TAW10 - THE BIG PICTURE

SAP'S PRODUCT STRATEGI FOR 2010 +

SAP delivers business solutions to organizations and people in the IT landscape by focusing on key areas for 2010 and beyond.
Scaling the customers’ core business (on Premise) is possible through solutions that deliver instant value to customers. These solutions use “timeless software” principles such as decoupling, layering, componentization, abstraction, and design. Other independent solutions integrate with core business processes through service-oriented architecture (SOA). SAP Business Suite 7 software is a major deliverable within this area.
Innovating via extensions (on Demand) is an extended SAP functionality for a specific line of business. These extensions will be provided on demand.
Extending customers’ reach (on Device) is a functionality for end users, who can access SAP data and processes from different devices; access information from both inside and outside the enterprise to improve analytical capabilities; and can build their own user experiences.
To ensure that all these layers fit together perfectly, an orchestration layer works across all applications within a customer landscape.

DIFFERENT SIZES - DIFFERENT PRODUCTS

SAP offers a vast range of scalable products for companies of all sizes.
SAP Business One is a single, integrated application, best for companies with up to 100 employees, having limited IT resources. It is deployed On Premisewith an implementation time of approximately 6 to 8 weeks. It is available in 40 countries and in 20 languages.
SAP Business ByDesign is delivered as software as a service (SaaS). Companies with employee strength of 100 to 500 can access it On Demand. It has an implementation time of approximately 4 to 8 weeks and is available in the United States, Germany, France, United Kingdom, China, and India.
SAP Business All-in-One is best for companies with up to 2500 employees, which want all functions preconfigured. This On Premise solution has an implementation time of 8 to 16 weeks. It is available in 50 countries.
SAP Business Suite for larger enterprises enables companies to manage their value chains and cross-company processes.

SAP BUSSINESS SUITE: COMPONENT

The SAP Business Suite provides many add-ons:
  A complete spectrum of business solutions in one platform

  Technological infrastructure combining openness, flexibility, maturity, and stability

  Interfaces for integrating SAP and non-SAP products

  Components that can meet multiple business requirements

  Industry-specific functions common to many industries


SAP BUSSINESS SUITE: ARCHITECTURE

The SAP Business Suite provides a complete spectrum of business solutions.
Core Applications are available in the form of specific add-ons.
  SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (SAP ERP) reduces IT complexity and delivers more IT value at a lower cost than traditional ERP solutions.

  SAP Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM) provides a platform for marketing, sales, and service professionals to obtain complete customer intelligence for managing customer-related processes.

  SAP Product Lifecycle Management (SAP PLM) helps track all product-related information over the product lifecycle.

  SAP Supplier Relationship Management (SAP SRM) optimizes the entire end-to-end procure-to-pay process.

  SAP Supply Chain Management (SAP SCM) helps companies to respond to demand-and-supply dynamics by transforming linear, sequential supply chains into open networks.
Industry Applications satisfy industry-specific business requirements and the resulting business processes.
Supplementary Applications include specialized business processes common to a large number of industries. Examples include SAP solutions for auto-ID and applications for mobile business.
SAP NetWeaver technology platform is the reliable, secure, and scalable foundation for business applications, such as SAP Business Suite and SAP BusinessObjects applications.
Enhancement Packages enable companies to add enhancements to SAP applications and SAP NetWeaver. All core applications of SAP Business Suite can continuously innovate through enhancement packages.

SAP LICENSING MODEL

SAP aims to offer software licenses that provide comprehensive solutions for business scenarios. SAP licenses its software through a combination of package licenses and named user licenses. Package licenses entitle a licensee to deploy and use the specified software functionality. Every user accessing the package license needs to have the appropriate named user license. There are three main categories in SAP’s license portfolio: SAP Business Suite (including industry portfolios, enterprise extensions, and enterprise foundation); SAP BusinessObjects solutions; and SAP NetWeaver.

APPLICATION AND COMPONENTS

Many applications that are provided in the context of the SAP Business Suite may have similar or identical requirements for business functions in subareas. Different applications therefore may contain – in parts – similar software components. A component is the smallest software unit, which can be produced, delivered, installed, and maintained separately.

