There was a lot of buzz about the upcoming NetWeaver 7.1 at Sapphire the other week. Releasing in Q3 this year, it’s positioned as the springboard for really getting into SOA in the real world. NetWeaver 7.1 is a major milestone for SAP that packs plenty of juice, with a full Enterprise Services Repository which enables users to dig into ES composite use and creation, as well as laying the groundwork for SAP’s business process initiative.

Simply put, SAP’s Enterprise SOA bandwagon is on the move. But at the same time, SAP’s A1S on-demand ERP solution was one of the other big stories of Sapphire. Given the luke-warm reception of SAP CRM on-demand last year, it may seem a bit puzzling why SAP would double down on both sides of the fence. That’s why it was interesting to read Brad Shimmin’s take on the SOA vs. SaaS debate.

Conflict entertains, he said, but the sensible thing is to use SOA as a foundation for SaaS.

“Using an Enterprise Service Bus, SOA solutions can transform disparate data formats, mediate different protocols, and orchestrate transactions. Imagine if an enterprise that employs SOA internally were also to use a SaaS application, say Salesforce.com. That enterprise could use its ESB to connect Salesforce.com to its ERP or CRM systems. Salesforce.com, of course, has been shooting for this goal since 2005. But the real bang won’t come until SaaS customers themselves maintain a SOA infrastructure internally.”

In other words, these concepts are hardly mutually exclusive. That’s certainly food for thought in light of SAP’s stated goal of chasing both rabbits simultaneously.

Matt Danielsson
Editor

Weather permitting (we are flying Jet Blue), SearchSAP.com will be covering the ASUG (Americas' SAP Users' Group) mySAP ERP Upgrade Symposium in Denver Wednesday and Thursday. In advance of the event, we spoke with ASUG president Rod Masney about SAP CEO Henning Kagermann's contract extension and what to expect at the conference.

Masney was very positive about Kagermann's new deal and said he extended Kagermann congratulations that evening. Kagermann personally responded with thanks and good words for ASUG the next day. So, it's probably not surprising that Masney sees the extension as a good thing.

"We [ASUG] see it as a positive because of the relationship we've built with him and his team over the years and the programs we've worked on together. Henning has articulated his commitment to all the user groups, not just ASUG. He has articulated that there's value that groups such as ours bring to his customers. He shows this through SAP resources, time at our events and his personal time meeting with us."

Masney views Kagermann as atypical among CEOs in his willingness and interest in working with user groups. Kagermann generally meets with ASUG leadership face-to-face twice a year, once at Sapphire and once in Germany.

The co-location of the ASUG annual conference and Sapphire is a prime example in Masney's mind. He also mentioned that ASUG developed the "voice of the customer" program (where ASUG surveys members about SAP products, services and relationship with SAP) at Kagermann's request, as well as a book that ASUG and SAP are working on jointly.

"The board extending Henning's contract is a testament to the strategies he's put in place and the leadership he's demonstrated within SAP, the growth they've experienced and the commitment to the strategy around ESA and where they're taking the platform with the customers."

Masney indicated that ASUG really doesn't care who succeeds Kagermann, and mentioned the organization's relationship with Shai Agassi, president of SAP's product and technology group, and Léo Apotheker, president of SAP's customer solutions and operations, have grown in recent years as well.

"It's not a beauty contest. For us it's about having the right relationships and having the opportunity to have influence in SAP, as well as to demonstrate that we're delivering value by educating our members and giving them an opportunity to network and learn from each other."

Masney also talked about the upcoming upgrade symposium. He said the attendees will represent the whole spectrum of the upgrade process from just thinking about it to already in the throes of it. (Earlier this year, Masney said he was starting to see an uptick in users considering upgrades.)

"The whole idea behind a symposium is a very small [200-250], very focused, very intimate event. There is a real good opportunity for education and peer-to-peer networking. This is not for giving them big-picture, esoteric information, if you will. But more to deliver concrete stuff that attendees can take back and use in their business."

We're bringing our digital camera to the event, so we'll aim to have some thoughts and pictures posted on the blog late Wednesday or early Thursday. We'll also have a couple items up on the main site by later in the week. If there's anything specific you're interested in, please shoot me an email (jfranke@techtarget.com).

