What is SAP?

SAP, started in 1972 by five former IBM employees in Mannheim, Germany, states that it is the world's largest inter-enterprise software company and the world's fourth-largest independent software supplier, overall.

The original name for SAP was German: Systeme, Anwendungen, Produkte, German for "Systems Applications and Products." The original SAP idea was to provide customers with the ability to interact with a common corporate database for a comprehensive range of applications. Gradually, the applications have been assembled and today many corporations, including IBM and Microsoft, are using SAP products to run their own businesses.

SAP applications, built around their latest R/3 system, provide the capability to manage financial, asset, and cost accounting, production operations and materials, personnel, plants, and archived documents. The R/3 system runs on a number of platforms including Windows 2000 and uses the client/server model. The latest version of R/3 includes a comprehensive Internet-enabled package.

SAP has recently recast its product offerings under a comprehensive Web interface, called mySAP.com, and added new e-business applications, including customer relationship management (CRM) and supply chain management (SCM).

As of January 2007, SAP, a publicly traded company, had over 38,4000 employees in over 50 countries, and more than 36,200 customers around the world. SAP is turning its attention to small- and-medium sized businesses (SMB). A recent R/3 version was provided for IBM's AS/400 platform.

SAP ABAP

What SAP says about ABAP's future

 

With Java and global outsourcing becoming more prevalent, what does the future look like for ABAP developers?

The future of ABAP (advanced business application programming) is seemingly on every SAP developer's mind. It's understandable -- no area of SAP has been harder hit by technical changes than ABAP development, but ABAP is far from dead.

Developers point to ominous signs: All new SAP programs are written in Java (not true), the NetWeaver CE (composition environment) is an exclusively Java-based environment (true), the NetWeaver Developer Studio is also almost exclusively Java-based (true). When we take the impact of global outsourcing into account as well, we can safely say that it's been a rockier road for ABAP programmers than for any other SAP skill set.

 

True to form, one of the hottest topics at TechEd 2007 was the changing nature of the SAP developer skill set. It's easy to see why people care so much about this topic: SAP customers don't want to find themselves with a development team that lacks the skills to implement the latest SAP functionality, and SAP programmers are facing enough challenges without having to worry that their skills won't be needed on project sites.

So what's the latest on the future of ABAP?

ABAP is not as dead as some might think. At TechEd 2007, Vishal Sikka, SAP's chief technology officer, said that there are still 238 million lines of ABAP code in SAP. The message? ABAP is still entrenched in SAP, and SAP is still entrenched in ABAP. He also noted that while some new SAP programs are written in Java, some are written in ABAP too.

Some of the new NetWeaver PI (process integration) functionality was also written in ABAP. You may not see it when you work with PI, but the ABAP is there underneath, keeping things humming along. I did talk to some SAP representatives who didn't even know whether ABAP was part of NetWeaver at this point, but the SAP Labs team assured me that it is.

Thomas Jung of SAP Labs, who writes a developer's blog on SDN (SAP Developers' Network), said some of the underlying NetWeaver functions were written in ABAP, and of course there is the Web Dynpro for ABAP. Jung also said that the ABAP Workbench is indeed part of NetWeaver and is being equipped with many of the bells and whistles that the Java side of NetWeaver is receiving.

So, although it's not going away anytime soon, we can't say that the ABAP outlook is dreamy. ABAP is still a valid part of the SAP landscape, but there's no question that when it comes to designing new enterprise services, Java is the language of choice in most cases.

On the other hand, we must remember the warning Sikka gave me during our interview: The entire SAP landscape is changing, and the emphasis on ABAP versus Java is not the right way to understand the transitions that are under way.

The design of the new enterprise service-oriented architecture (eSOA) NetWeaver development platform is specifically intended to make the programming language used irrelevant. The eSOA layer is designed to work with any open standard, so between eSOA and PI, programmers should be able to use their environment of choice and be interoperable with SAP.

Sikka went further, as did many executives, to stress that SAP's modeling tools (Visual Composer, the upcoming Aris for NetWeaver, as well as a new Eclipse modeling environment) are all designed to change the development process and emphasize the design of reusable components over arduous hand-coded customizations.

Soon, these modeling environments may even generate enough automated code to make it possible for the "Business Process Experts" of the future to do all the development work. Some have suggested that as much as 70% of all hand-coding will go away once these tools are fully realized.

That goes beyond the ABAP-versus-Java debate to a much broader debate on the future of development work in an SOA and visual modeling world -- inside and outside of SAP. My advice for developers is to try to get their hands on all the new modeling tools and to check out the new composition environment on SDNand the BPX (business process expert) community in order to get a better feeling for the convergence of IT and business.

SAP Front-ends

SAP front-end is becoming more accessible and user-friendly, but developers need a diverse skillset to cover it all. Get information on Adobe interactive forms, Duet business scenarios, enterprise widgets and the mobile Java client here.

 

SAP News:

 

1. SAP Muse graphical interface could be next business browser

 

LAS VEGAS – SAP's graphical interface upgrade called Project Muse will be released in phases beginning at the end of the year and could represent the first business browser for end-users.

SAP gave attendees at its TechEd conference here a closer look at the preliminary results of its graphical interface upgrade. While users said the interface was primed for a much needed update, some expressed confusion over the future of SAP Portal and the viability of supporting multiple interfaces for end-users.

"They're offering almost too much choice without any guidance," said Don Allen, a manager at IT consultancy, Accenture. "There's no real hard and firm rules, so portal usage as a client might be diminished."

But Shai Agassi, president of SAP's product and technology group, said SAP didn't want to force end-users into a standard interface for tapping business data. Instead, using SAP Portal as the underlying technology, multiple graphical interfaces – SAP Enterprise Portal, Muse, Duet, widgets and voice – would be supported, Agassi said.

"We don't force users into the world of SAP. We take SAP into what users are doing," he said. "We're giving our customers the option to tie the core portal engine in NetWeaver to whatever user experience their users want to be delighted with."

