examples of a solution that was planned for one market but ended up dominating another one is SAP R/3. I quote from an old Hasso Plattner interview. "The first prospect in Germany for R/3 we thought is a so-called medium sized market company dealing with screws. They are a large screw dealer. When we learned more about the company, the company had two billion in revenues in 1991. The company was operating in eighty countries in the world. So this mid-sized market customer all of a sudden had one of the largest warehouses in Germany, was—as far as transaction rate is concerned—larger than the largest R/2 customer in operation. That means from day one all these ideas how we go for the low end of the market got stalled." If you do make assumptions, you need to be prepared to change them. Fast. Hugh,
Thanks for the link.
One of many points where Sig and I agree is that making too many assumptions about who is your target market is dangerous, and often if way off the mark.
One of the best examples of a solution that was planned for one market but ended up dominating another one is SAP R/3.
I quote from an old Hasso Plattner interview.
“The first prospect in Germany for R/3 we thought is a so-called medium sized market company dealing with screws. They are a large screw dealer. When we learned more about the company, the company had two billion in revenues in 1991. The company was operating in eighty countries in the world. So this mid-sized market customer all of a sudden had one of the largest warehouses in Germany, was—as far as transaction rate is concerned—larger than the largest R/2 customer in operation. That means from day one all these ideas how we go for the low end of the market got stalled.“
If you do make assumptions, you need to be prepared to change them. Fast.

]]> http://gapingvoid.com/2007/04/16/sap-and-thingamy/#comment-17991 TAR ART RAT Tue, 17 Apr 2007 16:21:12 +0000 http://gapingvoid.com/?p=3663#comment-17991 germany... germany…

]]> http://gapingvoid.com/2007/04/16/sap-and-thingamy/#comment-17990 RKR Tue, 17 Apr 2007 11:04:12 +0000 http://gapingvoid.com/?p=3663#comment-17990 As always, something of value! Thank you, Hugh. As always, something of value! Thank you, Hugh.

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