SAP does Facebook. Even your non-SAP friends will be poking them soon?

Posted by: Owain Wood 23 Jun 10 - 1:39PM | Owain Wood

Just last week a press release flashed across by desk, followed by a flurry of emails from various Red Commerce consultants about the new SAP App for Facebook, dubbed the Friend Network Optimizer (catchy).

In essence it demonstrates the business dashboard functionality of SAP Crystal Presentation Design (formerly Xcelsius), in a non-business scenario.

The idea of the app is to try and create awareness for the Crystal solutions portfolio. I also think the effect is to also raise awareness of SAP to a new generation.

SAP currently has 55k+ members of its Facebook group. If every one of them started using this application, it could quite easily become one of the largest and most successful Facebook Applications.

Instead of using data from a business spreadsheet, the Friend Network Optimizer uses Facebook’s program interface to gather and display friend data.

Basically you can see how your online friends stack up with others. The app also shows off the user's social activity and enables to ‘optimize’ the network. You even get a rating for you score:

Intern: 0 -100,000
Specialist: 100,000 – 250,000
Manager: 250,000 – 500,000
Director: 500,000 - 1 million
Senior Director: 1 million – 1.5 million
VP: 1.5 million – 2 million
Senior VP: 2 million – 3 million
General Manager: 3 million – 4 million
President: 4 million – 5 million
Chairman of the Board: 5 million or more

I am currently rated as a Manager (300k+ points). Even if increased my wall posts, status updates and photo uploads by 100% I’d still be a Manager.

The current leader has 3 million points, a good few million away from Chairman of the Board!

Who do you feel SAP is targeting by developing this app – existing SAP experts or the wider general public where SAP is still not widely-known?’

The SAP Professional’s, I, and my other colleagues speak to regarding social media in the SAP ecosystem believe that Facebook is still a ‘young person’s’ network, do you thing this perception will change with the launch of this application?

Watch the video below and you can also go to the application by clicking here.

Thanks to Dan Wills – for his contribution on this Blog!

You can add him to LinkedIN and find out more about him by clicking here.

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"SAP projects are complex, to a degree sometimes you can't really tell if a person is worth connecting with you until you work with them, on which basis you would connect in such type of electronic speed dating fashion?" I second you, Thomas.

Posted by: Wajid, Date 07 July 2010, 11:25AM

I have always been skeptic about using social networks for business purposes This is probably because once you are in senior management position you probably meet and talk to so many people that you really do not want to drag this into your personal and actually like to have some privacy Sites like LinkedIn if used properly can deliver value and be effective because the toolset is designed to integrate with your office environment and maximise its effectivness I was one of the first facebook users in early 2004 and I cancelled my membership when I followed a press conference of the founders where they made clear their intention to sell their database of users to business as an e-marketing Let alone all the strange applications and messages which in addition to having no productivity whatsoever were also boring to respond and deal with. But of course this is personal and there are people that make a wise use of this technology to keep in touch with remote family and friends, having said that internet video conferencing and messaging is actually better but let's not go there. Now SAP steps into facebook with some crystal report dashboards. Technically seems a good fit as crystal does look like facebook. What do I make of the logic of the point system and the fact that there is a value in adding people to your network to get you higher in the leaderboard? Sad. This looks a bit cheap and mass market and I am not surprised that the people with the highest job title do not join in. Can you image you then find out something on the personal life after connecting to some SAP contact which you can make fun of or exploit for other reasons, am thinking about a salesman trying to strike a conversation on the favourite sport or leisure activity? SAP projects are complex, to a degree sometimes you can't really tell if a person is worth connecting with you until you work with them, on which basis you would connect in such type of electronic speed dating fashion? SAP must have an objective for this and is maybe about brand awareness and creating a sense of belonging. So if you are a consultant working long hours and maybe travelling a lot would you spend your time talking and chatting on a social site about your jobs? I doubt it

Posted by: Thomas Anderson, Date 23 June 2010, 01:24PM

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