Muse gives the interface client the look of a slick Web site with a shell area that gives end users access to specific data and a canvas, which can be changed for a specific job function. The style is similar to SAP's Business One interface with the ease of use of the SAP-Microsoft joint Duet product, which connects SAP processes with familiar Microsoft Office products.

Questions remain about the new interface. SAP executives haven't said whether it is easy to deploy. SAP is also still determining whether to release Muse as an update or sell it as a separate product.

Muse will be released in phases with specific SAP modules for customers running Microsoft Windows. Support for Apple OS and Linux will be added later, said Filip Misovski, an SAP product strategist. SAP is also seeking customers to beta test the interface, he said.

"It's all the same underlying portal infrastructure that the different clients take advantage of," Misovski said.

SAP will still support, but will begin gradually phasing out use of former SAP UI technologies like the SAPGUI, BSP, and HTMLB Misovski said. The Muse client in addition can run HTML/AJAX and FLEX/Flash based apps.

The minimum basic requirement to use Muse is mySAP ERP 2004s. The new Muse interface standardizes on Web Dynpro and uses the tooling environment of Visual Composer, Eclipse for Web Dynpro and ABAP Workbench for Web Dynpro.

For Marc Manuel, an ABAP programmer with Shell Oil Co., Muse gives end-users a slick new look, but he said like many other SAP firms, Shell has standardized on its own custom portal application.

"We use a portal and we're happy with it," Manuel said. "But Muse adds value by giving end-users more control over company data."

2. SAP aims at ISVs with on-demand model

 

By Robert Westervelt, News Editor
13 Dec 2005 | SearchSAP.com

 

LAS VEGAS -- SAP plans to launch software in an on-demand model in 2006, but according to executives at a recent SAP analyst summit here, the model would be quite different from that of Salesforce.com and other on-demand CRM vendors.

 

 

"We will come out with a product when we are ready to come out with [one] that actually answers the needs of customers, scales and integrates," said Shai Agassi, a member of SAP's executive board, who serves as president of SAP's product and technology group. "All the base functionality of an enterprise solution needs to be in place. … We have plans that will be clarified when we are ready to clarify them."

SAP executives at first brushed off the idea of an on-demand model for small and midsized businesses (SMBs). But SAP CEO Henning Kagermann told financial analysts earlier this year that the recent success of SalesForce.com and NetSuite Inc. caused SAP researchers to focus on an on-demand model for SMBs.

Agassi said the focus will be on simplicity for small businesses, and a resulting product would be different from the on-demand products currently on the market.

"We believe the issue is about simple products with a simple way to ramp up into the product, with the need for it to still be integrated into backbone systems and the ability to actually take it anywhere you want to go to," he said. "It [asks] a much more complicated set of questions than just do I have my data on my data center or some other data center."

SAP could be timing its on-demand release with Microsoft, which is planning on-demand products by making the applications support Web services and service-oriented architectures (SOAs) and adapt to customer-specific processes, said Sanjeev Aggarwal, a senior analyst at Boston-based Yankee Group, in a recent research brief to clients titled, "Appeal for On-Demand Solutions Is Expanding."

"To succeed, on-demand applications need to be purposefully architected and developed to function in a distributed Web-based environment through the support of Web services, XML standards and SOA concepts," Aggarwal said. "This is a key requirement for collaboration, data sharing, mobile/remote workforce, multi-location enterprises and supplier-partner collaboration."

SAP is also planning a model that could be aimed at small independent software vendors, according to Klaus Kreplin, a member of the SAP extended executive board, who focuses on NetWeaver development. In his briefing to industry analysts, Kreplin said up to 90% of ISVs are small businesses and they don't have the systems to support major development on NetWeaver.

"We want to provide a hosted sandbox development system for ISVs," he said.

Kreplin called the new system the "mySAP Sandbox," and said it would support ISVs by providing the tools necessary via the Web to test modifications in a real-world environment. The development could speed new NetWeaver development from SAP partners and boost the time it takes to bring new products to market, he said.

The sandbox could be used to build composite applications, called xApps, which draw data from several sources to solve a specific business problem.

SAP Interface Technologies

Get the know-how you need about technologies like SAP XI (exchange infrastructure), PI (process integration), SAP JCo (Java Connector), RFC (remote function calls), BAPIs and much more in this collection of SAP interface tools, tips and expert advice

News:

1. SAP is Hampton's co-pilot
2. Scripting in a Box adds new languages for SAP ABAP developers
3. SAP Interface Technologies                                                                            

   

SAP is Hampton`s co-pilot  (NEWS)

A lengthy and intensive performance management technology selection process was thrown for a loop for one local government organization this year when its final choice was acquired by SAP.

Hampton, Va., selected Pilot Software for its strategy and performance management project, just before SAP bought the company. After some hand-wringing, Hampton stuck with SAP and so far the results have been encouraging.

Hampton went through a rigorous selection process and chose Pilot Software from a group of 10 competitors, according to John Eagle, assistant city manager for the City of Hampton.

"The Pilot solution was the clear leader," Eagle said. "It had a product that was easy to use, and it was one of the most affordable."

Hampton, a city of about 150,000 people located on the Chesapeake Bay, was looking to organize information across city departments -- from libraries to the police department -- so it could find efficiencies and reduce redundant processes.

"[Hampton has] probably 30 different business units; there's lots of potential for redundancy," Eagle said. "How do we manage and take a hard look at that? That's where we started talking about strategy management and performance management."

In February, just when Hampton was making its final decision on which vendor to go with, SAP acquired Pilot Software for an undisclosed sum. One of the major attractions for SAP was the Mountain View, Calif.-based software maker's PilotWorks analytics application, which had a strong customer base in the government sector, according to analysts.

The acquisition gave Hampton -- not an SAP shop -- second thoughts. Officials with the city scrutinized the decision, Eagle said, grilling SAP on what the acquisition would mean for customers, service and products.