As mentioned last week, it can be tough to cram as much information as we'd like to in a 15 minute podcast. So, we followed-up with author Scott Campbell recently and asked a couple questions that didn't quite make the cut in last week's interview:

SearchSAP.com: We talked about SAP jobs a bit in the podcast. If you were looking for an SAP job in this market, what is/are the most important things you would focus on?

Campbell: There are plenty areas outside of core NetWeaver which will be in high demand in the years to come. One place we are focusing our recruiting around is Architecture and BPM skills, especially knowledge around IDS Sheer's ARIS technology. Another place where skills will be needed is around xMII. As I mentioned on the podcast, ideally we look for people with good broad solutions experience as we can always provide additional training in any specific tool or technology. Another area emerging in 2007 is for people with the NetWeaver Composition Environment experience (next generation of WebDynpro and CAF, …etc.). And of course from the functional side, anyone who understands BPX concepts and can apply their business knowledge with the friendly modeling tools supplied by SAP. These people should be in high demand. I guarantee our recruiters are always interested in folks with any of these skills.

SearchSAP.com: You had a whole chapter in the book on the SAP ESA ecosystem. How is that playing out?

Campbell: The ecosystem has been very successful and is growing rapidly. From a standards perspective SAP is investing heavily on key SOA standards and implementing them into their products. A great example of this is their contributions and investments around SCA and SDO as well as Java EE 5 implementation. In addition, SAP is working with other platform vendors to define and deliver the broader standards needed to create next generation SOA Infrastructure and composite modeling environments. The number of ISV partners are exponentially increasing and moving beyond Powered By NetWeaver solutions to create more certified composite applications. Expect to see a lot more of the partners to move from engineering to real implementation and delivery of solutions in 2007. This is good for SAP, good for partners, and really good for their joint customers. Lastly, the results of the SAP Enterprise Services Community are yielding real fruit and this effort remains very important as a place where partners and customers can contribute to the future service enablement of SAP.

If readers find follow-up like this valuable, we could see it becoming a regular blog item. To let us know one way or the other, email me at jfranke@techtarget.com.

SearchSAP.com just posted an interview with Scott Campbell, the co-author of the new book 'Mastering Enterprise SOA with SAP NetWeaver and MySAP ERP.' We discussed a lot of interesting topics with Scott around SOA, ESA roadmaps, getting business people involved with IT projects, and SAP jobs.

As is often the case with podcasts, due to time constraints there were a few things we weren't able to get to. So, we did some email Q&A after the fact where we asked more about SAP jobs among other things. We'll plan on posting the questions and Scott's answers tomorrow or Friday at the latest.

So check back in the next couple days to hear (read) more from Scott.

Here at SearchSAP.com, we just got our hands on the latest service-oriented architecture (SOA) book titled Mastering Enterprise SOA with SAP NetWeaver and mySAP ERP, by Scott Campbell and Vamsi Mohun. This recently published SOA resource details SAP's roadmap for Enterprise Services Architecture (ESA) as distinguished by SAP. 

By now, most SAP-run businesses are cautiously meandering their way down the much touted ESA roadmap — it's only been four years – but much apprehension preceeds them. Campbell and Mohun strive to overcome the anxiety for companies by laying to rest myths surfacing around ESA. 

Two ESA myths debunked

1. SOA and ESA share the same concept with ESA having more direction. SOA is an industry term while ESA is SAP's enterprise term for SOA. It comes across ambigious, especially since SAP decided to rename ESA to Enterprise SOA to alleviate confusion, but instead compounded it with yet another term to add to the pot. Both SOA and ESA are being created and recognized across the IT world as the next platform for business process excellence. Basically, both terms can be defined as a full set of business processes tailored to a company based around many applications. The main reason SAP has distinquished their SOA plan is because SAP incorporates SOA with "industry-driven service models" making the package more robust and unique. So, SOA and ESA are similiar — same in concept — but different in practice.

