This blog has a title which will be rebranded anytime

[FabioPagoti]

This is not a blog to express my opinion but to remember some old and new facts about SAP rebranding stategy. But if I were asked why SAP changes the names of its product quite frequently I would answer that probably there is an intenal KPI which on which employee bonuses depend on sometimes changes are needed.

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I wanted to blog about this topic at least 1 decade 4 3 2 years ago. The thing about blogging now is that I have at least more 4 or 5 7 or 8 examples of products which had their name changed rebranded.

SAP rebranding its products is part of its culture not a new practice. Of course there are not so many very good reasons to give a new name to a solution. Maybe the architecture changed a lot, maybe there is a try to avoid confusion, maybe there is a good marketing reason or maybe there was an aquisition and removing the name of the acquired company name just makes sense. The fact is that even Hasso Plattner admitted that "its branding strategy confused customers and prevented staff from feeling like part of a team."

 

Above Below you can find a list of products, technologies, libraries, services and other stuff which were rebranded by SAP anytime in the past.

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1 - Open SQL Renamed as ABAP SQL (Changes in Release 7.53)

The existing name Open SQL has been changed to ABAP SQL. This renaming reflects that some parts of ABAP SQL now only support certain database platforms, specifically SAP HANA database, and hence that it is no longer fully platform-independent.

Source: ABAP documentation
https://help.sap.com/doc/abapdocu_753_index_htm/7.53/en-US/abennews-753-abap_sql.htm

 

2 - HANA Cloud Platform (HCP) -> SAP Cloud Platform (SCP)

After almost 3 years of rebranding HANA Cloud Platform to SAP Cloud Platform, there are many customers reffering to it as "HCP". Also, it's possible to see some confusion in the community about the new Acronym: SCP? SAP CP? CP?

Source: SAP Cloud Platform – New name, new dimensions

 

3. SAP HCP Integration Services (HCI) -> SAP Cloud Platform Integration

What should you do to avoid negative SEO impacts when there is a name change? Simple: Just add the new and the former name in the title of your blog post.

Source: SAP Cloud Platform Integration (Hana Cloud Integration – HCI) – Creating File (Field Fixed Length) t...

 

4. SAP Mobile Platform -> HCPms -> SAP Cloud Platform Mobile Services

Apart from the confusion with SMP 3.0, this change followed HCP becaming SAP Cloud Platform.

https://blogs.sap.com/2014/09/28/sap-hana-cloud-platform-mobile-services-released/

 

5. HANA XS -> HANA XSA

OK OK. HANA Extended Serviced Advanced works quite different than HANA XS. However, the explanation about the difference between the two are still needed.

Source: SAP Help - SAP HANA XS Advanced Migration Guide

 

6. Splash -> BUILD

On it's early days, SAP BUILD was known as Splash while only the prototyping tool inside it was "SAP BUILD". Did you understand? No? Probably nor anyone else at that time.

Apart from the name, Splash / BUILD had at least three different logos and transitioned from a OSS to a cloud based offering part of HCP SAP Cloud Platform.

Source: Splash

 

7. UI development toolkit for HTML5 -> SAPUI5/OpenUI5

"Pedro de Alcântara João Carlos Leopoldo Salvador Bibiano Francisco Xavier de Paula Leocádio Miguel Gabriel Rafael Gonzaga" was the full name of Pedro II, the second and last monarch of the Empire of Brazil.

On its early days SAPUI5 was known as "UI development toolkit for HTML5". Still, this long name can be found in many official documentations while everyone knows it by UI5.

I ask myself it is still considered the official name.

 

8. SAP Visual Intelligence -> SAP Lumira

Here you will find the most detailed excuse reason for a name change, by timo.elliott
Worth reading:

SAP Lumira: Why Did We Change Yet Another Perfectly Good BI Product Name?

If it does get to confusing just create a FAQ about the renaming:

SAP Visual Intelligence Renaming FAQ

 

9. SAP Developer Network -> SAP Community Network -> SAP Community

Like it happened with HCP SAP Cloud Platform, many people still reffer to our community as "SDN". If you don't want to tell people your age, just call it "SAP Community" - I agree that this change was needed as not everyone here is a COBOL ABAP Java JavaScript developer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_Community_Network

 

10. Recast.AI -> SAP Conversational AI

I decided to get in contact with talk with Recast.AI SAP Conversational AI about that.



Source:
Recast.AI will be renamed SAP Conversational AI early 2019!

 

 

11. Appbuilder -> River RDE -> WebIDE -> Web IDE MultiCloud Version -> SAP Web IDE FullStack

Apart from having ~5 years and ~5 different names, SAP announced in the last SAP TechEd 2019 a new IDE called "SAP Application Studio".

 

By the way, it seems the to be released "SAP Application Studio" is not the same thing as the "SAP Cloud Application Studio", mentioned here in SDN SAP Community on 2013 - https://blogs.sap.com/2013/12/17/sap-cloud-application-studio/

 

Eclipse Orion... Eclipse Che... Theia...

 

If the cool thing in the past was to have a cloud IDE and now the cool thing is to have a hybrid cloud / desktop IDE... then the answer was in our hands this whole time! Thanks Corbu GoldReflection BlueCrystal Belize theme!



Sources:

Is SAP WEB IDE multi-cloud still available?

Latests Tweets about "SAP Application Studio"

 

 

12. HANA Cloud Connector -> SAP Cloud Connector

Because it wouldn't make sense to connect the cloud with an on premise which usually is not a HANA database.

Source:

Installing HANA Cloud Connector (HCC) and configuring HANA Cloud Platform (HCP)

 

13. Concur Technologies -> SAP Concur

Source: Barsa Wikepedia  - SAP Concur

 

14. Infinite Insight (KXEN) -> Predictive Analytics 2.0

Source:

SAP Infinite Insight – introduction and overview, future plans and useful links.

 

15. SAP Hybris + Many other stuff -> C/4 HANA

I really don't AMAZING!

What is SAP C/4HANA and why should you care?

 

16. SAP/R3 -> mySAP ERP -> SAP ECC -> S/4 HANA

There will be I expect comments here saying that "S/4 HANA is completely different than SAP ECC" and for each comment like that I will tell you "like ECC EHP 2 had more functionalities compared to EHP 1".

Still in 2019 there are people who think S/4 is so different that it's not even based on SAP Netweaver.

 

17. Simple Finance -> S/4HANA Finance

Source: SAP S/4HANA Finance

 

18. SAP Forum became SAP Now

SAP Forum has been renamed to SAP Now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH-H7_I_QvQ

19 SAP Logo

Sources:

Do you like the new SAP logo? And do you know how it evolved in the past 4 decades?

 

20 and 21. TDF -> ACR -> TDF

Better than renaming a product is to go back to the previous name

Source:

https://blogs.sap.com/2018/11/22/tdf-ira-morrer-o-que-e-o-acr/

https://blogs.sap.com/2019/10/10/tdf-esclarecimento-sobre-o-nome-do-produto/

 

22. Former Members

Let's not forget that even SCN not engaged users have been renamed to "Former Member".

 

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Trust me: 80% 90% of the list above was done without researching - As I've been working with Google SAP Technology since 2009, I remember most of them.

 

I hope this blog gets to the people responsible for giving new product names. Let's just reflect before about the consequences of that change. This blog was written using a Windows 10, which is Windows since 1980's. I've used Google Chrome 76, which is Google Chrome since its launch.

 

And I'm sure there are many others to add on that list. Do you remember any other name change done by SAP? Please comment below! Also, what change do you think was needed and which one was a bad move?

 

By the way, did I mentioned that I will rename this blog post?