sap netweaver influence on development of further sap business solutions

SAP NetWeaver influence on development of

further SAP business solutions Master thesis project

Prepared by: Diana Gold Oguzhan Osman Erim Academic supervisor: Prof. Mark Smith

KTH, 2008

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Abstract

Thesis work presented in this report is a joint work of two students of Royal Institute of

Technology (KTH) over a period of twenty weeks under the supervision of Prof. Mark Smith.

The main area of investigation is SAP NetWeaver and its influence on further development of

SAP applications. In order to find out the impact of SAP NetWeaver on SAP as a company and

as a system, SAP background and history as well as SAP NetWeaver background and

components are analyzed. Moreover, as SAP NetWeaver is based on SOA principles, this

framework is also presented in details. Lastly, SAP NetWeaver influence on architecture,

development, integration and implementation of SAP solutions is studied and a survey is

carried out in order to find out the impact of SAP NetWeaver on business actors (SAP

customers, developers and consultants). In the conclusions part, all the results are analyzed and

summed up.

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Table of contents Abstract............................................................................................................................. 2

1. Introduction .............................................................................................................. 4

2. Introduction to SAP solutions.................................................................................. 6

2.1. SAP background and history........................................................................................ 6

2.2. SAP solutions ............................................................................................................. 11

2.3. SAP efficiency............................................................................................................ 16

3. SAP NetWeaver overview ....................................................................................... 18

3.1. SOA overview............................................................................................................ 18

3.1.1. Evolution of IT architecture...................................................................................................18

3.1.2. SOA definition.......................................................................................................................19

3.1.3. Logical architecture model ....................................................................................................22

3.2. SAP NetWeaver definition......................................................................................... 25

3.2.1. SAP NetWeaver background.................................................................................................25

3.2.2. SAP NetWeaver components ................................................................................................27

3.2.3. Overview of SAP NetWeaver competitors............................................................................31

4. SAP NetWeaver impact on development of SAP solutions................................... 37

4.1. SAP NetWeaver impact on SAP architecture ............................................................ 37

4.2. SAP NetWeaver impact on integration of different applications............................... 40

4.3. SAP NetWeaver impact on development of new applications .................................. 43

4.4. SAP NetWeaver impact on SAP implementation...................................................... 50

4.5. SAP NetWeaver influence on project actors.............................................................. 52

4.5.1. SAP customers.......................................................................................................................53

4.5.2. SAP developers......................................................................................................................55

4.5.3. SAP consultants.....................................................................................................................57

5. Conclusions............................................................................................................. 60

Acknowledgements......................................................................................................... 62

References ...................................................................................................................... 63

Appendix 1. SAP History from 1972 till now................................................................ 66

Appendix 2. Survey and interview questions ................................................................ 67

Appendix 3. Survey website ........................................................................................... 71

Appendix 4. The survey report....................................................................................... 72

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1. Introduction

There is no certain information about how many people are really coding SAP software, but

there is no doubt in efficiency of SAP solutions so far. Now SAP empowered its systems with

an additional platform to facilitate development and integration of SAP and non-SAP solutions

– SAP NetWeaver. However, it is not obvious what effects does this new platform brings. With

this thesis work, it is aimed to analyze what is NetWeaver influence on several areas: SAP

architecture, SAP development, integration and implementation, SAP as a company, SAP

customers, developers and consultants.

The main research question to be answered in this thesis is: how SAP NetWeaver

influences further development of SAP business solutions.

In order to answer this research question, some goals need to be achieved:

1. Study the background of SAP as a company and as a system.

2. Analyze service oriented architecture (SOA) concept as SAP NetWeaver is based

on its principles.

3. Analyze SAP NetWeaver integration platform, its background and main

components.

4. Study the differences of pre-NetWeaver and NetWeaver-based SAP applications:

a. SAP architecture;

b. integration of SAP and non-SAP applications;

c. development of SAP applications;

d. implementation of SAP solutions.

5. Study the influence of SAP NetWeaver on SAP customers, consultants and

developers.

In accordance with the set goals, thesis is divided into three logical parts:

1. Introduction to SAP solutions. This part covers the background of SAP as a

system and as a company as well as describes main functionality of SAP systems.

2. SAP NetWeaver overview. Here SOA background and concepts as well as SAP

NetWeaver background and main components as presented.

3. SAP NetWeaver impact on development of SAP solutions. In this last part of the

thesis, the main changes to SAP architecture, development, integration and

implementation of SAP applications, as well as NetWeaver impact on business

actors (SAP consultants, developers and customers) is analyzed.

In order to complete the thesis, these research methods were used:

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• Literature study was used in order to analyze SAP as a company and system

background, SOA concepts and NetWeaver components. It was also used in order

to research the main impact of SAP NetWeaver on SAP architecture,

development, integration and implementation.

• Interviews were used in order to find out the main changes of SAP after

NetWeaver was introduced.

• Survey was used in order to get a professional insight of NetWeaver specialists on

SAP NetWeaver impact on business actors (customers, developers, consultants).

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2. Introduction to SAP solutions

SAP is the world’s leading enterprise resource planning (ERP) and other business solutions

provider. Over more than 35 years, the SAP company has developed different versions of the

software that suit large corporations as well as middle and small-sized businesses. The most

revenue company gets on solutions for enterprises, so the core SAP product is the family of

standard systems for large corporations. It is called mySAP Business Suite. This group of

systems covers such processes as accounting, product lifecycle management, supply chain

management, customer relationship management and others.

This chapter will analyze SAP solutions in more depth. Firstly, it will present the history

and background of SAP as a company and as an ERP system. Secondly, it will define mySAP

Business Suite components and their background. Lastly, some business benefits for the

companies implementing SAP solutions would be mentioned.

2.1. SAP background and history

SAP history is a long lasting success story that begun more than 35 years ago. In this

chapter main facts and figures of SAP development and growth would be mentioned and some

screen shots of different versions of the system would be provided. This would make a clearer

picture of SAP as a company and as a system.

Five former IBM employees founded SAP in 1972 in Mannheim, Germany, as Systems

Applications and Products in Data Processing. They wanted to create a standard enterprise

system, which would automate business processes. This idea was based on the fact that clients,

who ordered to develop financial accounting software, were searching for very similar

solutions. [1]

Over a little more than 35 years, SAP grew from a small German company into large

multi-cultural International Corporation. Today, SAP is the leader of collaborative enterprise

resource planning (ERP) as well as other business software solutions. SAP employs about

43000 people and has installations in majority of developed and developing countries. [2]

The development of hardware had a great impact on SAP growth and functionality. It all

begun with the main challenge of very limited storage capacity and slow processing time in

1972. Back then, the storage capacity of mainframes was only 500 KB. So, SAP was bounded

with extremely slow input and output as well as limited volume of data. However, with all

these hardware limitations SAP had signed its first contract. The first customer of SAP was

German ICI subsidiary in Östringen. At this point of time, SAP had nine employees and after

successful completion of the project posted DM 620000 profit on revenues. [3]

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Second year was twice as successful as SAP earned two more customers – the tobacco

and cigarette manufacturer Roth-Händle and the pharmaceutical company Knoll. [4] These

companies bought SAP Financial Accounting (RF) system. After these successful contracts and

non-problematic installations, the system gained the reputation of a reliable standard solution.

As a result, number of installations expanded to 40. Despite these successes, SAP did not stop

to develop the software itself. RF module was followed by Material Management (RM) module

with functionality for purchasing, inventory management and invoice verification. [4] It is

important to note, that SAP was very concerned about integration of these two modules. So, the

data was easily transferred from one to another.

In 1977, SAP became a GmbH (a closely-held corporation). Revenues this year were

close to DM 4 million, number of employees grew to 25. [4] The same year SAP moved to its

present headquarters in Walldorf. SAP also signed its first foreign contracts with two

companies in Austria. After a year, SAP had a customer base of 100 and 50 employees. [4]

Development of the system was not stopped. SAP introduced a new module Asset Accounting

(RA) in the same year. At the same time, SAP made further steps towards international

development of the system while developing a French version of the RF module

By the beginning of 80s, new generation of hardware allowed SAP to improve the

solution further. The first version of two-tier architecture system was introduced in 1979. [3]

The system was called R/2 (R stands for “real time” and 2 – two-tier architecture). The user

interface was not very user friendly as seen from the screen shot provided on Figure 2.1.

However, it was the first step towards new technologies.

Figure 2.1. SAP R/2 initial screen [6]

Just before the new version was presented, in 1978 SAP for the first time reached DM 10

million of profit milestone. [4] Back then, SAP started building its first computer centre in

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Walldorf. In 1980, the centre was complete and united all developers of SAP in one premises.

The same year SAP added new functionality of order history to the system, which made it even

more attractive. According to SAP by the end of 1980, “… 50 of 100 largest industrial

companies in Germany were SAP customers.” [5]

Close cooperation with customers led SAP to continuous improvements in system

functionality. As a result many new enhancements were made (such as new Cost Accounting

(RK) module). Moreover, with multi-language environment, in the beginning of 80s SAP R/2

was ready for international market. New cheaper and more powerful technologies made it

possible to expand customer base within Germany and abroad.

