If it is manufacturing distributing and selling [products] it may be as complex as a large organisation

If it is manufacturing, distributing and selling [products], it may be as complex as a large organisation. They can’t afford to have inferior software.”Growing SAP’s presence in the mid market is important as revenues from larger businesses are still under pressure. “Smaller companies may have the same demands for functionality as larger ones. Kagermann dismisses the idea that lower economies of scale mean mid-sized businesses will not gain as much from automation and so should opt for cheaper, simpler software “It depends on what you offer,” he says. In order to get a return out of the transaction you have to make cuts, which means you can’t be too nice to clients. If you just continue with overlapping products then where are the savings? Consolidation is a tough job. What will clients say if you don’t maintain the products? And if you do maintain them, it costs.

Some customers will feel the uncertainty is too high and will go with the vendor who will be here in 10 years.”A more immediate threat to SAP could be Microsoft’s move into the business automation software market. We had a better product portfolio.”Kagermann concedes that if Oracle’s proposed hostile takeover of rival Peoplesoft goes though, the short-term effects could be negative for SAP because of downward pressure on software prices. Kagermann admits that Microsoft’s push to sell to the “Mittelstand” – the mid-sized businesses that characterise much of the economy in Germany, and large parts of the rest of Europe – strikes at one of SAP’s growth markets.The trick is to persuade smaller businesses that investing in automation software, be it CRM or ERP, can bring them the sort of returns enjoyed by their larger competitors. But looking further out, it could gain, especially from customers worried about support for Peoplesoft products.”In the mid term we see advantages There will be uncertainty. “In the boom especially, a lot of best-of- breed players oversold [their software]. That’s one reason they weren’t successful over the longer term.

And, according to the company’s own estimates, this is more than the combined share of its four closest competitors – including Oracle, currently the world’s second-largest software group after Microsoft.For Henning Kagermann, who became chief executive earlier this year, SAP’s strong position is in part a reflection of the economic climate since some of its progress has come at the expense of the smaller, so-called “best of breed” software companies that came to the fore in the dot-com boom but failed to develop sustainable business models. But after leaving Tahiti in 1787, his sailors mutinied, enraged by – among other things – the use of scant drinking water to irrigate the plants. The saplings were tossed overboard and Bligh cast adrift.A second voyage, also undertaken by Bligh, was more successful, and the tree is now ubiquitous in the Caribbean and all over the tropics.But in the Pacific, where it originated, many people have forsaken its fruit in favour of processed foods such as tinned Spam. As a result, the trees – cultivated by islanders for at least 3,000 years – are being neglected, and ancient knowledge about fruit storage and preparation is being lost. The abandonment of the traditional diet is blamed for the region’s high rates of diabetes, obesity and heart disease.Climate change is another reason for the tree’s plight. The shallow-rooted breadfruit is vulnerable to rising sea levels and intrusion of saltwater into the soil and water table. It is also being damaged by cyclones and storm surges, which have increased in frequency thanks to global warming.