An empire like Google is sure to find itself faced with many admirers, copy cats, and wannabes. Google’s creations are typically forward-thinking and revolutionary (for instance, Google Wave)—it’s only natural that someone would want to try to come up with a bigger, better version of the technology.
SAP (known for providing software such as Business Objects) is working on an application called “Constellation”. Constellation uses some of the principles of Wave to bring the real-time environment to business users for collaboration. One of the features being discussed is the ability to publish collaboration efforts to other platforms such as SharePoint, wikis, etc.
Much like Wave’s extensions, SAP is planning on having a marketplace for developers to create and sell their integrations of the application.
They’re planning on launching the app sometime in Q1 of 2010.
It will be interesting to see how it fares in the business arena. The Corporate Cubicle mentions in a recent post,
“The high cost of product upgrades still doesn’t excuse our responsibility as a tech department to be at the forefront of early adoption.5 We have to serve our customers and we are failing due to cost, laziness, fear, or some combination thereof. It is hurting our end product and slowing our ability to respond to problems.”
5 It certainly doesn’t explain our lack of openness to new upgrades that are free (ex. Google Chrome)
Being that SAP is the provider of Business Objects, which many companies have adopted, businesses might be more inclined to implement Constellation (over Google Wave) because it will cost money and they would be getting it from a “reliable source”.1
1 In general, if a company has to pay for something, they consider the source they buy the product from reliable. Most companies do not take advantage of free applications or software because they perceive the products as risky.
About me, hmmm, where to start. Ok, my interest in technology, internet, and website design all started when AOL first launched as an ISP. This was the beginning of the internet craze.
It’s a shame most corporations don’t take advantage of the wonderfulness that Google is bringing and will be bringing in the future. I love what I’ve seen of the Wave so far (thanks for that again =) and I know Google is going to be coming out with all kinds of technology soon! My little brother’s best friend’s mom works for Google in Northern VA and he got to go to her work one day. They have this amazing room with all their new technologies. The only thing is you’re not allowed to talk about what you got to play with when you leave. I’ll keep you posted if anything leaks! =)
A) is there a Beta for SAP’s app?
B) they are going to make you pay for extensions? companies will love that too
There’s currently a beta powered by SAP called “12sprints“. I think this is the precursor to Constellation. I signed up to reserve my spot to test it out. You should do the same!
When I worked for the government, the big topic was security. I personally don’t have the trust in Google for security yet. However, I do think that Google is awesome and as long as the applications stay free, I don’t mind using them!