PROBLEM                                    SOLUTION

Internet decisions were made at            Early this year, Plattner set up a
German headquarters. Execs                 stand alone Silicon Valley unit,
there viewed the Net, with                 SAPMarkets. The goal: To cre-
its emphasis on speed to market            ate a U.S. company free from
over thoroughness, as a bastion of         German bureaucracy that will
hype and buggy wares. Result:              develop online marketplace
Software makers Oracle, i2, and            software. To motivate developers,
Commerce One beat SAP to                   he holds out shares of a
crucial Web software.                      future IPO.

SAP tells impatient customers to           Breaking with tradition, SAP
wait for its new products that con-        makes room in its offerings for
nect companies to suppliers and            products by rivals. In March,
customers via the Net. Customers           SAP forms a partnership with
pay little heed, flocking instead          Clarify, whose customer service
to upstarts such as i2 and                 software is more successful than
Commerce One, which have                   SAP's. The idea: Give customers
ready-made products.                       what they want, and integrate it
                                           into SAP's offerings.

Top U.S. managers leave, includ-           Plattner overcomes board resist-
ing SAP Americas CEO Paul Wahl             ance and German tradition to
and Senior Vice-President for              push through a stock-option plan
Global Accounts Paul Melchiore.            for employees. This is key to at-
They head to hot e-commerce and            tracting and holding on to staff.
salesforce software companies,             The payoff hinges on Plattner's
such as Ariba and Siebel.                  successfully revamping SAP for
                                           the Web--and the stock rising.