2. Another misconception business' have about ESA is that there is an end to the roadmap and a final product that will be shelved and sold. This is simply not accurate. The whole concept of SOA and ESA is to continue to build and evolve best industry business solutions. As time ushers in improvements and updated technologies, so ESA will adapt and reposition itself accordingly. Independent software vendors (ISVs) will continue to introduce corresponding software and upgrades will continue to be a way of life. The bottom line is, ESA can start now, without the latest upgrade. Some existing R/3 components can support pilot parts of ESA. This is being herald as the best way to — let's say practice — ESA before having to upgrade and commit. If you are already running NetWeaver, even more opportunities exist to trail run with ESA.

So, rest assure that ESA is important and more than just SOA. In fact, it should be practiced today for a future commitment. Put your ESA fears to bed and realize that ESA is just another SOA option.

Look for more from Campbell and Mohun's Mastering Enterprise SOA with SAP NetWeaver and mySAP ERP from SearchSAP.com in the future.

Juli Austin
Assistant Editor

At last week’s TechEd conference in Las Vegas, SAP put the breaks on the latest version of its software suite, mySAP ERP 2005. An upgraded version won’t be released until 2010. Until then, SAP plans releases of feature enhancements around specific modules.

The move was greeted by TechEd attendees as good news because many said that they didn’t want to undergo an upgrade project with the possibility of another upgrade in only a year or two. “ERP fatigue” is what one analyst called it.

“R” Ray Wang, principal analyst at Forrester Research Inc. told me that SAP is doing all it can to motivate customers to move to the latest and greatest version of SAP. The latest software were laid out like carrots – Duet, enterprise search and the Business Intelligence Accelerator – but Wang said SAP users are quietly saying they want a one or two year break before moving forward with big upgrade projects.

But questions remain about whether SAP is falling behind its schedule to service-enable the entire mySAP Business Suite in 2007. Already about 500 enterprise services have been released to the business process repository. How many enterprise services need to be released before the entire suite can be considered services enabled?

“I think they are definitely on track with the integration pieces,” Wang said. “The business services piece needs more work.

SAP’s new software delivery plan left room for Oracle to ruminate about whether SAP is falling behind. Oracle has been touting its Fusion middleware as the foundation of everything SOA.

“SAP appears to be rethinking their strategy as they lose application market share
to Oracle and confront the difficulties of moving their application software to a modern Service Oriented Architecture (SOA),” said Oracle CEO, Larry Ellison.

SAP struck back:

“Larry Ellison's statements in today's Oracle earnings press release about SAP's product and acquisition strategy are a complete misrepresentation," said Bill Wohl, vice president of product and solutions public relations, SAP. “Since January of 2003, SAP has consistently articulated and delivered on its vision for enterprise SOA following a course of organic growth combined with strategic acquisitions.”

More to come…

-Rob Westervelt 

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

What is service-oriented architecture (SOA)? If you can't answer this question — don't worry, you're in good company. And if you're scratching your head on how SAP's ESA vision fits in with SOA – once again, you are not alone. You're sure to hear more about SOA and ESA at Sapphire in Orlando next month. But if you want an overview ahead of time, check out our new ROI tip written by Axel Angeli, our NetWeaver, ESA and EAI expert. We just launched the tip, Building a business case for SOA today. It includes a valuable PowerPoint presentation accompanied by a plain-english explanation of SOA and ESA.    

As Axel says in his presentation, to SOA or not SOA?, is not even a question. SOA will soon be a necessity, and that means that failing to implement the ESB in time could hurt your IT efficiency and business capabilities.

SOA will not only eliminate redundancy but also dramatically enhance data quality, accelerate data discovery and allow for innovative customer services. By this standard, many CIOs will save money and get more sleep.

Overall, the two main reasons to transform your IT for SOA are enhancing the reliability of work and erasing unnecessarily redundant technologies. Both goals are mainly achieved through establishing a common reusable infrastructure ("services&quo along with a flexible common interfacing standard.

Want to learn how to prepare a business case for SOA? Check out our new tip by Axel Angeli, and then read more of his advice at his site, www.logosworld.com. Don't miss the others in this three part series: Building a business case for SAP: BW and Building a business case for SAP: NetWeaver.