DG: Do you have any other relationships with other handheld vendors?

HB: SAP has always taken the approach that our applications need to run on everything. So, saying that, yes we do have relationships with the Microsofts and the Compaqs of the world, but our partners are categorized based on levels of importance, where they fit within our partner program. I can tell you that Palm is one of the most important partners that we're working with today in the mobile space.

DG: When we think of about mobile computing, we often now think about wireless computing as well. I know from personal experience, being in a sort of black hole of wireless activity in central New Jersey, that not all the US is as wired as, for example, certain parts of Europe are. Whether it's 3G (third generation) wireless or just even slow 19.2 wireless, when do you expect the US and other parts of the world are going to be ubiquitously ready for regular wireless computing?

HB: Let me hit that in two ways. First of all, SAP's strategy addresses this problem. What we've done is we've taken a different approach than anyone else. Rather than mobilize one or two applications for a specific platform, such as many of our competitors have done, we've taken the approach of, let's mobilize everything out of SAP. So, roughly two years ago, we announced our mySAP.com strategy. Basically, what we had done was we had Web-enabled all the SAP applications via our enterprise portal, called The Workplace.

We looked at this and said, "What a great opportunity. The Workplace is already able to be personalized. It's ready, so that if I'm a sales manager, I see just the applications that I need, and I can customize and personalize as I like. Why don't we take that portal, and let's mobilize that?"

So, that's what we've done. Our main product is called the Mobile Workplace. That allows any SAP applications available through the portal to be mobilized to any mobile device, whether it be a Palm device, a Pocket PC, etc. Anything that has a standardized type browser on the device.

To address your question regarding connectivity, everything I've talked about so far is based on having some sort of wireless connection. The Mobile Workplace is, as it sits right now, an online connected application. So, I can use my Palm VII via a PQA (Palm Query Application). I can use a Palm V with an OmniSky modem, etc. [You can see an example of the mySap Mobile Workplace in Figure A. - DG]

FIGURE A

You can access a wide-range of internal information from your mobile Palm device.

We recognized that this was okay for some customers, but it wasn't really acceptable for the masses because of the gaps in wireless connectivity throughout the world. We needed some way to allow for intermittent connectivity or offline applications on these devices. What we've done is we've built an architecture behind the Mobile Workplace, called the Mobile Engine.

What the Mobile Engine does is allow for a full, robust, offline application on the device. So, if I'm a salesperson and I'm on the road all day taking orders, I can go and take all my orders, regardless of whether or not there's connectivity. Then I can either synchronize back wirelessly or synchronize back via HotSync or IR at a later point in time.