SAP’s Bill McDermott Named CEO of the Year
By Sam Sliman, President, Optimal Solutions Integration

 

Bob Evans, editorial director for InformationWeek, singles out SAP co-CEO Bill McDermott as the 2010 CE0 of the Year for the vital role McDermott is playing in orchestrating SAP’s “extraordinary turnaround.”

 

Evans is among the most knowledgeable industry watchdogs when it comes to understanding business technology and, more importantly, the pains and needs of business technology end users, and his selection of the steady-and-staid McDermott over other, perhaps more boisterous and colorful candidates (read: Oracle CEO Larry Ellison) is notable for a very important reason.

 

Without diminishing the vital product-side contributions of SAP co-CEO Jim Snabe, Evans selects McDermott as CEO of the year, first and foremost, for the unshakable customer-centric focus evident in everything McDermott does. Coming from Evans, this is no small compliment.

 

As a seasoned and respected member of the media, Evans is in a privileged position to gain perspective and insight into the world of SAP not easily had by others.  Along with his editorial colleagues, Evans speaks with SAP-customer CIOs on a daily basis. He hears the good, the bad and the ugly, and while Evans’ reporting on SAP is always fair-handed and well researched, he pulls no punches when it comes to championing the key causes and concerns of his CIO readers.

 

For a taste of this, check out the following articles by Evans:

 

SAP's Last Chance: It's The Customers, Stupid!
An Open Letter To SAP Chairman Hasso Plattner

 

Evans’ media stature, earned through his decades-long tenure with leading technology trade publications, also affords him near carte blanche access to SAP leadership. He regularly interviews SAP execs, distilling for his readers complex, sometimes confusing product roadmap strategies; separating marketing hype from pressing, real-world business issues; asking important, hard-nosed questions; and most importantly, taking SAP leadership to task on key customer issues.

 

Suffice it to say, Evans is very much in the know regarding all things SAP, from both the customer side and vendor side. Moreover, as editor of InformationWeek, Evans’ primary audience and sole allegiance is to his readership of technology decision makers – in this context SAP-customer CIOs. If any bias is to be found in Evans’ reporting, it would be a sympathetic leaning toward the CIOs embattled in today’s business technology trenches. 

 

Bestowed as it is by Evans, and for the primary reason ascribed by Evans – customer focus, McDermott’s “CEO of the Year” title brings with it undeniable credibility, gravitas and good news for SAP customers.

 

Among other observations, Evans cites the following earnings results and strategic achievements as proof points of McDermott’s success:

• Revenue up 16%, with strength in all geographies and across all product lines

• Earnings up nicely for the second quarter in a row

• Solid growth in new enterprise licenses

• Continued strong preference for SAP's highest-end version of support and maintenance

• The momentum-building Sybase acquisition, showing SAP's a player again and not just a spectator hoping not to get rained on

• The formation of a cohesive companywide strategy that connects SAP's current strength with its future potential: on-premise, on-demand, and on-device

• The company's intense commitments to being the industry's technology leader in delivering what it calls real real-time business with its in-memory technology advances

• And Snabe and McDermott's leadership in SAP's premise that mobility doesn't represent the future for the enterprise, but actually the present—right here, right now—and that SAP is the best partner to get you there

 

Be sure to read entire article by Bob Evans:
Global CIO: The CEO Of The Year Is SAP's Bill McDermott