10th anniversary in 1982 SAP celebrated with sales increasing by % 48 to over DM 24

million comparing to previous year. [4] By the end of 1982, SAP had 236 customers in

Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Customers in these countries were using SAP standard

solutions. Next year, SAP revenues grew % 45 comparing to 1982. [4]

In 1984 SAP founded SAP AG (International) in Switzerland and focused on further

expansion to international markets. [3] SAP also continued developing new modules of the

standard solution. In 1984 Personnel Management and Plant Maintenance were started to

develop and Control System module was successfully installed for the first time. [5] By 1985,

SAP standard solution was used in most European countries and started penetration to other

continents, mainly focusing on South Africa, Kuwait, Canada and the US. [5]

By fifteenth anniversary of the company, it opened new offices in Munich and Hamburg

and established subsidiaries in The Netherlands, France, Spain and United Kingdom. By that

time SAP had 750 employees, 850 customers worldwide and revenue of DM 245 million. [7]

In 1987, the idea of new generation software was introduced and SAP R/3 was developed in

few years.

By its twentieth anniversary SAP had subsidiaries in Denmark, Sweden, Italy, US,

Canada, Singapore, Australia and other countries. It employed 3200 people and had 2800

customers in all parts of the world. [7] In 1992, almost half of SAP revenues were generated

from outside Germany. This was mainly due to the fact that SAP implemented 14 languages to

the software and it was highly adaptive to international market requirements.

The first version of SAP R/3 was released in the same year 1992. As in the previous

version, R stands for “real time” and 3 for “three tier architecture”. This version was a

revolution in SAP as a company and as a system history. After this release SAP started its

penetration towards midsized companies and the revenue growth was much faster than the

most optimistic forecasts. The screen shot of the SAP R/3 version 1.0 and 1.1 is presented on

Figure 2.2.

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Figure 2.2. SAP R/3 version 1.0 and 1.1 screen [6]

After successful launch of SAP R/3 version, in 1993 SAP gained the top position among

German software vendors. As to international arena, SAP took the seventh place among

software companies worldwide. That year for the first time SAP revenues reached important

DM 1 billion milestone. In 1993, SAP had 3500 customers worldwide. [7] Soon new releases

of SAP R/3 were introduced. SAP R/3 2.0 and 2.1 were much more functional (see figure 2.3.).


By the end of 1994, SAP had a customer base of 4000 and employed 5000 people

worldwide. [7] Since the rollout of SAP R/3, the system was installed over 1000 times. [5] In

the same year SAP received ISO 9000 certificate. Moreover, SAP was showing good results in

project management: SAP R/3 version 2.2 was delivered on time. This version included more

functionality in Logistics. [4]

In 1995, one of the most important events for SAP was gaining Microsoft as a user of R/3

system. By that time, SAP already had 6000 companies, including IBM, using SAP R/3

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worldwide. [5] Moreover in 1995 new version of SAP R/3 was released. SAP R/3 3.0 had more

production planning functionality. Print screen of R/3 version 3.0 is presented on figure 2.4.


It is important to note, that SAP was further developing its international affairs by

founding subsidiaries in China, Argentina, Brazil, Korea, Poland, Russia and Thailand in 1995.

By that time SAP already had presence in more than 40 countries. [7] Moreover, the first

industry solution for process industry was introduced the same year 1995. [3]

Figure 2.5. SAP R/3 version 4.0 screen shot [6]

By the end of the century, SAP changed its strategy according to new technology trends.

SAP became interned-based. This helped the company to gain even more customers. By 2001,

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SAP had a customer base of 15000 in approximately 120 countries and employed over 28000

people. [7] SAP did not stop the development of new versions either. So by the beginning of

first decade of 21st century SAP had released SAP R/3 versions 4.0, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7. Some of the

companies are still using SAP R/3 release 4.6 c or d and release 4.7. The screenshots of the

systems R/3 4.0 and 4.6 are presented on figures 2.5 – 2.6.

Figure 2.6. SAP R/3 version 4.6. screen shot [6]

Recently the brand name SAP R/3 was changed to SAP ECC (ERP Central Component)

and up till now the company released versions SAP ECC 5.0 and SAP ECC 6.0. Moreover,

SAP introduced solutions for small and medium sized businesses as well as solutions for

different industries.

In 2004 SAP introduced SAP Netweaver – the infrastructure that helps to integrate

different SAP and non-SAP systems into company processes. This platform is being further

developed today and successfully used in businesses. After the introduction of Netweaver, SAP

gathered all best components into one and offered this group of solutions as a standard system

named mySAP Business Suite.

At the time SAP has more than 12 million users of the system worldwide. [1] More than

120000 installations, approximately 43000 customers (using standard and industry solutions)

and 1500 SAP partners in 120 countries makes SAP third largest independent software vendor

across the globe. [1] Graphical SAP history from 1972 till now is presented in Appendix 1.

2.2. SAP solutions

As mentioned above, SAP developed solutions for large and small companies in different

industries. It also has specific solutions for more than 20 industries (e.g. aerospace and defense,

automotive, high tech, etc.). The new core product of SAP that covers most of the business

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processes and is implemented in large enterprises in cross-industries is a family of solutions

called mySAP Business Suite. Basically all the standard modules that were developed

throughout 35 years (e.g. FI – accounting, CO – controlling, SD – sales and distribution, MM –

material management, LE – logistics execution, etc.) are put into this family of systems. Except

for much more functionality than before, the difference this solution has is that modules have

been moved between systems. For example, SD was a function of SAP R/3 (or SAP ERP),

however in mySAP Business Suite most of it is placed in SAP SCM system.

SAP has developed all of the solutions using its own programming language ABAP

(Advanced Business Application Programming). However recently the company also started

using JAVA as the second programming language.

There are many discussions and misleading opinions about SAP main functions and

solutions and their placement in the systems. Therefore it is important to mention the main (not

all) solutions that SAP AG has today. So, SAP solutions range is presented in Table 2.1.

Table 2.1. SAP AG product range [8]

Application Definition

Enterprise Applications

MySAP Business Suite It is a family of business applications, including SAP ERP, SAP SCM, SAP PLM, SAP CRM, SAP SRM.

Duet A joint product of SAP and Microsoft, ensuring access to SAP data via Microsoft interface.

SAP Manufacturing Specific solution for manufacturing companies.

SAP Services and Market Management Solution that is used for improving service delivery and asset accounting.

SAP xApps Composite Applications Different applications that could be used for various business needs (cost and quotation, lean planning, etc.).

Business Solutions

SAP Solutions for Governance, Risk and Compliance

Includes corporate governance and oversight, risk management, and compliance management and reporting.

SAP Solutions for Information Workers Enables information workers (salespeople, product managers, financial executives) to easier find and use information.

SAP Solutions for Performance Management

Empowers organizations to manage all financial and operational strategy, planning, budgeting, forecasting, reporting, and analytic requirements [8]

SAP Solutions for RFID Enterprise-class solutions that support RFID (radio frequency identification), barcodes, and other Auto-ID technologies, as well as serialization. [8]

Solution Extensions Cross-solutions and cross-industry functionality.

Solutions for Small Businesses and Midsize Companies

SAP Business All-in-One Adaptive business solution for midsize business (based on SAP ERP).

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SAP Business ByDesign Complete on-demand business solution for midsize businesses.

SAP Business One SAP solution for small businesses.

Except for these products, mentioned in the table, SAP has many other solutions for

different industries as well as services for business needs. However, the biggest and most

important product is the standard solution to automate business processes. As mentioned, today

SAP offers its main solution for enterprises – group of systems called mySAP Business Suite.

The evolution of SAP systems starting with R/3 is shown on Figure 2.7. The height of the

columns shows functionality of the system version. As seen, SAP R/3 Enterprise was a

foundation for mySAP ERP. Then, other solutions were introduced (SAP CRM, SAP SCM,

etc.). Lastly all the solutions were put together and formed mySAP Business Suite.

Figure 2.7. Evolution of SAP solution [9]

From figure 2.7 it is seen that latest versions of SAP are based on integration and

application platform SAP NetWeaver. This platform makes it possible to combine different

components and modules (SAP and non-SAP) into one adaptive business system. NetWeaver is

based on the latest technological trend – SOA (Service Oriented Architecture). According to

the definition SOA “… defines how two or more entities interact in such a way as to enable

one entity to perform a unit of work on behalf of another entity. The unit of work is referred to

as a service, and the service interactions are defined using a well-defined description

language.” [10] This would be analyzed in more depth in the next chapter.

SAP NetWeaver is a group of tools and components that form the infrastructure to

integrate SAP and non-SAP solutions into business processes of the company. As SAP

NetWeaver is the main research area of this thesis, it will be described in more depth in the

next chapters as well as SOA.

Except for presenting SAP solutions’ evolution, it is also important to define mySAP

Business Suite functionality. So, the architecture of this family of solutions is presented in

Figure 2.8.

SAP R/3

SAP R/3 Enterprise SAP NeatWeaver

mySAP ERP

mySAP solutions: mySAP

CRM, SCM

mySAP Business

Suite

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Figure 2.8. mySAP Business Suite [9]

The core component of the Business Suite is SAP ERP (former SAP R/3), which has

accounting, logistics, inventory management and other basic functionality. This functionality is

enriched with SAP PLM (Product Lifecycle Management), SAP SRM (Supplier Relationship

Management), SAP SCM (Supply Chain Management) and SAP CRM (Customer Relationship

Management) solutions. All these solutions are integrated on the SAP NetWeaver

infrastructure. This functionality could be further enriched by SAP xApps.

To make it easier to understand at least some of the functionality of SAP Business Suite,

sales and distribution process would be briefly described. Sales and Distribution functionality

could be found in SAP SCM component, so this solution is presented in Figure 2.9.

Figure 2.9. mySAP SCM Solution [9]

MySAP SCM consists of several main processes: supply chain design (strategy), demand

planning, external procurement (goods are bought from the third party), manufacturing, and

order fulfillment (from inquiry to invoice). The later functionality is a component earlier called

SAP SD – Sales and Distribution. Further, mySAP SCM solution is collaborating with

customer, supplier and other partner systems.

