HI vidya,
According to the article in the December 2003 issue of IDC. SAP and SYBASE are became parteners in some of the areas and it is recognised that as a RDBMS.
In the middle of November, SAP and Sybase announced an interesting alliance of benefit to both companies. On November 17, SAP and Sybase jointly announced a worldwide agreement targeted at small and mid-sized businesses (SMB) to deliver integrated solutions between SAP's Business One and data management solutions from Sybase.
The implications of that agreement, presuming its future success, can be significant for each company and the enterprise applications market more broadly. The agreement alters the alliance portfolio balance for each company in effort to achieve significant future opportunity. SAP needed to diversify from an overly strong reliance on IBM data management and Sybase needed a compliment to an established PeopleSoft alliance.
More broadly, these relationships may position the enterprise application vendors to finally begin to compete for the small and mid-sized business market with robust, full-functioned, integrated (and stable) ERP systems. The elements of growth are beginning to coalesce – a "solution stack" (application and storage) targeting a defined segment (SMB), meaningful competition in both delivery options and application coverage (NetSuite, Microsoft, PeopleSoft, etc.) to drive innovation and skilled alliances to promote and market a complex product.
Sybase has learned from its PeopleSoft alliance. The agreement calls each firm to establish a single point of contact (POC) for each element of the agreement. This demonstrates a significant commitment – one head to roll, so to speak - and suggests a trend toward accountability that is intended to increase focus on both sides.
Risk remains, however, for both the product set and the alliance. The SMB market has traditionally been a challenge for system vendors to successfully penetrate with large, complex solution. Complex administration and business logic requirements are the primary impediments. Additionally, smaller companies require either a "one-size-fits-all" (OSFA) or a streamlined "mass customization" approach to control the cost of sales. OSFA can only be effective if the price point is low enough that customers perceive value while still only using a relatively small portion of the application's functionality. Mass-customization, on the other hand, must be so easy to control and monitor, that increases in need can result in cost-effective increases in capability. The implications for electronic license distribution are profound.
This alliance portends a significant battle on the horizon as the ERP titans begin to traverse this next battlefield. The implication on alliances, market segmentation, product delivery and licensing has only begun to be explored. IDC looks forward to the show.
For further info use the link
http://www.sybase.com/partner/SAP
Cheers,
Shyam
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