"It was kind of a surprise and a shock to us that they got acquired," Eagle said. "We asked a lot of questions. SAP sent in a lot of people and had us on the phone with a lot of folks." PilotWorks will be "tucked in" to SAP's existing product suite, filling a hole in the company's offering, SAP said at the time of the acquisition. In the future, PilotWorks will be integrated with SAP's other applications and built on its NetWeaver platform. This started to assuage officials' concerns, but Hampton didn't just take SAP at its word. The city turned to about a dozen SAP and Pilot customers going through the transition.

"Without exception, the Pilot customers said they saw the SAP acquisition as a good thing and had a good experience with the transition up to that point," Eagle said. "We asked a lot of questions, and we got a resounding affirmation of where we were going."

Although it is still fairly early in the project, the city is happy with its decision to stick with SAP.

"The product is very easy to use," Eagle said. "It's a very straightforward tool that has a lot of power to do analysis that you don't typically have in Excel."

One place the city is seeing dividends is in measuring the performance of its 3-1-1 call center, a non-emergency number similar to 9-1-1 but designed to handle issues like potholes or burned-out street lights. Hampton uses Pilot to evaluate call abandonment rate and wait time. The city believed there was a correlation between the two metrics, but it was difficult to quantify using the old system. Both values were plotted on a graph using different scales -- wait time in seconds and call abandonment rate in percentage.

"With the old system, trying to show correlation by plotting actuals on a graph was tough," Eagle said. "In the new system, we were able to show that relationship in literally about three minutes."

Eagle would do some things differently if he were to do the project over, starting with hiring people to work full-time on the project.

"It's not the product. The product is pretty easy," he explained. "But you're talking about culture change, changing the very nature of how people do work and what they pay attention to."

A full-time resource would be able to focus on the project's technical and cultural issues exclusively, without being pulled away by other duties, and could also provide an outside perspective, according to Eagle.

He also cited some relatively minor detailed, technical issues, such as users receiving financial information in the form of full data dumps, rather than in a more summarized, usable form. Rather than problems specific to the SAP installation, Eagle chalked those up to part of doing business.

"There are some devils in the details, and you'll always have those," he said.

Phase one of the project is almost complete, with its rollout of one interface to four departments, and so far SAP has delivered on what it told Hampton from the beginning.

"So far they've come through," Eagle said. "We've been pretty happy with the service we've gotten, and we've had a lot of conversations with them. No complaints as far as that goes, knock on wood."

The city will continue a measured, division-by-division install until all of its departments are complete.

"It's a tough thing to look at, measuring outcomes and results as opposed to things you do, your activities," Eagle said. "Getting an entire organization to do that takes a lot of time and effort."

Scripting in a Box adds new languages for SAP ABAP developers (NEWS)

SAP developers may no longer have to find and install all the different SAP connectors and correct versions needed to use alternative scripting languages.

An SAP employee has developed Scripting in a Box, which packages a full open source scripting environment onto a computer desktop or USB stick. Through a single script file, a development environment is automatically configured on a drive of a developer's choice. Preloaded sample applications inside the package are ready to connect to SAP back-end systems through a login screen.

"It shows how easily it is to connect to systems and make calls and modifications on the fly," said Craig Cmehil, who developed the free product. "Refresh the page and they can have the customized changes right then and there."

The environment supports Perl, PHP, and Python and Ruby and support for Ruby on Rails will be released as early as this week in version 1.0, Cmehil said. The package includes development tools, including MySQL open source database and Apache open source server, as well as the SAP RFC library, Perl, and Python SAP connectors.

Cmehil, who serves as an SAP evangelist at the SAP Developer Network, said that scripting is being used mainly by firms that are running a Web server with a PHP or Perl engine. Companies that don't have the resources to purchase SAP Portal also can choose scripting as an alternative, he said.

"It doesn't make sense for a company to tell its Java guys that they have to learn the scripting language," Cmehil said. "I hope Scripting in a Box will give the option to a company that is sitting there with five ABAP developers and they have a PHP or Perl based intranet set up and they want to start putting data from SAP into it."

Scripts are typically used to program graphical interfaces, but developers also use them to write programs. For example, a simple address book within an SAP application or a customer based application can be written in one of the scripting languages to reduce the size of the footprint.

"If a company is running a NetWeaver installation, you can use Web services with these languages as well," Cmehil said.

Prior to Scripting in a Box, developers had to install a connector to connect to the SAP component they wanted to work with a scripting language. Scripting languages are usually shorter and take up less space, Cmehil said. For example, a program written in Java could take 100 lines of code, but if it was written in PHP or another open source language it would likely be about 20 lines of code, he said.

Cmehil said he has been working to build out the scripting language community on the SAP Developer Network. Many developers have been calling for a package to make demonstrations to company managers about how the company can use PHP to create applications that integrate with SAP, he said.

"Often the initial conversation with a manager involved saying the cost benefits of scripting are there but in order to go with a project, you've got to get a number of different pieces," Cmehil said. "It was just far too complicated. A lot of people were having a problem getting the proper versions together"

The scripting community has been growing, Cmehil said. A recent survey shows that out of 37 million domains, 9 million had PHP installed. While most SAP developers are experienced in ABAP and Java, a growing number are learning PHP and other languages, he said.

"With Scripting in a Box, the SAP guy can unpack it to his drive and the PHP guy can unpack it to his drive and they both can try it out for themselves," Cmehil said. "It's an easy way for people in two different worlds to see the same thing together in the same environment."

SAP to support Cisco technology ( NEWS)

LAS VEGAS -- Can a business run more efficiently if its network is smart enough to analyze application-based data?

Cisco Systems Inc. said yes, and today it unveiled the first components in its long-anticipated strategy to help companies manage network traffic derived from enterprise applications.

