Sneak receives an inordinate number of press releases, and it's fair to say that most make rather sweeping claims. But occasionally one arrives that is truly exceptional. Like this one, proclaiming that enterprise software is now "obsolete".
"A European software start-up [today] reveals a new enterprise software solution that offers massive savings and previously unheard of business model flexibility, allowing any company to move to ever-greater profitability in a secure fashion," it begins.
"The enterprise software market - currently dominated by giants such as Oracle, SAP and Siebel - is a market where 40 percent of all IT costs go towards simply 'making the stuff work together'," it goes on. "Of course, the largest players in the enterprise software market are not oblivious to this issue. Being aware of the current situation, they have launched a series of 'visions', pointing to a shift of focus from operational efficiency to business model innovation and asking for simpler, holistic and horizontal systems. But such promising and radical systems have remained elusive when it comes to the point of actually delivering them. [We] will change all that. [Our] enterprise software solution can fulfil all those visions with immediate effect."
Well, it sounds great guys. But if you truly want people to believe that you have consigned Oracle, SAP and Siebel to the recycle-bin of software history, it might be worth thinking up a more boardroom-friendly name. After all, Sneak wouldn't fancy being the IT director charged with saying, "I know we've ploughed $80m into our SAP infrastructure, but I honestly think we should dump it and replace it with Thingamy."

17 Nov 2004