Earlier this week SAP acquired Sybase for $5.8 billion. Blogs from my colleagues Stefan Ried and Holger Kisker primarily address the database and business analytics components of the acquisition. However, it is important to recognize how prominently SAP emphasized Sybase’s success as a mobile middleware platform and solution provider as a key driver of the acquisition. SAP highlighted the importance of extending mobile applications to billions of mobile users worldwide over any device as a strategic imperative. Forrester’s 2010 survey of IT decision makers in nearly 2,000 North American and European enterprises highlights the critical role of mobile applications and smartphone devices in corporate strategic initiatives. When it comes to mobile applications, 45% of enterprises prioritize supporting more mobile applications for out of office users as a critical or high priority in the coming year, and 33% state that supporting more mobile applications for employees who work in the office is an important or critical priority. In addition, supporting the use of more smartphones is an important or critical priority for 44% of enterprises.

The Sybase acquisition will enable SAP to deliver mobile applications to the growing number of individuals using mobile devices and smartphones. Sybase has a suite of mobile solutions including the Sybase Unwired Platform, a mobile client development platform which supports device platforms including RIM, Google Android, and Apple iPhone. The Sybase 365 mobile messaging platform supports messages for over 700 enterprise customers, including many leading communication service providers. Mobile assets account for about one third of Sybase’s $1.2 billion revenues, and are the fastest growing segment of the business.

A lot of my recent research – about SaaS/PaaS, Agile tools, requirements tools, and innovating with your channel – share a common conclusion: successful technology vendors see integration as more than just a necessary evil. Here's why.

Business problems drive technology adoption 
You can see this principle in action in the requirements tools market, which in the last decade has grown larger and more complex. Teams use these tools to address more than one type of requirements-related challenge, so it's easy to see why the tools themselves are now as diverse as as Micro Focus (née Borland) Calibre, Atlassian JIRA, Ravenflow RAVEN, and VersionOne's Ideas Management module. If your problem is, "People don't like using our product," you might look at a visualization tool like iRise to shorten the feedback loop, leading to better design decisions. If, instead, your problem is, "We don't have a good business justification for what we build," you might look at IBM Rational DOORS to evaluate the pros and cons of alternative scenarios for what goes into the next release.

Affirming Polycom’s faith in Andrew (Andy) Miller’s strategy (he has been the public face of Polycom’s drive to develop an open collaborative ecosystem), the board announced today that he will replace Robert (Bob) Hagerty as CEO. Mr. Hagerty is also leaving his position as Chairman of the Board, where he will be replaced by lead outside director, David DeWalt, the CEO of McAfee, who has been on Polycom’s board since 2005. Bob will be retained in an advisory role by Polycom’s Board of Directors, and will support Andy in executing his strategy, but primarily he plans to pursue a more relaxed pace of business activity following his departure.

Andy Miller joined Polycom approximately 10 months ago as executive vice president of global field operations, having been a senior executive in the industry for nearly two decades. Mr. Miller held senior roles at Monster and then IPC Systems (a communications reseller/integrator) after serving TANDBERG as CEO from 2001 to 2005. Prior to joining TANDBERG as CEO, Mr. Miller had been with Cisco Systems serving in a variety of senior marketing and sales roles. Mr. Miller has been a vocal proponent of delivering video and audio communications (not just conferencing!) in the context of the open, unified communications value chain. He is the executive I believe to have been most influential in the formation of the Polycom Open Collaboration Network, and I expect to see more from him and Polycom on that topic soon!

In the tech industry, the "tell me a story" approach to product requirements – personas, user stories, use cases, visualizations, etc. –  has made a bigger impact than many people may realize. Not only has this new type of content resolved many problems that existed with requirements, but it has led to a brand new way of looking at requirements. By thinking of requirements as stories, it's easier to figure out what kinds of requirements we need, and why we need them.

A tale of two mini-series
The fundamental question when writing any kind of story is, "What are you trying to convey?" I was thinking of exactly that question while I was watching the HBO mini-series The Pacific. I probably wasn't the only person to expect The Pacific to be the same kind of story as Band Of Brothers, just transplanted from the European to the Pacific theater of operations. I was wrong.

As it turns out, the new series has a very different kind of story to tell. Band Of Brothers depicted the experience of combat, in (literally) gory detail. While The Pacific does have more than enough battle scenes, it also tries to show military life beyond the battlefield. For example, one episode focused on the painful romantic choices that young people stationed in faraway lands have to make. Another episode depicted something rarely seen in war movies, the psychiatric casualties of war. Far more than Band Of Brothers, The Pacific shows more of the atrocious things that young men under brutal, terrifying conditions are capable of doing.