At its annual North American Networkers 2005 Conference, the San Jose, Calif.-based vendor announced the first product and services from its application-oriented networking (AON) group, a new division created to foster the network's ability to recognize and manage packets carrying application data.

The new products, AON modules for Cisco's data center switches and branch office routers, are intended to complement existing gear by providing insight into how much application data is traversing the network at any given time and confirming that data reaches its destination.

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For example, Cisco said in a statement, customer e-commerce services firm BT Radianz said it has been using Cisco's new AON products to help its clients determine when data from financial applications passes through their network boundaries and arrives at partners' networks, measuring the total time for a transaction to be completed.

In addition to the AON modules, Cisco announced that it is working with partners such as SAP, IBM, VeriSign Inc. and Tibco Software Inc. on a portfolio of professional services that align the business and technical requirements of customers' networks and applications.

Cisco previewed its AON technology at the recent SAP AG Sapphire user conference. It has been suggested that the company's AON gear would boost Cisco into the XML and Web services data management market, perhaps challenging a number of startups focusing on Web services management and XML firewalls.

The networking giant set the stage for today's announcements last month when it announced its purchase of application performance management startup FineGround Networks Inc.

It is believed that FineGround's technology, which enhances end user application response times, cuts down application bandwidth usage and reduces the load placed on application servers, will be incorporated in future AON products.

SAP Java / J2EE

1. Scripting in a Box adds new languages for SAP ABAP developers

2. Book Excerpt: The ABAP Developer's Guide to Java

3. SAP Developer Network spreads NetWeaver message

Scripting in a Box adds new languages for SAP ABAP developers

SAP developers may no longer have to find and install all the different SAP connectors and correct versions needed to use alternative scripting languages.

An SAP employee has developed Scripting in a Box, which packages a full open source scripting environment onto a computer desktop or USB stick. Through a single script file, a development environment is automatically configured on a drive of a developer's choice. Preloaded sample applications inside the package are ready to connect to SAP back-end systems through a login screen.

"It shows how easily it is to connect to systems and make calls and modifications on the fly," said Craig Cmehil, who developed the free product. "Refresh the page and they can have the customized changes right then and there."

The environment supports Perl, PHP, and Python and Ruby and support for Ruby on Rails will be released as early as this week in version 1.0, Cmehil said. The package includes development tools, including MySQL open source database and Apache open source server, as well as the SAP RFC library, Perl, and Python SAP connectors.

Cmehil, who serves as an SAP evangelist at the SAP Developer Network, said that scripting is being used mainly by firms that are running a Web server with a PHP or Perl engine. Companies that don't have the resources to purchase SAP Portal also can choose scripting as an alternative, he said.

"It doesn't make sense for a company to tell its Java guys that they have to learn the scripting language," Cmehil said. "I hope Scripting in a Box will give the option to a company that is sitting there with five ABAP developers and they have a PHP or Perl based intranet set up and they want to start putting data from SAP into it."

Scripts are typically used to program graphical interfaces, but developers also use them to write programs. For example, a simple address book within an SAP application or a customer based application can be written in one of the scripting languages to reduce the size of the footprint.

"If a company is running a NetWeaver installation, you can use Web services with these languages as well," Cmehil said.

Prior to Scripting in a Box, developers had to install a connector to connect to the SAP component they wanted to work with a scripting language. Scripting languages are usually shorter and take up less space, Cmehil said. For example, a program written in Java could take 100 lines of code, but if it was written in PHP or another open source language it would likely be about 20 lines of code, he said.

Cmehil said he has been working to build out the scripting language community on the SAP Developer Network. Many developers have been calling for a package to make demonstrations to company managers about how the company can use PHP to create applications that integrate with SAP, he said.

"Often the initial conversation with a manager involved saying the cost benefits of scripting are there but in order to go with a project, you've got to get a number of different pieces," Cmehil said. "It was just far too complicated. A lot of people were having a problem getting the proper versions together"

The scripting community has been growing, Cmehil said. A recent survey shows that out of 37 million domains, 9 million had PHP installed. While most SAP developers are experienced in ABAP and Java, a growing number are learning PHP and other languages, he said.

"With Scripting in a Box, the SAP guy can unpack it to his drive and the PHP guy can unpack it to his drive and they both can try it out for themselves," Cmehil said. "It's an easy way for people in two different worlds to see the same thing together in the same environment."

Book Excerpt: The ABAP Developer's Guide to Java

As the weather heats up, ABAP developers can cool their beans with SearchSAP.com's June feature chapter from SAP PRESS. The ABAP Developer's guide to Java is aimed at correcting the information deficit for ABAP developers facing twin-track developing in a Web Application Server environment.

The ABAP Developer's guide to Java is aimed at correcting the information deficit for ABAP developers facing twin-track developing in a Web Application Server environment. Java is often an unfamiliar arena for the ABAP community, and this book will help bridge that gap. Even experienced developers will appreciate the well-defined path to Java outlined in this book. Chapter six will delve into the application layers in each development language.

 

 

SAP Developer Network spreads NetWeaver message

SAP technology strategist Jeff Word is heading up SAP's Developer Network, an online community that represents SAP's new outlook on life. The company is giving away code samples and Web-based training, and providing a forum for users to swap war stories: the good, the bad and the ugly. SAP programmers are standing by, to offer help and suggestions -- and address complaints about things like documentation almost immediately. Word sat down with SearchSAP.com to tell us why SDN is taking off, and why it took so long to get here.

Why didn't SAP start SDN before now?
Jeff Word: Because for the longest time, SAP has pretty much ignored developers, though not on purpose. It's just that the SAP experts who were out there really were a tight knit group. They really didn't need an online community. They already had kind of an informal community.

What changed that?

Word: NetWeaver. Now we have a Java identity and a.NET identity. We are really combining the traditional SAP guys with the more Web-based, front-end guys. Traditionally, when a Java guy needed to write an application and pull data out of an SAP system, he just kind of threw it over to the SAP guys and said 'Hey, write me an interface for this.' Now that we have a full Java engine inside the SAP Web Application Server, every Java developer is now a SAP developer. They don't have to know all the gory details of SAP. We have really opened up the world to a whole new category of developers.

