The CEO of SuccessFactors (SFSF) is apparently an enterprise-software truth stretcher of Filipkowskian proportions. In a May 3 press release, Lars Dalgaard hits a new low in Silicon Valley genitalia comparison. He is quoted as saying
"...SuccessFactors signed Siemens as the largest single planned deployment in the Cloud with a record 430,000 deployed seats. In Q1 SuccessFactors expanded a customer from 300,000 deployed seats 2 years ago, to the world's largest planned use of cloud computing solutions in a single enterprise, with more than 2.1 million people globally. This is not only the biggest deal in enterprise software history, but also something that 30 years of client-server software could never get done."
Huh? Forgetting the word "planned" used twice to modify this attempted stretch, hasn't the guy ever booked an airline flight? Sent an email? Slept in a hotel? Drawn a paycheck? Googled Google (GOOG)? He doesn't mention who the 2-million seat user is in the press release but it certainly is not the "biggest deal in enterprise software history." (Presumably, in the use of the word "deal," he means the size of the installation and not a single piece of paper because he says the deployment has taken years.)
However what intrigued me was not the above statement, which is just the usual Silicon Valley oneupmanship taken to a new level, but the conclusion of the quote,
"...something that 30 years of client-server software could never get done."
Does that mean that SucessFactors' software is not client/server? So how is this "purpose-built, visionary, blah-blah-blah buzzword du jour" performance-management HR software architected? Is it a monolithic application, a throwback to the glory years (in which case I would add: Has the CEO of SuccessFactors ever used an ATM?).
But the 10-K says the SuccessFactors software uses Java and J2EE (now known as JEE), application servers and database servers, which sure makes it client/server to any computer scientist I've ever talked to.
Get some PR help, Lars.
-- Dennis Byron
(no interest in companies mentioned)
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