Future of SAP products: the report of TAdviser from Vienna
In Vienna the emphasis was placed on the SAP TechEd 2009 conference on new, informal Enterprise 2.0 technologies and on various mobile solutions which can be integrated into already existing IT infrastructure and are capable to help the companies to organize in a new way work, to find and generate information, to receive non-standard and effective solutions.
Enterpirse 2.0 is not a product, but outlook. Seriously and for a long time
In spite of the fact that in Russia, according to TAdviser, players of the market of business applications (system integrators) do not see big perspectives in use of opportunities of different social networks and mechanisms in business objectives, this approach yet, obviously, already becomes one of the main universal mainstreams.
Within the last year SAP provided several products of the Enterpirse 2.0 direction, new to itself (analogy of Web 2.0 in a business area, i.e. joint work over the solution of some business challenges without the predetermined tough regulations and algoritom). Among such products – SAP Gravity (joint development with Google) and SAP Social Network Analyzer (SNA). What was in detail told about these developments on the "platform" action devoted by the most part to SAP NetWeaver opportunities speaks, perhaps, about systemacity of approach and gravity of intentions of SAP.
SAP Gravity is founded on the product Google Wave provided in the spring of 2009. Wave, or the Wave is a Wednesday for communication which allows to exchange text and graphic messages, to conduct thematic discussions, to select the separate directions of discussions, to invite as required new participants, to use the stored history of messages for "playing" of the course of discussion again to recover logic of a conversation or to acquaint new participants with a discussion essence. SAP quickly reacted to emergence of a new promising product and suggested developers to use from Google this Wednesday in the way, unexpected for them, – for business process modeling.
SAP Gravity interface
At problem definition the interested employees (within one organization or together with partners) can begin business process discussion, as required involving different experts – business analysts, specialists in specific data domains. It is interesting that such discussion comes to an end not just with receiving a ready business process model, but also immediate broadcasting it in program codes for practical use (thanks to integration with SAP NetWeaver BPM).
SAP Social Network Analyzer can be characterized as the navigator on human resources. He allows to gain an evident impression about various hierarchies and relationship between employees who appear in these or those business applications (also without being limited to a framework of one organization). It can be structures of subordination and accountability, geographical and functional (by data from HRM-applications), schemes of joint work over projects or contracts (from CRM-applications), chains of relationship according to transactions, from the customer and to final suppliers and contractors, including all interested partners and managers.
SAP Social Network Analyzer interface
According to SAP, such tool can be useful by reorganization of business processes as allows to define and build the shortest chains of interrelations between the interested participants and also at the organization of cross-functional teams for the solution of specific objectives. The application allows to find quickly experts in specific questions, to create communities, to reveal and develop employees abilities.
So far both solutions, SAP Social Network Analyzer and SAP Gravity, are in a stage of prototypes, but soon (on some sources, until the end of the current year) can become available to use.
Innovations at the suggestion of clients: artificial intelligence for optimization of sales
On one of "round tables" within SAP TechEd 2009 in Vienna it was told about the project of SAP in Fujitsu company characterized as creation of the semantic business application. A project objective was development of the self-training knowledge base which should become a superstructure or addition of the existing CRM system and to help sales managers to find the best versions of transactions and the most effective approaches to clients.
Contracts with which managers of Fujitsu - very difficult and, as a rule, unique work. To prepare the offer for the specific client, managers should conduct serious preliminary preparation, analyzing large volumes as structured information from several business applications (ERP, CRM, EDMS), and unstructured of the Internet and different internal sources (instructions, descriptions, cases and so forth). The management came to a conclusion that it is necessary to rebuild considerably business sales processes so that managers did not spend so much time for search of information necessary to them and could pay more attention to clients. It was for this purpose decided to create the uniform knowledge base which would allow to find quickly information which can be useful in this specific context.
Originally the knowledge base was filled with specific terminology by means of experts (according to the customer, it took only several days, and in a week it was already possible to begin to work with a system). The main problem consisted in creation of a self-training algorithm which would analyze the most typical requests and would range information on relevance found in different sources (the algorithm is implemented on the basis of accounting of ratings).
The user, having received a request from the client, selects a key word on which knowledge base search will be performed. In response to the request he receives the list of resources which can be useful by preparation of the transaction – descriptions of similar contracts, data on the client (including industry, geographical and other features), descriptions of products which can interest the client, etc. At the same time also employees who thanks to the previous successful experience of implementation of similar contracts can be attracted as experts are defined - the application has tools and for the organization of corporate communications.
So far the solution is found in the test stage and requires completion, including regarding development of visualization tools. However until the end of the current year it is supposed to bring a system into operation, and next year this product will probably be already offered also other clients of SAP. According to representatives of SAP, in the future, it is possible, the solution will become one of standard superstructures of the CRM system.
