AMR Research's SAP SRM Analysis: Much to Prove

AMR's Mickey North Rizza recently wrote a thorough and excellent brief (registration and membership required) analyzing SAP's current and planned SRM product roadmap (including procurement, sourcing, spend analysis, and contract management, among other areas). It's not at all an analyst puff-piece, as some might expect given the exorbitant sums that SAP spends with the likes of AMR and Gartner. Rather, it talks about some of the real challenges that SAP customers face and will have upgrading to the emerging solutions not to mention SAP's historical "track record of delays" and challenges meeting customer expectations in the SRM area. Personally, I'm bullish on SAP's long-term SRM prospects if they can roll-out SRM in timely manner. But I agree with Mickey that SAP's efforts in the space come with lots of baggage that best of breed vendors still have a window to capitalize on. Indeed, the ERP SRM game is far from over.

- Jason Busch