Evan Schuman's StorefrontBacktalk

3 Comments | Read Dell, SAP Confirm POS Deal

1. Bob Amster Says:
   August 19th, 2007 at 4:27 pm

   And so what? The functionality is typically built into the software application. Unless I am very short sighted (and I have been accused), with the exception of the iPhone, one computer device is not much different than another, that I, or most retailers, should care with what hardware company SAP has partnered.

   Until it truly becomes a point of differentiation for a software developer (such as running software whose functionality is enabled only by one manufacturer’s hardware), it doesn’t seem like news… Sorry to rain on SAP’s parade.

2. Evan Schuman Says:
   August 19th, 2007 at 5:08 pm

   Note from the Editor: In short, I agree. It’s a lame defense to say “Well, what we ran was quite short.” Here’s the rationale and we would truly welcome any reader feedback on this. After all, our editorial decisions are based on our best guesses as to what most readers would want us to do.
   In general, we won’t do a story on a typical marketing partnership unless it has–as Bob Amster pointed out–some solid answer to “So what?” As you can imagine, we see dozens of such retail technology deals every month and choose to not cover 99 percent of them.
   The difficult ones are where there is no clear news value BUT both players are major companies. The fact that they’re major players makes it quite likely that most of our readers have some of one of the two installed. So I was assuming that we have a healthy percentage of readers who have either Dell or SAP in their networks. For the installed base, I thought it was worth noting. As I lamely referenced earlier, it was a VERY short item, which is our way of giving readers a signal that this is worth noting–for the record–but we don’t much newsworthy beyond that.
   I’d like to think that we don’t do much of this at StorefrontBacktalk, but we major retail tech players are involved, it’s a very difficult decision.

3. Bob Amster Says:
   August 19th, 2007 at 5:26 pm

   I guess I inadvertently cast aspersions on your column, which was not my intention. The “so what” was directed at SAP and Dell and not at the coverage. Whom do they think they’re kidding? As I get older and work longer in our industry, I am becoming less tolerant (duh!) of the BS, and I don’t mean Bachelor of Science.

   I keep looking for substance in alliances, new software releases, and other announcements. I guess I find that many announcements are just a way to compensate for a lack of substance and are just attempts at getting one’s name in print.

   Now, the iPhone, that’s something to hype…