Celonis slaps SAP with lawsuit claiming it's gatekeeping customer data

German software company Celonis is suing SAP, alleging anti-competitive conduct and claiming its systems lack openness. According to a complaint [PDF] filed in the Northern District of California, Celonis claims SAP has made it more difficult and expensive for third-party software companies such as Celonis to get hold of …

[ecofeco]

What a world

Some third party is butt hurt because they don't have unfettered access to someone else's data.

And nobody sees anything wrong with the entire situation.

[Steve Foster]

Re: What a world

I think you might be misreading the situation:

VeryLargeCo deploys SAP on-site, and stores VLC data in SAP.

Later, VLC decides it wants to analyse what is actually going on in their systems (to see how/where that differs from what's supposed to be going on), and calls in Celonis.

Celonis finds that it cannot access VLC's data in SAP, because SAP is actively obstructing them, and trying to persuade VLC to use its own Signavio instead.

IOW, SAP is accused of trying to use its dominance in ERP to bootstrap Signavio (a SAP subsidiary) into pole position in the less mature process-mining marketplace.

[JimboSmith]

Re: What a world

Spot on with that description, is it any wonder SAP are all hot on retiring ECC and pushing everyone and their data to the cloud on S/4HANA.

[MattWPBS]

Re: What a world

There's a reason SAP is called corporate ransomware.

[Fred Daggy]

Re: What a world

None of the others are any better. (Which does not mean I am giving a green light to SAP).

If only Pottering had an ERP that he needed to fix, then his legacy would be make into films and held up as a (good) example.

[GNU Enjoyer]

Re: What a world

It's nice to know that you at least understand what unfettered means.

[alain williams]

Oh, the joys of giving your data to someone else

Of course, once SAP [of anyone else] have control of your data, they will take every opportunity to enrich themselves.

This is much the same what Microsoft is doing by sucking all of your documents into its O365 cloud - it will progressively make it more expensive, and harder, to do anything else.

[computing]

Re: Oh, the joys of giving your data to someone else

True.

[Pascal Monett]

"28,000 different variations for the process of running a sales order"

No wonder SAP projects are never finished . . .

[Lonpfrb]

Re: "28,000 different variations for the process of running a sales order"

The GSK SAP CERP Programme was finished long ago so your speculation is unfounded.

It's not surprising that if you conflate the number of process variants with data variance that you get a large number of Permutations.

That doesn't by itself prove that process is not being followed rather that data variance is large in a global enterprise system.

[An_Old_Dog]

A Sprinkling of Industrial Espionage?

In its complaint, Celonis alleged that SAP's internal documents show that...

I'm wondering how Celonis obtained those "SAP internal documents".

[Rosie Davies]

Re: A Sprinkling of Industrial Espionage?

I feel that's a tad unlikely. I mean you would really have to be properly stupid to use evidence of a crime you'd committed as evidence in a lawsuit you're persecuting and I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. I've not checked where this case is in the protracted and byzantine legal process but aren't there steps where one party is allowed to have a rummage around the other party's documents?

rosie

[Benny Cemoli]

Re: A Sprinkling of Industrial Espionage?

Never underestimate the stupidity of people in large groups. Or Corporations.

And the process you're looking for is called "Discovery". But it doesn't allow the plaintiff to just go in and "rummage around the other party's documents". There are rules and procedures that must be followed and it all has to go through the court.