SAP used its Sapphire 05 user conference in Copenhagen last week
to showcase moves to open up its software architecture to users and
developers.
The enterprise software supplier is aiming to boost the adoption of
its Netweaver middleware platform by making it easier for SAP users
to link their Java and Microsoft .net-based applications with SAP
products.
SAP is redesigning its Netweaver application platform to
accommodate the development of service oriented architectures, so
that all future business applications can plug into it as web
service components.
The new software infrastructure - Enterprise Services Architecture
(ESA) - will emerge in 2007, with Netweaver a core component. ESA
is based on the concept of web services, where software components
can be reused flexibly across the IT infrastructure to cut costs
and bring efficiencies to a business.
SAP's strategy is to convert Netweaver from application middleware
to an architecture for running business processes.
"Netweaver will not be an enterprise application integration
platform any longer. This year we will evolve Netweaver into a
business process platform," said SAP chief executive Henning
Kagermann in his keynote speech.
The result will be an event-driven, service oriented system that
will link business processes across a company's various
departments, said SAP.
Sean Atchinson, head of SAP at British Gas parent company Centrica,
said, "It was always the logical way they were going to go, with
their technology stack moving to an open architecture - they needed
to be able to work in tandem and harmony with Microsoft .net and
Java communities.
"Our advice [to other SAP users] is try to stay as standard as
possible, because the ownership costs come down and upgrades become
simpler, and you can reuse processes across different parts of the
business, for example human resources or procurement."
Next year, SAP plans to release packaged and custom-built software
applications that run on the Netweaver BPP platform, with
third-party developers also releasing programs. SAP itself will
release the MySAP ERP suite (the successor to R3) for mid-sized
companies running Netweaver BPP.
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