Is this making your BAPI guys nervous?
Word: No, it's making their life easier. Now they just have to publish a list of the BAPIs for all the Java guys to call from. And the Java guys work in the same environment that the ABAP guys do now. SO the ABAP guys have just offloaded a lot of headaches, basically. Now they can do the job that they want to do -- which is building cool stuff in ABAP.

And SDN is running on NetWeaver?
Word: Yes. It's 100% based on the SAP NetWeaver platform. It's our portal. It's our knowledge management. It's our collaboration. It's our Web application server. NetWeaver is running the whole thing.

How technical do you have to be to use it?
Word: An end user probably wouldn't find much that they would be interested in. But if you are remotely technical, you will. Even business analysts have to know some of the details of NetWeaver, as far as what the portal can do, and they are going to find great stuff here. We have different areas. If you are a developer, then you are going to see very different stuff on portals than if you are a business analyst.

Are the SDN users surprising you with innovations?
Word: Yup. One of the best things is these Web logs. I want to show you one by a guy named Joe Albert. He is the portal architect for Chevron Texaco, obviously a very large SAP customer. He's in charge of an entire portal implementation for, I think, 24,000 employees. He's an ex-ABAP guy. Now he's a NetWeaver guy. One of his best stories was about going live with Employee Self Service.

What happened?

Word: Well, he has rants. Basically, the documentation sucked. That's basically what he said. Now if you are an implementation partner, this is amazing stuff to read. Now you can avoid the same trouble. Even better, all of SAP's people, our product managers, the guys who write the documentation, they read this stuff, too. The product manager for this actually read this the same day that he posted it, and changed the documentation. He incorporated the new stuff within 24 hours.

Once people see this they flip out. Honestly. You can't imagine the reaction. They say 'My God. Thank you. This is the best thing SAP has ever done.'</P

SAP is not known for saying things like 'Chevron had a bit of a nightmare problem -- and now you can all read about it.'
Word: I can only say that's the Shai effect. SAP is opening up in every way possible. Shai's vision for this is that every person in the SAP eco-system will participate in this community and share knowledge. That is the grand vision of NetWeaver

SAP Output Forms

SAP Output Forms cover topics like Adobe development, SAPscript and Smart Forms. Need help with SAPscript conversion or SAPscript upgrades? Printer setup troubleshooting? Address formatting? Handling numeric values?

News:

to embed HP printing capabilities in NetWeaver

SAP is embedding print management capabilities from Hewlett-Packard into its NetWeaver platform in a move to bolster document management for end users.

Under the partnership, the print and output management technology from HP will be further enhanced through a joint development agreement. Customers define, manage and track document delivery from a single location using HP's printing management capabilities, said Rosanne Wyleczuk, manager of document delivery solutions at HP.

"As much as we want it to go paperless, fax, paper, e-mails and Web documents are still sometimes needed in paper form to make business processes work," Wyleczuk said. "This allows SAP customers to streamline document delivery."

Company help desk support personnel receive up to 4,000 requests annually related to printing and document management issues, according to Wyleczuk. Duplicated processes and integration failures have added to the complexity and challenges for end users, she said.

The embedded print capabilities will be part of the NetWeaver installation process. Customers will see HP print management capabilities as part of the installation portal.

"By embedding these components in the SAP environment it will result in productivity improvements and easier job training," Wyleczuk said. "Instead of managing thousands of devices, SAP customers can have a unified interface for device management as well as document job management."

The new capabilities will be made generally available in June as part of a NetWeaver service pack for customers running the mySAP Business Suite.

HP is also highlighting its adaptive computing capabilities aimed at large SAP customers as well as two new customer centers which will be used to showcase SAP on HP products.

Located in Atlanta and Houston, the $4 million customer centers will allow SAP users to develop a proof of plan concept from a design build perspective, said Dave Parsons, vice president of industry solutions at HP. SAP and HP have been partnering for about 15 years and have had more than 40,000 joint installations, Parsons said.

"We'll be providing an environment for our customers to understand, implement, and internalize through a number of partners and peripheral providers," Parsons said.

QUESTION POSED ON: 20 September 2007

I am running ECC 6.0 in AIX with DB2. When I go into Smart Forms and create a text element, I am not seeing the icons that I saw in earlier versions of SAP. What I am specifically looking for is the three functions for fields in the inline version of the PC Editor. As you may recall, these are Include, Change and Delete. How can I get them to show up? The only options I see right now are Insert Field and URL. Please advise.

EXPERT RESPONSE

You are seeing a new MS Word editor for SAPscript and Smart Forms. The good news: This one is Unicode-enabled for Hebrew and Arabic. The bad news: It is missing other features found in the earlier editor.

I recently experienced this issue in ECC 5.0 as well, after a client's support pack upgrade. In our case, we decided to switch it back as our form developers were getting various Visual Basic pop-up error messages while using the new MS Word editor ( e.g. "Code execution has been interrupted").

Here are the instructions we followed from SAP on how to switch it back. Note that this is a global switch (it will impact everyone):

"Call transaction se38, enter program RSCPINST or program RSCPSETEDITOR and press Execute (F8). On the next screen, select Goto -> Set MS Word as Editor. When the checkbox is selected, deselect checkbox SAPscript/ Smart Forms and press 'Activate'. When it is not selected, simply press 'Activate'."

Once you have done the above, completely leave the Smart Forms transaction and then re-enter it. You should now see the earlier editor again, with all its icons intact.

For earlier releases the steps above might be slightly different. This is all documented in SAP Note 791199 ("Default editor changed to MS Word in SAPscript and Smart Forms").

 

 

QUESTION POSED ON: 15 August 2007

Which method should I use for uploading data?