To go further, order fulfillment (part of mySAP SCM) or earlier called Sales and

Distribution (SD – part of SAP R/3) has three main functions:

SAP NetWeaver

SA

P C

usto

mer

Ser

vice

s N

etw

ork

Industry Solutions

SAP xApps

mySAP ERP

mySAP PLM

mySAP SRM mySAP CRM

mySAP SCM

Supply chain performance management

Supply chain event management

Supply chain Design Demand Planning

External Procurement

Manufacturing Order fulfillment

Co

llabo

ration C

olla

bo

ratio

n

Supplier Customer

Partner Partner

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• sales order processing (inquiry, quotation, sales order creation and processing);

• shipping (creation of outbound deliveries, picking, packing, transportation

planning and posting goods issue);

• billing (creation/cancellation of invoices, credit and debit memos, transfer of

billing documents to accounting).

Figure 2.10. Functionality of sales and distribution

Order Fulfillment also includes pricing functionality and different kinds of contracts

(scheduling agreements as well as value and quantity contracts) maintenance. Consultants of

this area are also responsible to maintain material master data on sales level as well as customer

master data and customer-material info records. Rebate agreements and pre-sales activities are

also a functionality of SD Each function of this component is covered by separate document

Company using SAP Customer buying goods

Inquiry (placed over the phone; fax, etc.) Inquiry document

Quotation document

Created with reference

Quotation (received over mail, fax, etc.)

Order (placed over the phone, fax, etc.) Sales order document


Outbound delivery document (packing, loading, etc.)


Transfer order document (movement within warehouse)


Goods issue document


Goods delivered

Invoice


Invoice received

Returning goods back to the supplier Return document

Return delivery document and goods receipt

Credit memo



Credit memo received

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(e.g. customer inquiry – inquiry document, movement of goods – stock transfer order, etc.).

The basic functionality of SD process is presented in figure 2.10.

This is just a standard process that does not cover other possible scenarios (make-to-

order, which includes some manufacturing functionality, consignment process, invoice

correction, etc. that generate other document types). It also does not show very important SD

functionality – pricing. However, it creates a picture of what SD covers. In general, SD process

starts when searching for customer and ends when customer receives the invoice, and all

possible scenarios in between are functionality of SD module. This process could be changed

and customized according to the specific requirements of each company. The component is

highly adaptive to changes and many more document types with different functions could be

created.

Except for SD, there are many more different processes that are covered by SAP, among

them: general ledger accounting, accounts receivable/accounts payable maintenance, material

management, production planning, demand planning, controlling, human resources

management and many others. There is noone in the world who would know the whole

functionality of SAP, so the consultants are focusing on these narrow areas.

2.3. SAP efficiency

As seen from the success story of SAP as a company and as an ERP system, it is obvious

companies are buying the product because it helps them to optimize the business processes in

some way. SAP claims, that when fully implemented, mySAP Business Suite would have these

benefits for the company [11]:

• Operational excellence – by providing visibility across the enterprise. Companies

can transform customer requests into responses, both inside and outside the

company (via partners).

• Faster response to business change – by allowing companies to analyze

information recorded in day-to-day operations and gather structured and

unstructured information from across the enterprise. Companies can react faster to

business and market changes and gain competitive advantage.

• Seamless integration – by solving the integration challenge from a business and

technical perspective with the help of SAP NetWeaver. Companies benefit from

end-to-end process management and low TCO (total cost of ownership).

• Rapid time to benefit – by solving the implementation challenge - providing

specific for each industry best-practices solutions. The development of solutions

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for industry is based on customer needs. As a result, the companies would

implement solutions much faster and improve their time to benefit.

• Global operations – by allowing companies to integrate their international

operations, using SAP experience in automating multi-cultural businesses.

Moreover, SAP supports more languages and regional versions than any other

application suite.

• Reliable operations – influenced by the SAP NetWeaver platform.

• Adaptability – the group of solutions provides all necessary functionalities that

support innovations within companies and help to adapt to changes faster.

SAP implementations not always are successful and bring these benefits. However, the

majority of failures depend on the work of consultants and customer inability to change the

way they are working, not on the software itself. As SAP is highly adaptive, it could be

customized in any way the customer needs it (sometimes adding new functionality). So, it is

possible to say that SAP, if implemented in a right way, brings value to its customers. Of

course, sometimes companies implement SAP because there is no other software that could

handle that big amounts of data and processes, but that also means SAP is able to solve

problems of huge enterprises.

After a brief review of the SAP company and system background it would be much easier

to follow the main topic of this thesis. In the following chapter SAP NetWeaver infrastructure

and SOA concept would be analyzed in more depth.

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3. SAP NetWeaver overview

In this section, SOA as the core of SAP NetWeaver and SAP NetWeaver itself would be

described in more details. The first subchapter would define SOA philosophy and the basic

components. The second subchapter would define SAP NetWeaver background and

architecture.

3.1. SOA overview

The main focus of this chapter is to describe SAP NetWeaver infrastructure, its main

functions and components. However, it is important to describe the principles of this

infrastructure first. SAP NetWeaver is based on popular nowadays service oriented architecture

(SOA) concepts, defined in brief in the previous chapter. This subchapter would describe the

SOA background, main components in more details and present the possible logical

architecture.

3.1.1. Evolution of IT architecture

According to many sources, service oriented architecture is not a revolution, rather an

evolution in the IT architecture area. The evolution of IT architectures from the perspective of

components (first – monolithic, then functions, objects, messages between objects, application

integration and lastly - services) is presented below on figure 3.1.

Figure 3.1. Evolution of IT architecture [12]

When the software was started to develop in early 1950s, its structure was rather simple.

However, with years this structure was becoming more and more complex. So developers

together with IT architects were trying to make the IT architecture simpler and better

manageable. It all started with monolithic architectures, where processing, data and user

interface were connected in one system. As an example, DOS and some of the first versions of

Pre 1950’s to 1960’s

1970’s to mid 1980’s

1980’s to mid 1990’s

Mid 1990’s to early 2000

Late 1990’s Today

Monolithic Architectures

Sub-routines / Remote procedure calls

Remote object invocation

Message processing

Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)

Service Oriented Architecture

Increasing modularity to achieve flexibility

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Windows were implemented using this kind of architecture. [12] Early initiatives to make this

more usable were breaking monolithic applications into sub-routines or, in other words,

functions. Functions were parts of the code within a larger application that could perform

specific tasks and be more or less independent from one another. [12] Later, the main focus

was based on the concept of objects. These were discrete parts of program code that included

data and instructions of its behavior depending on the context. [12] Object oriented architecture

was based on the tight relationships between objects, so the next step was to loosely connect

object-oriented applications to each other. This was performed by message processing. Later,

various enterprise application integration techniques were developed to make the architecture

even more modular. The latest trend of the IT architecture is to use services as the basic

elements for building information systems. Service in this context should be understood as a set

of components (functions, objects, applications) that form a business service as understood by

the non-IT people. In this way business and information technologies communicate in the most

appropriate way than ever before.

3.1.2. SOA definition

SOA is a respectively new concept that was introduced in the beginning of the first

decade and became very popular among software vendors and business representatives. The

main idea of this architecture is that services, as business people understand them (e.g.

checking an online bank account or filling the electronic form), are used as the basic

components for building information systems. These services are independent and could be

reused in different business scenarios.

The main goal of SOA is to align business world with IT world in a way that both work

more effectively. According, to IBM, SOA is “… a bridge, that creates a symbiotic and

synergistic relationship between the two [business and IT] that is more powerful and valuable

than anything that we’ve experienced in the past.” [13] Further more, service oriented

architecture is focusing on business results that would improve after alignment of business and

IT.

Microsoft looks at SOA in even broader way. According to this company, SOA aims to

create “worldwide mesh of collaborating services” that could be accessible to anyone and

reusable in different business scenarios. [14] It is SOA that would assure the delivery of

business agility and IT flexibility.

Another IT corporation, Oracle, sees SOA as a facilitator of development of “modular

business services” [15], which could be integrated and reused. This would create a flexible and

adaptable IT infrastructure. Implementing an SOA approach, company could focus resources

on development of new services rather than support of all applications within organization.

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In general, SOA details and basic components are still debatable. However, the basic

concept and benefits of this type of architecture are accepted and widely used in the industry.

Most of the IT companies see SOA as the future architecture style and are suggesting different

solutions based on SOA concept.

So, the definition that could be used to describe SOA is:

“SOA is a conceptual business architecture where business functionality, or application

logic, is made available to SOA users, or consumers, as shared, reusable services on an IT

network. "Services" in an SOA are modules of business or application functionality with

exposed interfaces, and are invoked by messages.” [16]

In other words, according to SOA, services could be gathered in various sets that form a

business process. Different sets of services in a business process are called service

orchestrations. Services could be shared and reused.

It is also important to note that SOA is not:

• a product,

• a solution,

• a technology,

• a quick fix of IT complexity and bugs,

• addressing all IT challenges that are present in the IT organization.

As a rule, SOA makes use of different methodologies and tools for definition of the

business design, and usage of this design to improve the business results. SOA also uses

software tools, programming models and techniques (e.g. Web Services) for implementation of

this business design within information systems. The host of this implementation is the

middleware infrastructure. [13] These infrastructures are developed by the software vendors.

SAP NetWeaver could be one of the examples.