PHASES OF SOFTWARE DELIVERY BY SAP

Two or three shipment phases – beta, restricted, and unrestricted – mark the introduction of SAP releases and the corresponding enhancement packages into the market. Hence, the availability of new SAP software releases depends upon the SAP release and maintenance strategy.
The beta shipment phase occurs before the restricted shipment phase (or the release-to-customer date), mostly for testing purposes.
The restricted shipment phase is flagged off by the release to customer date. The new software release is subjected to the standardized ramp-upprocess, during this phase. This is to introduce new products in the market. Hence, only a limited number of customers have access to the software. A ramp-up usually takes about 6 months.
The unrestricted shipment phase begins after the SAP ramp-up program is successfully concluded. This phase is flagged off by the default release date. The Default Release is the available version of the SAP software.

THE SAP MAINTENANCE STRATEGY

The three phases of maintenance are mainstream maintenance, extended maintenance, and customer-specific maintenance.
Mainstream maintenance starts from the release to customer date and generally ends after 7 years (that is, after covering the restricted and unrestricted shipment phases).
Extended maintenance kicks in when customers extend the support period (in which corrections or legal changes are taken into account) for an increased maintenance fee. The scope of support remains the same as mainstream maintenance.
Customer-specific maintenance starts after the extended maintenance or mainstream maintenance period ends. All releases enter this phase automatically. During this phase, customers receive support services similar to those offered in the mainstream maintenance phase but with some restrictions.


EVOLUTION FROM SAP R/3 VIA SAP R/3 ENTERPRISE TO SAP ECC

This grid tabulates the historical development for the current SAP ERP Central Component (ECC 6.0).
From SAP R/3, up to and including SAP R/3 4.6C, the technical basis and application development were interlinked.
SAP R/3 Enterprise (4.7) is based on SAP Web AS 6.20, thereby introducing the concept of SAP R/3 Enterprise Extensions.

SAP NETWEAVER: TECHNOLOGY MAP- EDITION 2010

The SAP NetWeaver technology platform is the reliable, secure, and scalable foundation for running business applications like SAP Business Suite and SAP BusinessObjects. These applications ensure that large enterprises can perform mission-critical business processes. In business, it is important to connect people, information, and business processes across technologies and companies. With SAP NetWeaver 7.0, SAP departs from its earlier layered structure. You can thus implement IT processes in a range of solution methods, called IT practices. The focus here is on the IT and business goals of the company. IT practices show how SAP NetWeaver helps solve certain IT problems by means of IT scenarios.

SAP NETWEAVER: KEY CAPABILITIES

SAP NetWeaver integrates people, information, and business processes in many ways:
People integration brings together the right functionality and the right information to the right people and is possible through
  multichannel access, which provides runtime environment for building mobile solutions with native or browser-based user interfaces;

  portal, which unifies information and applications to give users role-based views; and

  collaboration by members of project groups, regardless of time and of their geographic location through virtual rooms.

Information integration rationalizes information through business intelligence, knowledge management, and master data management.
Process integration is enhanced by SOA-based technology.
  Integration Broker manages all integration-relevant information.

  Business Process Management helps you to model, execute, and monitor business processes, based on a single, consistent process model.

The Application Platform – the SAP NetWeaver Application Server – is a complete development infrastructure to power platform-independent, robust, scalable web services and business applications.
  J2EE is a platform for developing Java-based business applications.

  ABAP is a programming language for business applications.

  DB and OS Abstraction are examples of databases and operating systems supported by the SAP NetWeaver Application Server.

SAP NetWeaver also offers lifecycle management and a composite application framework.


SAP NETWEAVER AS as THE BASIS FOR SAP SYSTEMS

SAP NetWeaver Application Server is used as a runtime environment by every SAP system. Together with the database, SAP NetWeaver AS is the application platform of SAP NetWeaver.

SAP NETWEAVER APPLICATION SERVER

SAP NetWeaver AS is a reliable and extensively tested runtime environment for executing complex business scenarios. It is proven to be highly scalable and supports different operating system and database platforms. It also supports open standards, including HTTP, HTTPS, SMTP, WebDAV, SOAP, SSL, SSO, X.509, Unicode, HTML, XML, and WML.
The applications developed by SAP do not always require both the runtime environments like ABAP and Java.
You have different installation options.
  SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP is the complete infrastructure in which ABAP-based applications can be developed and used.

  SAP NetWeaver AS Java is the scaffold within which J2EE-based applications can be developed and used.

  SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP+Java (dual stack) is the infrastructure in which you can develop and use both ABAP-based and J2EE-based applications.