1. Call transaction
2. Batch Input Method
3. LSMW
4. BAPI

EXPERT RESPONSE
You use LSMW to do data migration –- initial uploads of data and bulk data loads. Use BAPI in all other situations, if a suitable one exists. Otherwise, use 'Batch Input' if you want to be able to use SM35 to manage the input. Use 'Call Transaction' if you want to do something else.

QUESTION POSED ON: 15 August 2007

When we generate a classical report, parameters were used at the selection screen. If there is no record for the particular parameter, then a user has to call it up, but it says the specified record is not available. How can we fix this?

EXPERT RESPONSE

Look at the function modules in groups SPO1, SPO2, SPO3 and SPO4. You can call the appropriate one in the END-OF-SELECTION event or the AT SELECTION-SCREEN event. However, if much data is selected you should use the former rather than the latter – conceptually it is wrong to select volumes of data in the AT SELECTION-SCREEN event.

SAP Web Applications

Web apps have to efficient, easily accessible and robust. Learn to create and tweak good Web apps with tools like Web dynpro, the portal development kit (PDK) and much more here. Also get up to speed on portal connectivity, the Web dynpro user interface (UI), the portal content directory (PCD) and how to successfully migrate to the NetWeaver platform.

SAP aims at ISVs with on-demand model

LAS VEGAS -- SAP plans to launch software in an on-demand model in 2006, but according to executives at a recent SAP analyst summit here, the model would be quite different from that of Salesforce.com and other on-demand CRM vendors. "We will come out with a product when we are ready to come out with [one] that actually answers the needs of customers, scales and integrates," said Shai Agassi, a member of SAP's executive board, who serves as president of SAP's product and technology group. "All the base functionality of an enterprise solution needs to be in place. … We have plans that will be clarified when we are ready to clarify them."

SAP executives at first brushed off the idea of an on-demand model for small and midsized businesses (SMBs). But SAP CEO Henning Kagermann told financial analysts earlier this year that the recent success of SalesForce.com and NetSuite Inc. caused SAP researchers to focus on an on-demand model for SMBs.

Agassi said the focus will be on simplicity for small businesses, and a resulting product would be different from the on-demand products currently on the market.

"We believe the issue is about simple products with a simple way to ramp up into the product, with the need for it to still be integrated into backbone systems and the ability to actually take it anywhere you want to go to," he said. "It [asks] a much more complicated set of questions than just do I have my data on my data center or some other data center."

SAP could be timing its on-demand release with Microsoft, which is planning on-demand products by making the applications support Web services and service-oriented architectures (SOAs) and adapt to customer-specific processes, said Sanjeev Aggarwal, a senior analyst at Boston-based Yankee Group, in a recent research brief to clients titled, "Appeal for On-Demand Solutions Is Expanding."

"To succeed, on-demand applications need to be purposefully architected and developed to function in a distributed Web-based environment through the support of Web services, XML standards and SOA concepts," Aggarwal said. "This is a key requirement for collaboration, data sharing, mobile/remote workforce, multi-location enterprises and supplier-partner collaboration."

SAP is also planning a model that could be aimed at small independent software vendors, according to Klaus Kreplin, a member of the SAP extended executive board, who focuses on NetWeaver development. In his briefing to industry analysts, Kreplin said up to 90% of ISVs are small businesses and they don't have the systems to support major development on NetWeaver.

"We want to provide a hosted sandbox development system for ISVs," he said.

Kreplin called the new system the "mySAP Sandbox," and said it would support ISVs by providing the tools necessary via the Web to test modifications in a real-world environment. The development could speed new NetWeaver development from SAP partners and boost the time it takes to bring new products to market, he said.

The sandbox could be used to build composite applications, called xApps, which draw data from several sources to solve a specific business problem.

About SAP

SAP is the world's leading provider of business software solutions*. Today, more than 32,000 customers in more than 120 countries run SAP® software—from distinct solutions addressing the needs of small and midsize enterprises to suite offerings for global organizations. Powered by the SAP NetWeaver® platform to drive innovation and enable business change, SAP business solutions help enterprises of all sizes around the world improve customer relationships, enhance partner collaboration and create efficiencies across their supply chains and business operations. SAP industry solutions support the unique business processes of more than 25 industries, including high tech, healthcare, retail, public sector and financial services. With subsidiaries in more than 50 countries, the company is listed on several exchanges, including the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE under the symbol "SAP." (Additional information at < http://www.sap.com>)

(*) SAP defines business software solutions as comprising enterprise resource planning and related software solutions such as supply chain management, customer relationship management, product life-cycle management and supplier relationship management.

Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "predict," "should" and "will" and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations The factors that could affect SAP's future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including SAP's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.

SAP Executive Shai Agassi Identifies Five Key Software Trends for Companies to Watch

Calls for Software Executives to Challenge Conventional Thinking Around Products and Delivery

SANTA CLARA , Calif. - April 05, 2006 - — In a continuing series of speeches about the future of the software industry, Shai Agassi spoke to more than 1,500 technology leaders at the annual Software 2006 event about trends he is seeing in the marketplace. As the president of the Product & Technology Group and executive board member for SAP AG (NYSE: SAP), Agassi explained how these trends are shaping SAP's product strategy for the years to come. SAP in turn is delivering the solutions that allow companies to be nimble and respond to changing market conditions, enable countries to run more efficiently and give small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) the opportunity to build the infrastructure they need to be best-run businesses from inception.

"Today we're shifting from different drivers for why businesses are building their fabric—the infrastructure," said Agassi. "Whereas before it was about management of resources, then it shifted to management of information and now we're shifting into management of business events. And customers have been looking to SAP as a trusted advisor for 34 years to help build and manage this infrastructure as well as understand what the future holds for the enterprise software market. Companies and governments count on us to spend the time it takes to understand their business and provide them with the innovative solutions they require to meet the increasingly complex needs of their global business."

The five trends Agassi identified in today's speech are as follows:

·          We believe that for I.T. to deliver the flexibility organizations need, it must create a single, unified platform that provides a repository of coherent services.
"One of the things we're doing right now is opening up our technology platform to partners, including developers and integrators, which allow them to build their unique apps on top of our platform," Agassi highlighted. "SAP's platform provides a single repository of enterprise services, where the entire ecosystem can leverage our technology by building the solutions that are needed for every customer."

·          We believe the market has shifted from point solutions to industry-flavored suites.
Agassi continued, "The days of buying point products are long behind us. Five years from now, customers will only buy suites. You won't purchase individual point products such as ERP, CRM, supply chain management or HR applications that will ship to you as separate entities and that will end up as a collection of services that you need to manage. Customers are looking to drive a higher level of value out of their industry flavored, enterprise software solutions and they are doing this through deploying application suites."

·          We believe people like their current user experience but want business process content to be part of it.
"The goal is to provide business workers and information workers with the data they need in order to make informed and intelligent decisions quickly. Our customers want basic, simple and powerful solutions, and this can be achieved through delivering an easy-to-use interface and hiding complexity in the background," added Agassi. "SAP's strategy is to help customers empower their people to leverage the skills they already have and embed in all the user experiences they already are comfortable with. So whether it is a portal, desktop productivity tools or alternative interfaces—mobile devices, RSS, RFID, analytics, embedded devices—the focus is around bringing relevant business context to that preferred user interface. These employees can leverage the skills they already have, like working in Microsoft Office. We teamed up with Microsoft to jointly deliver 'Project Mendocino,' which brings the best of desktop productivity and best enterprise applications without cost of integration."

·          We believe ecosystems that reuse common services deliver more, faster and cheaper innovation than any single vendor.
"The SAP Developer Network has more than a half million unique visitors a month, including 1,000 ISVs developing on our platform, and these numbers are growing quickly," highlighted Agassi. "SAP's platform ecosystem is critical to our success as we continue to deliver more solutions to more customers in more industries. By providing a solid foundation for our partners that is based on an industry-standard design, we're driving co-innovation in the market that has never been seen before," Agassi said. "During the coming year, you'll see even greater acceleration in our partner ecosystem space."

·          We believe I.T. will become strategic to the business as the pace of process innovation accelerates.
"The industry has changed more in the past five years than in the previous two decades," said Agassi in closing. "And we don't see the pace of innovation slowing anytime soon. As we approach this next wave, businesses will be challenged to adapt faster to changes in their competitive landscape in order to serve their customers' ever-changing needs. The companies that have invested properly in I.T. infrastructure will have the ability to handle the market changes; the companies that invest in enterprise services architecture will accelerate ahead of competitors," concluded Agassi.

The Software 2006 keynote is the second in a series of speeches that Shai Agassi is giving around the future of the enterprise software industry. Agassi's first keynote was at the International CeBIT Summit in Hanover, Germany on March 8, 2006. To read more about Agassi's remarks during that event please visit the press release at: http://www.sap.com/company/press/Press.epx?PressID=5954

SAP outlines five software trends

By Staff writer

SAP AG has outlined the five software trends that will shape its product development strategy over the coming years.

 

In a speech at the Software 2006 event, Shai Agassi, president of the product and technology group and executive board member for SAP, said the first of the core trends is the need for a single unified platform to provide a repository of coherent services, enabling flexibility in the IT operation. He said this concept is at the heart of SAP's ESA implementation.

The second is the move to industry-specific application suites as opposed to horizontal and best-of-breed capability because Agassi said customers will derive a higher level of value from verticalized suites. Under the existing application and license suite structure, customers pay for everything regardless of what they actually use. In an SOA world, customers pay only for what they use, which has revenue implications for vendors. SAP, along with other enterprise application vendors, is having to consider new revenue models based on processes or highly granular services.

Agassi also stressed the importance of being able to access back-office data from a familiar environment, pouring business process content into the user experience users are currently comfortable with. "Our customers want basic, simple and powerful solutions, and this can be achieved through delivering an easy-to-use interface and hiding complexity in the background," he said. Agassi also highlighted the need to make use of portals or alternative interfaces such as mobile devices, RSS, RFID, analytics, and embedded devices, to bring relevant business context to the preferred user interface.

The seeds of a future clash with Microsoft lie in this trend because Microsoft is setting itself up as the vendor with the user interface expertise for accessing back-office applications.

Fourth on list was an affirmation of the importance of the partner ecosystem. "We believe ecosystems that reuse common services deliver more, faster and cheaper innovation than any single vendor," said Agassi. Partners are critical to the future success of any enterprise application vendor because of their ability to reach wider and deeper and create the critical mass that reduces the risk perceived by customers buying into the vendor-based technology.

Finally Agassi reiterated a common SAP theme that IT will become increasingly strategic to the business as the pace of process innovation accelerates. "The industry has changed more in the past five years than in the previous two decades," he said. "And we don't see the pace of innovation slowing anytime soon. As we approach this next wave, businesses will be challenged to adapt faster to changes in their competitive landscape in order to serve their customers' ever-changing needs. The companies that have invested properly in IT infrastructure will have the ability to handle the market changes; the companies that invest in enterprise services architecture will accelerate ahead of competitors."

The five themes overlap with those identified by Microsoft's Bill Gates in his keynote at the recent Microsoft Convergence conference when he emphasized the importance of a familiar interface, SOA applications, collaboration technology, business intelligence, and composite applications in terms of the development of its Dynamics range of business applications.

Microsoft and SAP Tout Growing Market Momentum and 2007 Office System Support for Duet Software

Over 200,000 Duet Licenses Sold in Three Months to Companies Worldwide; Customers Experience Fast Deployment Cycles and Duet 1.5 Rapidly Evolves to Include Additional Business Scenarios and Tools in 2007

BARCELONA, Spain - November 15, 2006 - Only months after announcing general availability of Duet™ software for Microsoft Office and SAP—a joint product that enables people to interact quickly and easily with SAP business processes and data through Microsoft® Office applications—SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) and Microsoft Corp today detailed Duet's growing market momentum. The two companies have sold over 200,000 licensed seats in just three months. Customers worldwide—including AEPEX Business Consultants, a Dutch services company, and resource informatik ag, a Swiss services company—have already deployed Duet and experienced fast rollout cycles. Value packs will be made available over the next 12 months that include support for 2007 Microsoft Office system, as well as additional business scenarios. Microsoft and SAP also announced the planned release of Duet 1.5, targeted for summer 2007, that will include additional business scenarios, as well as tools for configuring and customizing the Duet scenarios to match customer needs even better. The announcement was made at Microsoft TechEd: IT Forum, being held in Barcelona, Spain , Nov. 14-17.

"We have seen significant traction and market momentum with Duet over the second half of 2006," said Udo Waibel, senior vice president of emerging solutions, SAP. "Together we are committed to drive success for our customers by constantly gathering feedback and continuing to innovate so that Duet meets their business needs."

Each day, millions of information workers use the Microsoft Office system to work and collaborate, while also separately tapping into SAP enterprise processes and business data in order to do their jobs. Duet provides a unified link between a company's structured business processes and information in mySAP™ ERP and the end user's Microsoft Office environment, enabling improved decision making and greater compliance with company policies.

"Increasingly, users are demanding greater integration between the productivity software and the business processes they use every day," said Yvonne Genovese, research vice president, Gartner, Inc. "Tools that allow for the configuring and customizing of those processes will best answer this call by putting users in the center of an environment that meets their varied needs in a flexible and dynamic way." Early Customer Momentum with Duet

Early Customer Momentum with Duet
With Duet, companies can increase information worker adoption of enterprise systems and business processes by offering a familiar environment that is rapidly deployable and requires virtually no training. For example, AEPEX Business Consultants—headquartered in the Netherlands—has started a rollout of Duet across its entire organization. For AEPEX's business consultants, efficient time entry is a critical business function to ensure on-time and accurate billing cycles and customer satisfaction. With Duet, AEPEX employees can quickly and easily report time in their Microsoft Outlook calendar and it will automatically be synched with the corresponding SAP software on the back end. As a result of this new business functionality, AEPEX expects to save time and money by reducing hours and resources spent on data entry, and improving accuracy and billing efficiencies to drive enhanced customer loyalty.

"We have chosen to deploy Duet as it will allow us to re-use existing information within Microsoft Office and seamlessly integrate that with our crucial back-end process for time-entry and customer billing, which is in SAP," said Wouter van der Veen, managing partner, AEPEX Business Consultants. "With no need for time-consuming and costly training, we expect our employees to begin utilizing this new tool to achieve immediate new business efficiencies."

Another leading European services company, resource informatik, has deployed Duet to help synchronize information to improve decision-making across the organization. Duet supports information workers across the organization by making SAP project management data easily accessible for its consultants and providing timely sales forecast reports. After a deployment timeframe of less than one month, resource informatik went live on Duet in September 2006.

"Duet was quick and easy to deploy, and we are already witnessing return on our investment," said Bruno Schmid, CEO, resource informatik. "It allows us to take advantage of the omnipresent and familiar Microsoft Office user interface, and marry that with the strong business process automation capabilities of SAP to increase productivity and enable rapid decision-making."

Product Roadmap Includes Support for 2007 Office System, Scenarios and Tools
Over the next 12 months, SAP and Microsoft will offer several value packs for Duet, providing support for 2007 Office system, enhanced platform capabilities and language support. One of the value packs will also expose three additional business scenarios connecting Microsoft Office and mySAP™ Business Suite applications. These new scenarios are as follows:

·          Travel Management for simplifying travel planning and expense approval via Outlook

·          Sales Management for intuitive access to customer contact and sales-based analytics, as well as easy scheduling of customer activities

·          Demand Planning for simplifying supply chain demand planning via Microsoft Excel

In addition to the forthcoming value packs, both companies announced the release of Duet 1.5, which will deliver additional business scenarios for purchasing management and recruiting, and will provide expanded tools for configuring and customizing Duet scenarios.

"Our growing partnership with SAP reflects our commitment to helping information workers today who expect their disparate systems to work together in a more seamless and simplistic manner," said Parichay Saxena, general manager of development, Microsoft. "Early customer interest and adoption further supports our plans to jointly deliver powerful new product capabilities—both business scenarios and customization tools—in 2007 and beyond"

For more information on Duet software, please visit http://www.duet.com.

About SAP
SAP is the world's leading provider of business software*. Today, more than 36,200 customers in more than 120 countries run SAP® applications—from distinct solutions addressing the needs of small and midsize enterprises to suite offerings for global organizations. Powered by the SAP NetWeaver® platform to drive innovation and enable business change, SAP software helps enterprises of all sizes around the world improve customer relationships, enhance partner collaboration and create efficiencies across their supply chains and business operations. SAP solution portfolios support the unique business processes of more than 25 industries, including high tech, retail, financial services, healthcare and the public sector. With subsidiaries in more than 50 countries, the company is listed on several exchanges, including the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE under the symbol "SAP." (Additional information at < http://www.sap.com>)

(*) SAP defines business software as comprising enterprise resource planning and related applications such as supply chain management, customer relationship management, product life-cycle management and supplier relationship management.

About Microsoft Tech•Ed: IT Forum
In its fifth year in Europe, Tech•Ed: IT Forum is Microsoft's premier EMEA conference, designed to provide IT professionals with technical training, information and community resources to build, plan, deploy and manage the secure connected enterprise. Tech•Ed: IT Forum Europe runs from Nov. 14–17 at the Centre Convencions Internacional in Barcelona, Spain.

About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "predict," "should" and "will" and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations The factors that could affect SAP's future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including SAP's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.