SOA is not just an IT term. Different people in organization could interpret SOA in

different ways. For example, business people would see SOA as sets of services that can be

suggested to customers and business partners. IT architects would align SOA with an

architecture style, which requires service requestor, service provider and service itself.

Application developers would see SOA as a programming model with its own tools and

techniques. Operation people would interpret SOA as a set of agreements between service

requestors and service providers. All these people would be correct in a way, that SOA is a new

trend that helps to align business and IT. [17]

Despite SOA is a very broad and fuzzy term it has core principles that are defined further

[18]:

21

• Service encapsulation, or usage of already created services (that were not

intended to be used under SOA).

• Service loose coupling, or minimization of the dependencies between services.

• Service contract, or adherence to communications agreements.

• Service abstraction, or hidden from outside world logic of services (except for

service contract).

• Service reusability.

• Service composability, or as earlier mentioned service orchestration.

• Service autonomy, or control over the logic in every separate service.

• Service optimization.

• Service discoverability, or good description of each service.

Figure 3.2. Elements of SOA [16]

According to Eric A. Marks and Michael Bell [16], SOA consists of the elements,

presented in the figure (see figure 3.2.). As seen, SOA strategy is the background of the whole

model, which is then driving the governance model and policies.

Services are placed in the very centre, as they are the key assets and driving force of an

SOA. The enabling technology is surrounding the services to make an SOA possible. Authors

also address architecture process, metrics and behaviour and culture issues as influencing

factors of the business benefits gained after implementing SOA.

In many sources it is stated, that SOA is not a hype as many other “pills of all diseases”,

but the way to make a complex IT infrastructure simpler. This is also proved by the various

surveys. For example, the latest survey of Amber Point showed that only %1.5 of the

SOA Strategy

SOA Governance

Enabling technology

Services

Architecture model

Behavior and Culture

Metrics

22

businesses that implemented SOA were referring to these implementations as “not successful”.

There were no businesses that described their SOA projects as “fiasco”. [19] Among the

benefits of SOA are [13]:

• From a business perspective, SOA is about modelling the business design.

Business executives could gather valuable insights from this model, and identify

the problems and risks associated with it. This design could be improved by

simply adding/resorting/deleting services that are the main components of the

model. Further more, in the same way new business services could be developed

helping to respond fast to changes in the market. SOA also gives a much more

effective way of communication between business and IT, as is understood by

both sides.

• From an IT perspective, SOA would help to structure software resources as a set

of services, which could be sorted in a way to form other services. SOA would

also establish a set of principles that should be followed. All these are thoroughly

described and created models and tools. They could be used to develop SOA

solutions for automating business design. The main value for IT is that created

services could be reused. This saves time of system development.

However, except the benefits, SOA as any other novelty carries challenges. The main

challenges of SOA implementation, is that it is difficult to implement, manage and control [16].

However, the main reason of these difficulties does not lie in the architecture itself, rather in

the organizational, cultural and behavioural aspects of each company [16]. There are some

technical issues as well, as there are no standards and very few supporting tools and

development platforms present in the market at the moment. Of course these are not the reasons

to not implement SOA, but every business that shifts to this model should pay attention to these

concerns, as well as some others, like: security, support of long-running transactions and user

resistance to change.

3.1.3. Logical architecture model

To make it simpler to understand what SOA is all about it is important to present the

logical architecture model of SOA components (from the perspective of IT). As SOA is a new

trend in the IT and business area, there are no open standards yet. Every software vendor has its

own view on what should be under SOA platform and what should not. There are some models

of SOA components. However, IBM, a leader in this sphere [20], offers the most complete one.

SOA logical architecture model is presented on figure 3.3.

23

Figure 3.3. Logical architecture model [13]

This logical architecture intends to decompose the functional foundation of the

application design. The white spaces between the components are made on purpose, in order to

distinguish all parts of the architecture from one another. IBM stresses that this separation

helps to focus on skills for separate sections. The core of this model is the green squares:

interaction services, process services, information services, partner services, business

application services and access services. Other components exist in order to assist the main

ones to work properly. It is also very important to note, that all these services have the same

interface and the difference among them is the area of usage. All the components that are

presented in the design would be briefly described further [13]:

• Enterprise service bus (ESB) is the fundamental component of the SOA [13]. All

the present within organization services could be accessed via this component. It

simplifies the process of invoking the services and makes it possible to use the

services whenever they are needed and wherever they would be within the

enterprise. IBM calls Enterprise Service bus an “architectural pattern” that

facilitates the way of integration of loosely-coupled services. ESB is being

discussed in the industry all the time, according to some sources, it is the main

component of the SOA model; according to others it is not crucial to have it. [21]

Enterprise Service Bus

Interaction Services

(Enable collaboration)

Process Services

(Orchestrate and automate

Information Services

(Manage diverse data)

Partner Services

(Connect with partners)

Business App Services

(Build on service

Access Services

(Facilitate interaction with assets)

Business Innovation and Optimization Services (Better decision making with real-time information)

Infrastructure services (Optimizes availability and performance)

Dev

elop

men

t ser

vice

s (I

nte

gra

ted

envi

ron

men

t fo

r de

sig

n a

nd

cre

atio

n o

f so

lutio

n a

sset

s)

IT S

ervice Managem

ent (M

anage and secure applications and resources)

24

• Interaction services are responsible for the presentation of the business design. In

other words, these are components that help applications and end-users to

communicate. It is also important to understand that end-users are not only

human, but could also be sensors, robots, RFID devices and others.

• Process services are responsible for compositional logic. The composition is the

set of services that makes a business process flow. And process services create the

composition mechanisms.

• Information services are responsible for the logic of data. These services are

present at two levels: on a surface (provide access to the constant data of the

business) and inside (ensure the dataflow within organization).

• Partner services are responsible for gathering the information about partners (e.g.

policies and constraints) and use it in order to connect to them. These services are

in some way similar to interaction services and access services.

• Business application services are responsible for the core business logic. These

are services that are created specially for implementing the business model. They

represent basic building blocks for the design of business processes. These

services cannot be decomposed, rather connected with other services to form a

business process.

• Access services are responsible to connect applications and functions into service

oriented architecture. This means gathering already created functions and object

and use them to compose services.

• Business innovation and optimization services are responsible for providing tools

and metadata structures to represent the business design, including policies and

business goals.

• Development services are sets of architecture, development, visual composition,

assemble and other kind of tools that facilitate the development process.

• IT service management is a set of management tools. These tools are used to

monitor the system.

• Infrastructure services are themselves created using SOA model. These services

are responsible to host the SOA applications and help to provide efficient

utilization of resources.

This was only brief overview of the main components of the logical architecture model.

As mentioned, other companies provide different view on the same thing. However, the main

principles remain the same. SOA is an architecture that is based on services, their

encapsulation, re-use and loose-coupling. It is services that create the business value and help

25

IT and business worlds to communicate in a proper way. Services could be accessed and used

from within the organization with help of the enterprise service bus.

3.2. SAP NetWeaver definition As mentioned, the main purpose of this chapter is to describe SAP NetWeaver, it’s

background and basic components. The foundation and principles of this solution were briefly

described in the previous sub-chapter. In this sub-chapter SAP NetWeaver would be defined in

more depth.

3.2.1. SAP NetWeaver background

SAP is considered a lead ERP software vendor and a third independent IT company

worldwide. It offers a wide range of business solutions for different industries as well as

standard solutions. However, with IT industry becoming more open, the need of integration

with other applications is getting more critical. Moreover, users are becoming more computer

literate and understand that they should only pay for the functionality they need and not for the

whole solution, % 80 of which is not used. Further more, SOA introduction made it possible to

connect business and IT in a much better way. These rising in the market trends pushed SAP

forward to develop an integration platform for SAP and non-SAP applications: SAP

NetWeaver.

SAP NetWeaver, as mentioned in the second chapter, was introduced in 2004 as a part of

mySAP product group forming an integration platform for mySAP Business Suite solutions. It

is a set of capabilities that allow applications work together, build new applications on top of

existing ones, and lower the applications’ TCO (Total Cost of Ownership). [22] SAP

NetWeaver is a SOA based middleware application and is built using open and accepted by the

industry standards. As it is open, it can further be extended with as well as cooperate with other

technologies, such as Microsoft .NET, Sun Java EE, and IBM WebSphere.

According to SAP, SAP NetWeaver “… provides a unified application development

platform that contains the tools, methodologies, rules, user interface patterns, and services that

allow SAP, its partners, and customers to build composite applications – either as products for

sale or custom applications for use by one company.” [23] The components and solution map

of the SAP NetWeaver would be described further in the next subchapter.

SAP did not only use, but extended the term SOA to ESA (Enterprise Service

Architecture) adding an enterprise as the main component for the architecture. So, as the

foundation for ESA, SAP NetWeaver helps to develop current IT landscape into a strategic

environment that drives business change of the enterprise. [24]

26

Three main benefits of SAP NetWeaver for the company implementing SAP Business

Suite solutions, according to SAP are as follows [25]:

• Enhanced Adaptability. As SAP NetWeaver is an integration platform, it helps

SAP applications to be integrated with applications already present in the

company’s IT landscape. NetWeaver provides an environment to integrate various

applications; databases and makes open technologies like web services available

to the user.

• Lower Total Cost of Ownership. Instead of replacing the existing system with

SAP solutions, SAP NetWeaver can help using existing functionality in the new

information system. It helps the company to get the maximum from what it

already has and easily add other functionality to build the new unified system.

Moreover, SAP NetWeaver helps to reduce complexity and makes the system

more flexible to the changing processes. All these help to reduce the TCO.

