<div> <div>Good buy Sybase. Goodbye Syclo?</div> <div>It’s the question at the top of many people’s mind - SAP customers, partners, prospects, employees and the analyst community. Now that SAP has shown their hand and made a clear decision to acquire market leading MEAP provider Sybase for 6 big ones, and yes $6 billion, what will happen to the future of the Syclo MEAP Agentry platform? Is there any reason to have two MEAP providers? Two technology platforms, two market messages, two support organizations, two road maps? If I were SAP what would I intend to do? Promote a third party solution MEAP (Syclo) or their own MEAP application? I wonder! </div> <div>An SAP spokesman said today: "We remain committed to our open ecosystem strategy and enabling customer choice by working with a range of partners that drive customer value.’’ We all know that when an organization pays billions of dollars to acquire another company their shareholders are going to look for fast return on investment. Do customers really have a choice on mobile? </div> <div>I spent time today with Sybase and the SAP community at SAPPHIRE and there was a common perception that in the long term (meaning as soon as the acquisition is completed) the de-facto standard for mobilisation of SAP back end systems is going to be Sybase, whether it’s for SAP CRM, SAP Enterprise Asset Management or field service..   </div> <div>It is also expected that in the long term SAP will jointly develop the field services and mobile asset management capabilities that up to now Syclo has specialized in. It is also expected that SAP will eventually push customers toward an SAP-Sybase platform. SAP has the knowledge, technology and people to develop the Syclo EAM template functionality without much trouble. </div> <div>RIM have the customer base to ensure its continued growth irrespective of SAP and Syclo. </div> <div>Two questions which are still unclear are what will happen to RIM and SAP Mobil Asset Management? Will SAP build on the SAP NetWeaver platform using Sybase? Whatever the answer, one thing is clear, SAP finally has a company wide mobile strategy. Unlike the short-lived co-innovation partnership, this one is here to say, like it or hate it. Well done SAP, customers can really benefit from this acquisition. </div> . </div>