We recently asked veteran SAP guru Axel Angeli for his predictions of the major SAP trends in 2007. Now it's time to turn our attention to Mark Smith, CEO at Ventana Research, for his take on the matter.

SearchSAP: What's the biggest SAP trend for 2007?

Smith: The biggest trend is that SAP is moving to advance its use of Analytics and will evolve into offering its Customer Performance Management functionality across finance and operations management. These new advancements in applications and capabilities will become essential for SAP to maintain relevance with senior executives but to also help customers derive more value from existing investments. With a foundation year of new applications in Analytics and now an investment and focus in Performance Management, SAP is recognizing the importance of supporting not just the business processes but the management processes that can deliver improved results and effectiveness of organizations.

SearchSAP: Do you see any additional developments to keep an eye on?

Smith: SAP is moving to drive more value in its applications through significant advancements in the process and event drive architecture of SAP NetWeaver. The movement from transaction-centric architecture and systems to event-driven can help organizations move toward more automated and intelligent applications that improve the value and supply chains of industries. Integrated inter-enterprise processes are part of the next decade of innovations in ERP and CRM application suites and are essential to fulfilling the vision and promise of enterprise services architecture from SAP.

SearchSAP: What do you expect from SAP's ERP competitors?

Smith: SAP's key competition in ERP is Oracle, Infor and Microsoft at one level of mega application providers and then down to Epicor and Lawson. Each of these providers is working to maintain its existing customer base through new versions of its applications and new underlying application platform and capabilities. The places of significant new growth are in analytics and Business Intelligence and the underlying integration of these applications with information management needs of organizations. These application companies are continuing to build, buy and partner to expand these capabilities to stay competitive with SAP. In addition, the focus on Performance Management and new classes of applications for finance and operations is now advancing from many of SAP's large and small ERP competitors providing engines of growth and value for existing and new customers.

Stay tuned for more expert insights of what 2007 has in store for the SAP world! Also, be sure to take Ventana's latest survey on how to get the best metrics from SAP — there's a Starbucks gift certificate in it for you, plus a chance to win an iPod nano.

Matt Danielsson
Editor

There has been a lot of buzz around SAP's composite applications, xApps, lately. SAP claims big marketing success with 800+ customers, 100+ showcases and 80+ references to sing xApps' praises since its introduction in late 2002. As we enter the "second generation" of xApps, with Duet functionality, Project Argo and hundreds of new xApps on the horizon, we decided to check in with veteran SAP guru Josh Greenbaum to take stock of where we are and what we can expect from xApps in the years ahead.

SearchSAP.com: Is it still too early for xApps?
Josh Greenbaum: No, in fact there a number of them being deployed by a large number of customers. XRPM and XMII are two good examples that I know of. The use cases are customer-specific — meaning that there isn't an xApp for every customer. But there are definitely reasons to be deploying xApps today.

S: What will it take before composite applications become truly mainstream?
JG: They already are, insofar as there are lots of composites out there. Composites based on NetWeaver — particularly those developed in-house — will become mainstream once NetWeaver is deployed at a critical mass of customers and those customers understand the developmenent requirements for composites. I think critical mass will come in the next three to five years, possibly sooner, if the upgrade rate increases.

S: Is SAP doing enough to foster xApp development?
JG: Yes, and it's important that SAP not force-feed xApps on its customers. The use case has been built on real ROI, not a cool-technology justification. There are lots of mini-xApps on the way, and lots of partners who will be deployed to push these new xApps into the market. This eco-system approach is the right way, and it will yield the necessary results in due time.

S: Do you think ISVs will take an interest in xApps for the NetWeaver platform?
JG: Absolutely, now that the partnership and eco-system models have been well-defined and there are good examples of successful deployments in a number of industries.

S: Has SAP done a good job educating the user base about xApps?
JG: Is there anything they could do better? I think they need to keep pushing the concept, there are still customers who don't understand these applications' role or their relationship to SAP's ESA strategy. But in general, this education process doesn't happen overnight, nor should it.

S: SAP said they're gunning for 100+ analytics, 50+ personal productivity and 30+ mobile xApps in the year ahead. Do you think this is the right direction for SAP? Should they consider other areas that may benefit from xApp technology?
JG: This is a good start, a very good start. More specifically, I think a key direction will be towards fulfilling vertical industry requirements, and a number of the analytical xApps will fit the bill. When it comes to industry-specific xApps, there can't be too many xApps out there.

Matt Danielsson
Editor

SAP took more than 100 industry specific embedded analytics and branded them as part of its xApp portfolio. The analytics were first introduced at Sapphire ’05 in Boston. When SearchSAP first reported the analytics announcement, there was a question of whether they would be xApps.

So why call them xApps today? The answer is simple. SAP has branded composite applications that it has either acquired or developed in one of its labs as “xApps.” By adding over 100 embedded composite applications to its xApp line, SAP can point out that it is having initial success in this area. Some analysts suggest that the embedded analytics movement is growing.  By pulling specific pieces of data from multiple applications, end-users have better insight into company processes at their fingertips. 

In this interview with Roman Bukary, vice president of analytics and composite applications, Bukary explains SAP strategy around analytics and why some firms are getting more from their applications through embedded analytics. Bukary is from SAP product marketing, but the interview is still a good primer on SAP analytical xApps and the direction the software vendor is headed in with composite applications. The interview can be downloaded to your computer or to any digital music device.
-Rob Westervelt

I'm pleased to announce that SearchSAP.com and the SAP Developer Network (SDN) has entered into a content-sharing partnership starting today. This allows us to tap the expertise and insights of some of the best and brightest within SAP, complementing our regular news reporting and market coverage without compromising our position as the number one independent SAP resource around.

The first article, An introduction to RFID, by SAP Industry Standards Architect Steve Winkler, is also the final piece of the RFID theme month we've run throughout the month of May here on SearchSAP.com. For a round-up of all recent RFID content, check out Special Report: RFID for SAP.

Next up is an in-depth discussion about xApps between Business Process expert Helen Sunderland and xApp Analytics implementation expert Greg Root. Watch for it on Monday, June 5.

Matt Danielsson
Editor