• Better Return On Investment. According to SAP, SAP NetWeaver also helps to

increase the return on investment (ROI). By using SAP NetWeaver, company’s IT

strategies can be synchronized with mySAP Business Suite solutions. This makes

the information system more reliable and leads to better assessment services.

These in turn lead to financial benefits.

With SAP NetWeaver, organizations can meet business needs by implementing IT

practices in a flexible approach at low cost. These practices form a NetWeaver solution map,

described further in the next sub-chapter. SAP NetWeaver helps organizations to perform the

following IT practices [26]:

• User productivity enablement. This practice is intended to help users and groups

improve productivity (by enhanced collaboration, optimized knowledge

management, and personalized access to critical applications and data).

• Data unification. Management and unification of master data for improved

business processes.

• Business information management. This practice is intended to increase the

visibility and coherence of the business information.

• Business event management. This practice intends to place processes in the right

sequence managed by the right people.

• End-to-end process integration. Integrate different business applications to work

properly as one unified system.

• Custom development. This practice helps to rapidly create new applications.

27

• Unified life-cycle management. Automate application management and

processes to optimize an application life cycle.

• Application governance and security management.

• Consolidation. This practice helps to deploy a consolidated technology platform,

which is able to allocate computing power according to changing business needs.

• Enterprise SOA design and deployment.

In order to understand how popular is SAP NetWeaver and other SAP applications, key

figures are presented further [27]:

• SAP NetWeaver base of customers is still rapidly growing. As of March 2007,

there were more than 13760 customer deployments.

• SAP has developed more than 1000 enterprise services for the SAP Business Suite

applications.

• More than 2000 independent software vendors are actively building applications

on SAP NetWeaver platform.

• There are more than 150 active members of the Enterprise Services Community

that develop services for SAP NetWeaver.

• Since the launch of SDN (SAP Developer Network) in September 2003, more

than 700000 members worldwide have joined it. They are actively working to

help the adoption of SAP NetWeaver.

• Since the launch of SAP NetWeaver, more than 10000 consultants have been

trained to support customers using it.

So, as seen, SAP NetWeaver is an integration platform that is used to integrate SAP and

non-SAP applications to form the new adaptable to business changes information system. The

popularity of SAP NetWeaver is growing as more and more companies are adopting it in their

business processes.

3.2.2. SAP NetWeaver components

SAP NetWeaver is a middleware that has a set of components and tools. This subchapter

would describe the architectural structure, main tools as well as a solution map of SAP

NetWeaver. The architecture of the SAP NetWeaver solution according to SAP is defined in

the way presented on figure 3.4.

As seen, SAP NetWeaver is about integration of people, information and processes. It

also has an application platform, to make these integrations possible and two frameworks that

support the solution: composite application framework and life-cycle management. The

functions of the people integration are: multi-channel access (MI component), collaboration

28

and a portal (EP component). Information integration consists of business intelligence (BI

component), master data management (MDM component) and knowledge management (EP

component). Process integration is composed of integration broker and business process (XI

component) and application platform consists of J2EE and ABAP applications and DB and OS

abstraction (AS component).

Figure 3.4. SAP NetWeaver conceptual architecture [28]

Further the main components of SAP NetWeaver are described:

• SAP NetWeaver Application Server (AS). This is a part of the application

platform (from the figure 3.4.). The main task of the application server is to enable

and support platform-independent Web services, business applications, and

standards-based development. [29] Application server is not a new component in

SAP solutions. It was referred as SAP Basis before release 4.6 D.

• SAP NetWeaver Exchange Infrastructure (XI). This is a part of the process

integration (from the figure). The main task of XI is to deliver open integration

technologies that enable process-based collaboration across the extended value

chain. [29] SAP XI is responsible to integrate SAP and non-SAP applications and

services.

• SAP NetWeaver Master Data Management (MDM). This is a part of the

information integration. The target of this component is to ensure cross-system

People integration

Information integration

Process integration

Application platform

Multi -channel access

Portal Collaboration

Master Data Management

Business Intelligence

Knowledge Management

Integration Broker

Business Process

DB and OS Abstraction

J2EE ABAP

Com

posi

te a

pplic

atio

n fr

amew

ork

Life

-cyc

le m

anag

emen

t

29

data consistency. MDM, as XI, also helps to integrate business processes across

the extended value chain. [29]

• SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence (BI). This, together with knowledge

management, is a part of the information integration. BI enables to integrate data

from across the enterprise and transform it into usable and up-to date business

information to speed-up the decision-making process. [29] BI is about very

complex reporting.

• SAP NetWeaver Mobile Infrastructure (MI) . This is a part of the people

integration, in particular multi-channel access. The goal of MI is to provide a

mobile environment, based on open technologies and standards. This environment

would facilitate the development of integrated mobile solutions. [29]

• SAP NetWeaver Enterprise Portal (EP). This is also a part of the people

integration as well as information integration (in particular knowledge

management). Enterprise portal combines business information and applications

to enable users to take advantage of all the information resources. [29] It unifies

heterogeneous system landscapes into one user interface.

• SAP Auto-ID Infrastructure. This component was introduced rather recently. It

gives the capabilities to integrate automated sensing devices (e.g. RFID readers

and printers, Bluetooth devices, embedded systems, and bar-code devices). [29]

• SAP NetWeaver Identity Management. This component is also rather new, it

addresses access and authorization issues. Identity Management enables to

integrate business processes and helps to integrate systems in a heterogeneous IT

environment. [29]

Except for components, there are tool enabling to develop and maintain SAP solutions.

The tools that are used to maintain SAP NetWeaver and develop further SAP and non-SAP

applications are as follows [29]:

• Adaptive Computing Controller (central point of control for assigning computing

resources and optimizing their use).

• SAP NetWeaver Composition Environment. Provides an environment for

development, deployment and maintenance of applications that comply with an

SOA.

• SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio. This tool provides a convenient user interface

and quite rich functionality for developing J2EE applications to be used on the

SAP NetWeaver basis.

30

• SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer. This tool simplifies the development of the

portal content and analytics’ applications.

• SAP Solution Manager. This is a very important tool that is used in many areas,

including customization and support of SAP applications. As a rule, without this

tool being used, SAP is not providing any support for SAP ERP applications.

The latest SAP NetWeaver solution 2004s was presented in a form of the functionality

map. Although having the same architecture (described earlier in this chapter), solution was

“sliced” to form an understandable by the business people solution. This solution is presented

on Figure 3.5.

Figure 3.5. SAP NetWeaver solution map [30]

As seen from the figure, the solution was divided into IT practices (general IT issues) and

different IT scenarios according to SAP NetWeaver. IT practices were briefly described in the

previous sub-chapter. Each IT practice has several IT scenarios. This can also be seen from the

services perspective, where IT scenarios could be seen as services (as business people

understand them) for the general IT practices offered by SAP NetWeaver. As mentioned, the

User productivity enabler

Data unification

Business information mngt

Business event management

End-to-end process integr.

Custom development

Unified life-cycle management

App governance and security mngt

Consolidation

ESA design and deployment

IT practices IT scenarios

Running an enterprise portal

Enabling user collaborat.

Business task mngt

Mobilizing business processes

Enterprise knowledge mngt

Enterprise search

Master data harmonization

Master data consolidation

Central master data management

Enterprise data warehousing

Reporting, query and analysis

Business planning and analytic serv.


Enterprise knowledge management

Enterprise search

Master data harmonization Master data harmonization

Enable app-to-app processes

Enable business-to-business proc.

Business process management

Enable platform interoperability

Business task management

Developing, configuring and adapting applications

Enabling platform interoperability

Software life-cycle management SAP NetWeaver operations

Authentication and single sign-on Integrated user and access management

Enable platform interoperab,

SAP NetWeaver operations

Master data consolidation

Enterprise knowledge management


Enabling enterprise services

31

components and SAP NetWeaver architecture did not change. It was just presented from

another perspective.

After describing the background and the architecture of SAP NetWeaver platform, it is

important to compare it to the similar products that are present in the market. So, in the next

sub-chapter main competitors of SAP NetWeaver would be described.

3.2.3. Overview of SAP NetWeaver competitors

Major software vendors (IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP) see the potential of the new

architectural trend and offer their enterprise SOA solutions as a foundation for business

applications. These solutions as SAP NetWeaver could be called an SOA middleware. It is

quite hard to distinguish the main competitors of NetWeaver, as each software vendor

understands SOA in its own way, putting one or another concept forward. Some software

vendors have one solution that covers all enterprise SOA principals, while others have many

applications for different purposes. Moreover, the purpose of SAP NetWeaver is to integrate

SAP and non-SAP applications and should not be used standalone without SAP Business Suite,

while other enterprise SOA applications can be used standalone.

To make it easier in selecting the right software products to compare with SAP

NetWeaver two main criteria are defined. Firstly, a middleware should be based on SOA

concepts, and secondly, it should be or have as a component a platform to integrate and

develop different business applications.

According to these criteria, there are four main solutions in the market that can be

compared to SAP NetWeaver: IBM Websphere, Microsoft BizTalk, Oracle SOA Suite and

BEA AquaLogic. There are also some other small companies that offer similar solutions like:

Progress Sonic ESB, iWay Service Manager, TIBCO BusinessWorks, Iona Artix, but they

would not be described, as they are too small to be compared to SAP NetWeaver.

