Bill McDermott is excited about the direction business software vendor is headed. And for someone who has led the company’s U.S. operations to 14 consecutive quarters of double-digit revenue growth, he has every right to be.In his keynote speech delivered Tuesday to more than 15,000 customers, partners and select employees at the Sapphire user event in Orlando, Fla., the president and chief executive officer (CEO) of SAP Americas gave a few reasons for his excitement: The company has delivered promising new products, such as CRM on-demand, SAP Analytics, and Duet, jointly developed with Microsoft, and it is breaking new ground with its services-based architecture.McDermott referred to Duet as an “absolute breakthrough,” an innovative product that links workers at the Microsoft desktop to enterprise applications from SAP. He called the product a “major differentiator” for how companies could run their business.The new frontier of software isn’t “hardwired solutions,” McDermott declared, but “component-based offerings,” giving customers greater agility to roll out new functions and features much faster. “The industrialization of software is upon us,” he said. “We’re following the path of others before us, like the car industry. Cars became pervasive when parts became standardized.”On that note, McDermott turned his attention to service-oriented architecture technology, or enterprise services architecture, as SAP calls it. Easing users’ concerns of yet another new vendor platform, McDermott referred to the transition as “evolutionary and not disruptive,” a business process innovation that empowers businesses and allows them to “co-invest and co-innovate.”Sapphire runs through Thursday.-John Blau, IDG News ServiceFor related news coverage, read SAP Broadens Customer Base at Sapphire and SAP Stresses Master-Data Management.Check out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage. Related content brandpost Adapting to change on a dime: The absolute necessity of hybrid portability Optimizing hybrid portability can be revolutionary for your organization, enabling you to succeed in multiple complex business environments. By Sandrine Ghosh Jun 06, 2023 5 mins Hybrid Cloud brandpost How to Manage Data as a Product The way many organizations manage data is often out of step with the way employees want to use data. Here’s how to reorient your strategy. By Paul Gillin Jun 06, 2023 4 mins Data Management brandpost Top 10 reasons to modernize technology now Application modernization is a wise investment for businesses seeking long-term success and a competitive edge in today's fast-paced digital landscape. By Amanda Downs and Alina Zamorskaya Jun 06, 2023 7 mins Digital Transformation feature 5G ready or 5G really? Industry CIOs face hard truths about private 5G Some enterprises are building private 5G networks for their industrial environments, only to find they have to initially settle for 4G service. So what is private 5G ready for, and what can it really do? By Peter Sayer Jun 06, 2023 8 mins CIO Network Appliances Network Switches Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe