Today (Tuesday 2 Feb.) an enterprise collaboration tool from SAP, that is based on Google Wave, will enter public beta.  With the informative beta name 12Sprints, the application will allow “users to collaborate on solving business problems in real time.”

Being dependent on Google Wave, SAP will be following Google’s classic approach with 12Sprints having a beta period that will “never end.”  In acknowledgement of this, David Meyer (senior vice president of emerging technologies, SAP) has stated that the “… whole idea is to learn from [its] usage.”

Why is this interesting?  Software giant SAP have plans to launch web-based sales management software (i.e. SaaS) in the middle of 2010 – they will be competing directly with their long term rival salesforce.com.

Of course, there’s the obligatory YouTube video’s (there are 13 in all) for 12Sprints:

And, you can become a friend on Facebook, and follow the beta on Twitter …

12Sprints is an example of an Enterprise 2.0 tool – a tool that enables decisions based on the response from multiply persons within the organisation.  But, essentially it employs the same tools used to make a decision as “normal” business group might.  However, SAP appear to be taking Enterprise 2.0 serious.  Below is a brief video of part of a round-table held by SAP titled “Enterprise 2.0 – A Look into the Crystal Ball” (this video is about Gravity a forerunner of 12Sprints).

Observe, 12Sprints is an excellent example of the use of Google’s Wave within the organisation, but it’s not a replacement for Twitter, Facebook, e-mail, etc (i.e. unlike salesforce.com’s Chatter – which is yet to become available in the wild.  In beta, or otherwise!).