IBM Websphere

WebSphere is the integration software platform suggested by IBM. It lies in the center of

IBM's “On Demand” Business strategy. WebSphere includes the whole infrastructure of the

middleware: servers, services, and tools needed to manage and develop new applications, on

demand Web applications as well as cross-platform and cross-product solutions. [31] Unlike

NetWeaver, WebSphere does not integrate specific applications. Instead, it was designed “... as

a general-purpose infrastructural abstraction and integration layer to hardware, databases,

existing ERP systems and other enterprise applications.” [32] However, IBM WebSphere as

SAP NetWeaver also focuses on integration of people, processes and information. It also

provides tools for this integration. [33]

32

IBM WebSphere platform is composed of these (and some others) software tools [34] that

comply with the SOA architecture presented in the earlier sub-chapter:

• Application Servers provide a platform to run interoperable applications.

• Business Integration Servers provide an infrastructure for integrating

applications and automating business processes.

• Commerce Products provide basic marketing, sales and order processing

functionality in an integrated package.

• Data and Information Management Software provides storage, access and

analysis of data in any environment.

• Mobile, Speech and Enterprise Access Middleware provides support for

mobile, speech, and rich client access.

• Networking Software provides integrated directory, connectivity and security

between users and applications.

• Organizational Productivity, Portals and Collaboration Software provides

instant messaging, Web conferencing, and collaborative portals.

• Software Development Tools provide design and construct applications that

support the deployment process.

• Systems and Asset Management Software provides monitor, control and

optimization applications to facilitate the management of complex physical assets

and computing resources.

IBM does not promote a unified view onto all WebSphere product group members as

SAP does with the NetWeaver. Instead, most WebSphere products are compatible with open

standards. This allows combining IBM’s products with other standards-compliant products.

This can help creating a custom platform for enterprise IT systems.

To sum up, according to Gartner report 2007, IBM is the leader of SOA applications at

the moment [20], so WebSphere covers all of the SOA functionality and could be used as an

example. However, it has a different than SAP NetWeaver focus. IBM is focusing on support

of its customers in finding “best-of-breed solutions” [34] for enterprise IT challenges, using

WebSphere family products that comply with other applications based on open standards. IBM

does not have ERP software that could be integrated on the SOA middleware, so its

middleware is used as a background for other software components (among them could be SAP

NetWeaver).

Oracle Fusion

Oracle Fusion Middleware is a portfolio of based on standards software products that

automate different services. It includes J2EE and developer tools, integration services, business

33

intelligence, collaboration, and content management systems. [35] Many of the products

included under the Oracle Fusion Middleware name are not themselves middleware products.

Fusion Middleware is generally a re-branding of many Oracle's products outside of core

database and applications software offerings. According to Oracle, Fusion Middleware is

designed to support development, deployment, and management of Service Oriented

Architecture. It includes what Oracle calls "Hot-Pluggable" architecture, which allows users to

integrate other applications and systems from different software vendors such as IBM,

Microsoft, and SAP AG. [35] Oracle Fusion Middleware includes applications, presented on

Table 3.1. [35]

Table 3.1. Oracle Fusion Middleware products • Application Server

• Business Integration

• Business Intelligence

• Business Process Management

• Coherence In-Memory Data Grid

• Collaboration Suite

• Content Management

• Data Integrator

• Developer Tools

• EDA Suite

• Identity Management

• Middleware for Fast-Growing Companies

• Oracle Fusion Middleware for Applications

• Portal

• Service Delivery Platform

• SOA Suite

• WebCenter

The most important component of Oracle Fusion to compare with SAP NetWeaver

platform is, Oracle SOA Suite. This suite includes a complete set of service infrastructure

components, which could be used for building, deploying, and managing SOA. Oracle SOA

Suite enables creation as well as management ant orchestration of services into business

processes. [35]

Oracle SOA Suite consists of [36]:

• BPEL-based Process Manager that facilitates the composition of services into

business processes.

• Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) solution provides a real-time visibility into

operation and performance of business processes and services.

• Business rules engine facilitates capture and automation of business policies.

• Multi-protocol Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) as mentioned before helps to

connect applications and route messages.

• Web services management and security solution helps to enforce authentication

and authorization.

• Services registry that helps discovering and managing the lifecycle of services.

34

• Integrated Service Environment (ISE) helps to develop and deploy services. [36]

Despite Oracle claims that Fusion Middleware is not a reaction to SAP NetWeaver and

position itself as a primary brand in the market, [37] it is obvious Oracle wants to strengthen its

position in Enterprise Applications market with the help of SOA architecture. Oracle wants to

establish a powerful base for its Oracle E-Business Suite that is a competitor of mySAP

Business Suite. [38]

Oracle made a big step towards SOA market by acquiring BEA as well. After acquiring

BEA, it is not clear if Oracle keeps BEA solutions (especially Aqualogic) as independent

software or puts it under Fusion Middleware brand. Whatever strategy they will choose, it is

very obvious that Oracle will strengthen it is position in SOA market and competition among

IBM, Oracle and SAP will become fierce.

BEA AquaLogic

BEA AquaLogic is a software suite developed by BEA Systems for managing SOA. BEA

AquaLogic sees business as SOA most important subject, giving the ability to affect changes

and facilitating flexibility to meet rapidly changing business needs. BEA reduces business

dependency on IT by introducing new software that facilitates the collaboration of business and

IT participants to meet strategic business needs and drives innovation. According to BEA

“…AquaLogic provides a unified, agile platform for creating and managing business

processes, portals, collaborative communities, and composite applications. It opens new

channels of collaboration within and across organizational boundaries, so business can grow

with the flow.” [39]

BEA AquaLogic suggests an open and independent platform for developing,

implementing and managing service-oriented architecture (SOA) in various computing

environments, including .NET, Java or legacy systems. [40] BEA AquaLogic enables software

services to respond faster to business changes [40]. As it is independent, BEA AquaLogic lets

services built on almost any platform (J2EE, .NET, SAP, Oracle, IBM, and others) be found,

used and managed. [41]

BEA Aqualogic includes the following products: [42]

• BEA AquaLogic BPM suite is a set of tools for business process management

(BPM). This component combines workflow with enterprise application

integration functionality. The suite consists of tools for business and technical

people. With its help, business people can create business process models and IT

people can create business applications from these models. The outcome is

deployed on a production server. From there back-end applications can be

accessed via portal.

35

• BEA AquaLogic User Interaction is a set of tools that facilitates the creation of

portals, collaborative communities and composite applications. These could work

on cross-platforms.

• BEA AquaLogic Enterprise Repository. This is an essential element for

effective SOA life cycle governance. It helps managing the metadata for any type

of software asset (starting from business processes and Web Services to patterns,

frameworks, applications, and components). Enterprise Repository maps the

relationships that connect assets to improve impact analysis, facilitate software

reuse, and measure the impact on the bottom line.

• BEA AquaLogic Service Bus

• BEA AquaLogic Service Registry provides a repository where services can be

registered and reused for services orchestration.

• BEA AquaLogic Data Services Platform (previously Liquid Data) provides

tools for creating and managing different data services.

• BEA AquaLogic Enterprise Security is a security infrastructure application for

distributed authentication and other security services.

Recently BEA was acquired by Oracle, so it is hard to say what would be the outcome of

this acquisition and how BEA solutions would be used in Oracle Fusion Middleware. It is

obvious though, that Oracle with BEA solutions might become a very strong player in the SOA

arena.

Microsoft middleware

Microsoft does not have one specific solution for SOA. It needs an integration of several

Microsoft solutions to establish SOA. Companies can use some of these solutions with SAP

NetWeaver as well. So it is hard to compare Microsoft solutions with SAP NetWeaver.

These solutions could be treated are parts of Microsoft SOA solutions [43]:

• .NET Framework. The .NET Framework is the managed code-programming

model for Microsoft Windows. Developers might use the .NET Framework to

build services and applications in an SOA.

• BizTalk Server. BizTalk Server 2006 R2 provides connectivity, messaging and

business process services to an organization's service oriented infrastructure.

• Visual Studio Team System. Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2008 Team System is

an integrated Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) solution comprising

tools, processes and guidance to help everyone on the team improve their skills

and work more effectively.

36

• System Center. Center solutions are tuned to simplify management of the

systems and applications the company already has implemented. This includes

Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft BizTalk Server,

Internet Information Services and the Microsoft .NET Framework.

• SharePoint. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 is an integrated suite of

server capabilities that can help improve organizational effectiveness. It provides

content management and enterprise search, accelerates shared business processes

and facilitates information sharing for better business insight.

• Oslo. This software product helps to easier design, develop, implement and

control different business applications. It is a composition of other products:

BizTalk Server, System Center, Visual Studio, BizTalk Services and .NET

Framework.

As seen, Microsoft still does not offer comparable to NetWeaver solutions, although it

has an ERP system (Microsoft Dynamics). However, Microsoft is working towards SOA as

this is the future in the business and IT market.

So, this chapter described SOA as a foundation of the SAP NetWeaver integration

platform, described NetWeaver itself, mentioning the main components of this platform and

made a brief overview of the competitor solutions present in the market. Next chapter would

answer the main research question of the thesis – how did the development of further SAP

business solutions change after the introduction of SAP NetWeaver.

37

4. SAP NetWeaver impact on development of SAP solutions

After description of SOA architecture and SAP NetWeaver, it is crucial to answer the main

research question of the thesis, which is “how SAP NetWeaver influences further development

of SAP business solutions”. There are certain things that have changed after the introduction of

SAP NetWeaver and the most important of them are:

• change in SAP architecture;

• change in integration of the suite components;

• change in development of new applications;

• change in implementation methods.

So, these would be described in more depth in this chapter. The last subchapter would

discuss the results of the survey carried out in order to find out the advantages and

disadvantages of SAP NetWeaver to SAP customers, developers and consultants.

