Up until recently SAP have been quietly investigating the possibilities in Second Life and maintaining a small conference center in Silicon City. Craig Cmehil, SAPs developer community evangelist, told Metaversed that they are soon be opening up a new space in Second Life to bring a large number of other big-name companies, all partners of the software giant, into the virtual world.
Called the "Partner Portal", this is going to be a central information hub for SAP's Solution Extension Partners and Endorsed Business Solution Partners. They'll feature overviews about the companies and more in-depth looks at their solutions, as well as linking residents to more information via an interactive Partner Catalog. Using the catalog visitors looking for a particular type of solution will be able to choose from a variety of options and each location that fits their selections will then be visually indicated for their avatar to find quickly.
Although names are yet to be confirmed officially by SAP, clients are likely to include:
Solution Extension Partners
Adobe, HP, IDS Scheer, Technidata, Redwood, OpenText, RWD, Vendavo, Vistex
Endorsed Business Solution Partners
Callidus, Conformia, MCA, Meridium, OpenText, ORsoft, Prologa, Questra, Reflexis, RuleBurst, SmartOps, SPSS, Streamserve, Technidata, VitalSpring, Wonderware, zetVisions
The official announcement hasn't been made yet, but when it is we'll be sure to pass the SLurl on.