business model innovation design we're on a road to nowhere // on a quest to analyze and explore the design of business model innovations, i.e. 'hideous and hidden things' like organizational structures and capabilities, corporate strategies and all things related // on a yellow brick road with a girl, a lion and a straw-man wasting our time // …

Here is the thing. ARIS is not one of the many companies running around selling snake oil about executable UML and so on. It is the real deal. Every software company with a modeling tool loves to say they are all about the Business Process Analyst. The truth is inevitably a lot more prosaic. Quite simply – there is no community of people with business modeling skills associated with a runtime environment in the IT industry. But IDS Scheer certainly has a community associated with its modeling language and tools.

Which brings us neatly to SAP.

SAP is by far the dominant player in European business process management. Not in modeling though – that’s where ARIS plays. The people that analyse and model the business are not the same people deploying and managing ERP systems and related applications. Why not though?

James is analyzing the plans to merge Software AG and IDS Scheer – and doing this with wit and insight. While I doubt that “Germans buy german software” alone because it’s german, he’s got me thinking about the impliocations for SAP, right.