4.1. SAP NetWeaver impact on SAP architecture

As SAP NetWeaver is an integration platform, one of the things that have changed after

its introduction is of course SAP architecture. However, as was mentioned earlier when

analyzing the evolution of IT architectures, SAP architecture changed gradually and SOA, or in

this case its middleware NetWeaver, was rather an evolution than a revolution.

The architecture of the two-tier SAP, or SAP R/2, could be visualized as shown on figure

4.1. As this is two-tier it is a client - server architecture, where client is able to perform tasks

even without accessing the server for some time. It is seen, that clients can use few modules,

connected to each other (the modules are: accounting, material management, production

planning, etc.).

Figure 4.1. SAP R/2 architecture [44]

Server ABAP/4 Data dictionary Dynpro Interfaces

Client 1

RF (Financial Accounting), RA (Assets Accounting), RK (Cost Accounting), RK-P (Projects), RP (Human Resources), RM-INST (Plant Maintenance), RM-QSS

(Quality Assurance), RM-MAT (Materials Management), RM-PPS (Production Planning and

Control), RV (Sales and Distribution)

…

Client N

RF (Financial Accounting), RA (Assets Accounting), RK (Cost Accounting), RK-P (Projects), RP (Human Resources), RM-INST (Plant Maintenance), RM-QSS

(Quality Assurance), RM-MAT (Materials Management), RM-PPS (Production Planning and

Control), RV (Sales and Distribution)

38

In the next generation SAP R/3 as the name suggests, three-tier architecture is started to

be used. So the user is accessing application server and then database server via interface and

cannot work without this access. Moreover, the functionality and number of modules rises as

seen from figure 4.2. Now users can also automate workflow processing, use industry specific

and project systems functionality.

Figure 4.2. R/3 three tier architecture [45]

The evolution of architectures did not stop on the three-tier architecture model, and the

next step is SOA. Starting from SAP ECC 5.0 (or mySAP ERP Edition 2004) NetWeaver is

started to be used and the architectures model changed. The architecture shift influenced by

SOA (or in SAP case SAP NetWeaver) is presented on figure 4.3.

It is seen that NetWeaver empowers different users to have different user-specific

interfaces and allows to access data from different databases based on what kind of data is to be

accessed. This architecture model also includes workflows connected to processes for every

separate user.

Database

Application Server N

Application Server 1

…

Presentation (SAP GUI) BC (Basis), AM (Asset Management) CO (Controlling), FI (Financial Accounting), HR (Human Resources), IS (Industry Specific Solutions), PM (Plant Maintenance), PP (Production Planning), PS (Project System), QM (Quality Management), SD (Sales and Distribution), MM (Materials Management), WF (Business Work Flow)

…

…

Presentation (SAP GUI) BC (Basis), AM (Asset Management) CO (Controlling), FI (Financial Accounting), HR (Human Resources), IS (Industry Specific Solutions), PM (Plant Maintenance), PP (Production Planning), PS (Project System), QM (Quality Management), SD (Sales and Distribution), MM (Materials Management), WF (Business Work Flow)

39

Figure 4.3. Transition from R/3 to ESA [3]

So, the general picture of the shift of architectures is presented on figure 4.4. It is seen,

that NetWeaver was just another step in the evolution, helping to simplify a very complex

architecture and make it easier for developers and consultants.

Figure 4.4. Evolution of SAP solutions [3]

The most important changes in the architecture made it possible to integrate SAP and

non-SAP solutions simpler and less costly that before. This is NetWeaver impact on the

integration of applications, which is explained in more details in the next subchapter.

SAP R/3 4.6 C SAP R/3 Enterprise MySAP ERP Eddition 2004

MySAP ERP Eddition 2005

Self-service procurement

Internet sales

Self-services

Strategic enterprise mngt

SRM

Composite applications

SAP ECC

SAP NetWeaver 2004s • IT practices • Scenarios • Variants • Usage types • Engines • User interfaces

Self-service procurement

Internet sales

Self-services

Strategic enterprise mngt

Composite applications

SAP ECC

SAP NetWeaver • People integration

(multi-channel actions, portal, collaboration)

• Information integration (BI, MDM, Knowledge mngt)

• Process integration (integration broker, business process mngt)

• Application platform

Industry solutions

Extensions set

SAP R/3 Enterprise

SAP Web Application server

Application

SAP Basis

Integration Platform SAP NetWeaver

DB1

DBN

…

Applications

ERP CRM

SRM …

Applications

ERP CRM

SRM …

Role-specific user interface

Workflows

40

4.2. SAP NetWeaver impact on integration of different applications

One of the most important goals of SAP NetWeaver is to integrate existing SAP solutions

as well as non-SAP applications into one information system. Before SAP NetWeaver was

introduced, applications were connected to each other with the help of point-to-point

integration. However, as more and more systems (ERP, CRM, SCM, PLM, etc.) with own

databases were being built this integration was becoming extremely difficult. For example,

searching for the information about a business partner meant that users would have to check in

ERP, CRM, SCM and SRM systems.

The main challenges of integration of various applications are as follows [46]:

• Point-to-point integrations cannot pass big amount of data in short time. This

means that passing information from one source to another would take more time

than searching for the same information in one system.

• Difference in data. As each system has its own database with different tables,

fields and structure, the data to be transferred from one system to another is not

standardized and should be transformed in order to fit the requirements of another

system.

• Hard to develop integration brokers:

o The structure of the integration brokers that ensure point-to-point integration

is very complex.

o Need for developers’ skills in both systems. In order to integrate two

different systems developer needs to know data structures of both systems.

• Usually integration takes place on data, but not process level (in other words,

without context).

In spite all these difficulties; point-to-point integration is still used in order to integrate

systems. Moreover, most of the software vendors claim, that this kind of integration is worth all

spent money. However, when analyzing the TCO of the information system it becomes obvious

that a very high percentage of the budget is spent on these integrations, since they are very

costly to create and maintain. First of all, it requires very skilled developers and good tools to

create integration brokers, and secondly, they should be changed whenever changes occur in

one of the systems. Integration brokers would cost even more if two systems from different

vendors need to be connected. So, in order to see what are the main components of TCO, figure

4.5 presents the general picture. As seen, TCO is calculated by summing up the cost of

applications, costs of integration platforms and costs of integrating applications and platforms

among each other. This TCO is counted for the developed information systems, not the ones

bought from the shelf.

41

Figure 4.5. Total cost of ownership [46]

So, as mentioned in the beginning of this sub-chapter, NetWeaver can help companies to

integrate their systems cheaper. In other words, NetWeaver changes the way integration works.

It reduces the TCO of the whole information system and increases total investments on the

innovations. The next figure (figure 4.6.) shows how NetWeaver helps to create

interoperability between applications and platforms. This is possible due to out-of-the-box

integration of the systems without a need to develop this integration.

Figure 4.6. NetWeaver helps to reduce TCO [46]

Integration ability

Use integration products with pre-

configured business content

and connectors to reduce custom

integration

Adaptability to specific industry

requirements

Reduced integration costs

through integration hubs

Use Web Services and other open

standards instead of proprietary API

technologies

1

2

3

4

5

Process automation

Enhanced productivity

Lower workload

Lower hardware costs

Lower development costs

Lower maintenance costs

Lower costs

TCO reduction

Portal

Business Intelligence …

EAI Mobile Infrastructure

Integration Platform

Applications/ Components

SAP R/3

SAP CRM

Partner

Legacy

Knowledge Management

SAP R/3

TCO =

Cost of integration platforms

+ Cost of

integrating applications and

platforms +

Cost of applications

42

The most important issue to be analyzed is whether this kind of integration can be sold as

a out-of-the-box product and SAP NetWeaver addresses this issue with the positive answer. It

consists of components of the suite designed to work together as one system and tools to

develop any missing integrations.

SAP NetWeaver has all the integration technologies that a company would need in order

to connect different system in one package:

• A portal to extract different data from various systems into one collaborative

environment.

• A data warehouse to store data from different systems in one place.

• A messaging system to send messages between different systems.

• A complex business process management enabler.

• An application server to run all these components.

So, having in mind that all these components created by the same vendor are actually

working as one system (having single sign-on, same functionality to identify users, same

administration functionalities, centralized master data management, etc.) the companies can

actually see that TCO is becoming smaller.

TCO is not the only benefit that SAP NetWeaver, as an integration platform, brings. The

expenditures on innovations could be cut down with its help as well. In order to understand

how SAP could cut down on these costs it brings the example of Microsoft Office [46], which

is actually a suite of different applications. Earlier all applications were separate products.

However with time these products started to share functionality (e.g. formatting text, spell

checking, inserting images, etc.). Nowadays, about % 70 of the functionality is shared.

Following the same pace, SAP is adopting NetWeaver in order to share the functionality of

different mySAP Business Suite components (ERP, CRM, SCM, etc.). It is believed that in

every next version of SAP NetWeaver more and more code would be shared and more

functionalities would come as a basics of NetWeaver. [46] For instance even now, SAP

Enterprise Portal is started to being used as a common user interface layer and SAP Web

Application Server - as a server for Business Suite components to operate.

However, NetWeaver cannot be bought from the shelf as an integration package for all

the systems the company should have. The systems cannot be installed and work properly from

the first day of the project. There still are some developments to the functionality and

integration brokers that need to be done in a long run. However, NetWeaver addresses this

issue as well and offers a wide range of development tools that would help to create the

missing applications. These development tools are described in more depth in the next sub-

chapter.