SAP about architecture of applications of the future
According to Jim Hageman Snabe, until recently development of business applications went by the principle of accumulation of volumes when each following updating included all previous, and solutions became more and more heavyweight. SAP imagines modern architecture of the business solutions approximately in the form of three-layer pie.
Architecture of SAP of "Timeless Software"
If to speak about SAP Business Suite 7, then at the bottom, basic level of a system – its core, key business processes and opportunities implemented on the basis of SOA. Lifecycle of a basic layer makes about six years, and during this time it should not undergo any radical conversions, and updates should be established flexibly and selectively, by the principle "not destroy what is already created and works". According to SAP, such approach is a guarantee of preserving of investments and is capable to ensure stable system operation. The center forms due to business expansions, including industry, partner and also provided "on demand". The average term of their implementation makes six months.
The most dynamic high layer can be modified in one and a half months. This layer is created by different graphical interfaces, interfaces with mobile and other devices and also means for the business analysis, including BusinessObjects. In SAP Business Suite 7, according to Mr. Snabe, about 96% of all interfaces (i.e. about 2000 screens) are implemented in a uniform key now. The following task facing the developer - to unify not just interfaces, but the internal business logic standing behind them, to make it absolutely transparent, clear and predictable.
Key postulate of such architecture is the mandatory requirement of that all these tools which have different lifecycles and different influence on business logic should get on without problems with each other. It is implemented due to use of own integration layer of SAP NetWeaver. Creation of the preconfigured konnketor should remove care of technical aspects of integration from users and assign to them only tasks of building of end-to-end business processes.
Integration by eyes of SAP
According to Helmut Fink (Helmut Fink), the head SAP Business Development, about 80% of clients of SAP already use SAP NetWeaver in this or that type (here it is necessary to consider that all clients of SAP Business Suite and SAP Business All-in-One automatically become users of SAP NetWeaver which is a basis of these applications). According to Mr. Fink, the concept of SAP differs from the competing solutions in the fact that it is not aimed at integration as on a technical task, and is focused on "painful points" of business, pays attention to specific, real business processes and their implementation in the heterogeneous environment (not only means of SAP applications). Therefore integration technologies of SAP allow to solve those technical problems in the field of joint work of different applications and services which without it could not be solved, Mr. Fink considers.
According to estimates of experts, about 80% of business processes are typical for a large number of clients, despite of their industry accessory and an annual turnover. Only 15-20% of business processes differ at the different companies, but they also are key as create competitive advantages. If to speak about integration at the level of business processes, then for clients it is important to have the full map of business processes of SAP, already implemented, ready to use, at the order not to start every time building of logic "from scratch" (today, according to Mr. Fink, the number of the ready, preconfigured business processes of SAP, is calculated by thousands). Imposing the unique requirements, restrictions and tasks on this card, clients can select what is not enough for them and that should be developed especially for them.
Thus, the problem of modeling from technical passes into discharge of business challenges. So, the clear and simple interfaces in use available to business users are of particular importance. Partially this task was solved with release of SAP application of NetWeaver BPM which allows to broadcast visual business process models directly in codes.
Other approaches are used at integration at the level of data. The same information (for example, data on clients, on suppliers, about goods) is stored and processed in the company in different information systems. Importance of cleaning and unification of the adequate and comparable estimates given for receiving became an axiom for a long time. SAP recommends also this task to consider not only as technical, but also in terms of advantage for business. It is, first of all, about opportunities of the business analysis which gives deeper understanding of the events in terms of business and can influence finally and business processes, force the company to review and rebuild them. For example, it can unexpectedly become clear that for some goods item the company has too many suppliers, it creates additional difficulties at coordination of deliveries. Or on the contrary, for one of nomenclature positions, key for the company, there is only one supplier, and it generates additional risks.
One more aspect of integration – context (information and interface). For SAP it is connected, first of all, with portal technologies which are one of methods to organize the most flexible interfaces to the necessary applications, own (internal) and various external systems. Marge Breya, the executive vice president of SAP and the CEO of management team platforms of a business intelligence and SAP NetWeaver, considers that all necessary information somewhere exists, partially on the Internet, partially in different information systems. The only problem – to find it and to provide to the necessary person in due time. For this purpose it is necessary to work both with the structured information (database), and with unstructured (the Internet, social networks, various knowledge bases, for example, on the wiki engine). Use of InMemory technologies (data processing in RAM) allows to trace and analyze data in real time.
Recently SAP is aimed at closer integration with the products OpenText, SharePoint. According to Chris Horak (Chris Horak), the vice president of the direction of product marketing of SAP, it does not mean at all inability of SAP to implement similar products independently, but speaks rather about desire of the developer to meet the existing customer requirements.
As Mr. Horak claims, features of approach of SAP are that portal technologies are used for work not directly with information (what is characteristic of the traditional Internet portals), but with applications which can provide this information. Thus, portals of applications (Application Portals) are some kind of gateway, or "single window" of data access that does this tool more flexible and powerful.
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