On March 10, SAP’s annual Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) conference will begin in Orlando, FL. We talked to Narina Sippy, SVP and GM of SAP’s GRC Group, to get a quick preview of the major announcements from the event. Sippy made four product news disclosures:

• The Enterprise Risk Management module will integrate with SAP Strategy Management. This means that risk appetite, KPIs, and other policies defined in Risk Management can now roll down to an entire business through Strategy Management, the layer in which risks are tied directly into policies.
• The Access Control and Process Control products have been updated so as to achieve integration with a greater number of third-party products. For example, SAP can tie into Identity Management provided by IBM, Sun, or Novell in order to verify if a specific employee is allowed access to a sensitive location or process.
• The new x-App Query Tool, developed in conjunction with SAP partner Greenlight, allows users to adopt a write-once approach to control checks. For example, a query written to check the presence of a control in an SAP application can be reused to check the same control in an Oracle system.
• A Global Trade Services application will allow companies to make certain that their cross-border transactions are compliant with trade regulations and environmental regulations.

More news about the upgraded GRC suite will be released next week.

Demir Barlas, Site Editor

We have a new addition to our panel of site experts. Independent consultant Andre Truong is an SAP veteran with experience from complex implementations across Europe, United States and Asia. He has been working with SAP since 1995 and is currently supporting early adopters within SAP's ecosystem in taking advantage of the Enterprise SOA and SAP's Business Process Platform.

Andre has many valuable skills in his SAP toolkit, but one area stands out: his formidable expertise in SAP composite applications (xApps) and its many uses in the NetWeaver era. Always looking for a good challenge, Andre invites you to send your toughest xApp questions his way today. Also make sure to browse his first batch of answers to user questions.

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