43

4.3. SAP NetWeaver impact on development of new applications

SAP NetWeaver has rather traditional development environment for Java and ABAP.

However, the tools that are composing this environment are very effective and easy to use.

These were briefly described in the previous chapter, but here they are looked at from a

different perspective – how did NetWeaver changed existing SAP tools into the ones that can

be used now. So, the tools that would be analyzed are: Web Dynpro (environment to model

user interfaces and increase developer productivity), SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio,

Composite Application Framework (a tool to connect applications), SAP Solution Manager and

others [47].

So, according to SAP, NetWeaver changes the way technology, architecture and customer

needs are dealt with. And an easy way to understand NetWeaver is as a collection of new and

improved tools and applications. These tools are developed with extra features in order to

address problems and use new opportunities. These tools are described further in more depth.

SAP Web Dynpro

Web Dynpro (as well as SAP Enterprise Portal and SAP Mobile Infrastructure) was

developed based on earlier solutions - Dynpro and SAP GUI. It is a tool that helps developers

to create different elements of user interface. Web Dynpro includes a layout for user interface

screen and labels, text fields, option radio buttons and check boxes, etc. Created dialog screen

could then be used on different terminals with or without customizations.

SAP GUI, as a predecessor of Web Dynpro, was developed in order to support clients,

using Unix and Microsoft Windows environments, interfaces. SAP GUI was used to log on to

SAP applications (e.g. SAP R/3). [47] Then it downloaded interface definitions that would

select and run the needed client. When user needed additional functionality to be performed,

request was sent from SAP GUI to BASIS and the task was then dispatched. The result of the

task was sent back to SAP GUI.

A user interface is now taken over by the standards: HTML and HTTP. These now

perform the same tasks for Web Dynpro and SAP EP as Dynpro and DIAG (transport protocol

for Dynpro) used to perform for SAP GUI. [47] Now, a browser performs the tasks performed

by SAP GUI.

SAP Enterprise Portal (EP) and Mobile Infrastructure (MI) are also developed from these

two solutions (Dynpro and SAP GUI). EP ensures the performance of tasks on the server side

as well as connects user interface to the system logic. The Enterprise Portal also ensures the

synchronization of data in real time. MI ensures the performance of tasks for mobile devices:

mobile phones, PDAs, others.

44

SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio

SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio was developed based on an earlier SAP solution -

ABAP Workbench. This tool provides a full development environment for Java and ABAP, as

ABAP Workbench provided for ABAP. ABAP Workbench had many advanced features, like

ability to build complex structures out of different smaller components. This is also brought to

the Developer’s Studio under the name: Java Development Infrastructure.

In general, SAP Developer Studio is the most important tool for development on SAP

NetWeaver. It is based on Eclipse framework, which is a toolkit developed by IBM and used to

building development tools. [48] This framework is shared and easy to use, so SAP decided to

build its development infrastructure based on Eclipse.

So, the Developer Studio has a development environment to build Java applications and

supports editing, managing the source code, building and debugging programs. [47] Further

more, it includes the development of Web Services features. SAP also claims that in future

Developer Studio would also support other programming languages, except for Java and

ABAP.

Nowadays, most of the developers who write applications for SAP use Developer Studio.

It is used for creation of different SAP and non-SAP products and also for development of

system integrations (integration brokers). As mentioned, the infrastructure that is used to put

various components into complex system is called Java Development Infrastructure (or JDI). It

supports the dictionary of data types and definitions as well as tracking the dependencies

between modules, automatic rebuilding of various libraries. These features were identified by

SAP as the most critical. [47] However, the most essential advantage of this tool is ability to

use it as an application modeler. Here is where Web Dynpro (mentioned earlier in this sub-

chapter) comes into picture. SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio supports Web Dynpro in order

to allow developers to specify how user interface should look like and act without a need to

code. The code (Java) is then generated automatically based on the view that developers

created. It can be further customized and improved with additional Java code if there is a need

for that.

Developer Studio also includes environment for creating user interfaces for mobile

devices (for SAP MI) and a special environment to develop Enterprise Portal (EP) interfaces.

In general, the code, written in SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio, helps to integrate people,

information and processes and makes the jobs of developers more productive and less complex.

[47] According to SAP, developers, using Developer Studio, spend much more time on adding

value than on coping with simple details. In other words, this tool helps to save money spent on

development and supports innovation. [47] The code, written in this tool, can be used at any

45

layer of the system and application that are created using this tool and are run on SAP Web

Application Server.

SAP Composite Application Framework

NetWeaver changed the way SAP applications are working together. Earlier, different

parts of mySAP Business Suite (ERP, CRM, PLM, etc.) were “monoliths”, each using different

functionalities. Now, all these solutions are built as a set of Web Services integrated on the top

of SAP NetWeaver. The most essential change is that user interface is no longer treated as the

central part of the application. This place is taken by reusable Web Services. User interface is

not disappearing, but becomes just a point from which Web Services are initiated. This kind of

architecture makes it possible to create different applications from already existing building

blocks. As an example of this kind of application, a sales order that is present in three different

systems (ERP, SCM and CRM) could be discussed. A sales order could be created in CRM

system and then should automatically appear in other two systems. In this case Web Services

would be used to put all the entered information in three systems, using just one user interface.

This example shows how composite applications work.

A new SAP framework – Composite Application Framework (or SAP CAF) is used as a

modeling and development environment in order to create this kind of composite applications.

In other words, these applications could be described as software that is built using services

provided by other applications. [47] CAF helps to define these using a role-based and process-

based modeling. It helps to model almost the whole application without the need of coding.

This is a very essential advantage, because when something in the process changes, it is only

the model that needs to be changed and there is no need to change the whole programming

code. That is why SAP NetWeaver is treated as an enabler of business agility.

SAP CAF contains a metadata repository that keeps information to describe objects,

roles, user interfaces and the relationships among these. The metadata is then used to generate

the code. This code is then run on SAP Web Application Server. This is another advantage of

CAF – allowing to create a long code based on few lines of metadata.

SAP CAF, as mentioned, is the tool for modeling, it uses all the components of SAP

NetWeaver as services. It also has built-in collaboration and communication features that allow

seeing and deploying all users’ roles in the composite application. [47] CAF also includes

special features for controlling different applications. These allow immediate customizations

and improvements. With SAP CAF help, developers can also create flexible processes and see

in the user interface what user is doing step by step in the process (these are called guided

procedures). SAP CAF is also used to create SAP xApps and build them on SAP NetWeaver,

46

SAP Business Suite or other non-SAP applications. SAP CAF then uses roles, guided

procedures and collaborative functions in order to enable cross-functional processes. [47]

SAP Solution Manager

SAP Solution Manager was developed based on an earlier solution of SAP - ABAP’s Life

Cycle Management. As SAP is a huge system having a lot of different functionalities, the

development of new features, implementation, installation, configuration, customization and

support are very complex processes. To make these processes easier, SAP developed plenty of

tools and templates. The main tool was – ABAP’s Life Cycle Management. It is now

transformed into SAP Solution Manager. This tool helps during implementation,

customization, monitoring and support projects.

Over 30 years of operations, SAP was supplying its customers the same tool as it used for

managing the lifecycle of its own applications. Now having all the experience in development

and system implementation, SAP provides its customers a tool that really makes a difference.

SAP Solution Manager is a “must have” for all new SAP customers, without it, SAP does not

provide the maintenance of the system services.

SAP Solution Manager enables users to keep track of different versions of the system,

separate various customizations from each other (e.g. FI settings of one country would be very

different from FI setting of another country), make customizations of the system within the tool

and then transport it to the development environment of the system, make use of the wide

reporting system.

SAP Solution Manager is also a framework that helps to configure and manage the

applications in high-availability environment. [47] It helps to monitor different suite solutions,

NetWeaver components, as well as non-SAP applications. With its help, companies can also

monitor the processes that are carried out inside all these applications. Solution Manager allows

upgrading any of the Business Suite components using the best practices templates that are

built-in. This tool can also be used in order to roll-out an already existing system to other

locations (e.g. a company has several plants and the same functionality should be distributed

into all of them). So having all these advantages in mind, Solution Manager actually helps to

make operations easier and by this minimizes the maintenance of the system costs.

SAP Solution Manager is not a development tool and developers cannot actually write

code in it, so from this perspective, it does not affect the development process itself. However,

the management of the development (as well as other) processes is actually improved when

using this tool. It is treated as one of the most important improvements after the introduction of

SAP NetWeaver. So, as it is a part of SAP NetWeaver and it has an influence on the further

development of SAP solutions, it had to be mentioned in this sub-chapter.

47

Some other changes in development environment after NetWeaver introduction

Other changes after SAP NetWeaver was introduced would include the changes to

ABAP, SAP Basis, RFCs, ABAP Business Workflow, ALE and Idocs, Report Writer and

ABAP Query.

Open SQL as used in SAP R/3 is continued to being used in SAP NetWeaver. The

purpose of Open SQL is to give the ability to write programs and run them on various

databases. [47] The only change to Open SQL in NetWeaver is that it is now available in both

programming languages: ABAP and Java.

What happened to ABAP and SAP Basis was their transformation into SAP Web

Application Server and Java environment. As mentioned before, ABAP is a programming

language invented by SAP and used in order to develop SAP applications. At first, SAP

solutions were written on assembler and abstractions were created using macros. [47] However,

later SAP identified the need to create a more user-friendly language. This language was

developed based on Cobol and later was transformed to have more object-oriented features

(like Java). SAP claims that the most business process friendly features of ABAP include the

standard functionality for converting currencies, calendar, internationalization features [47] and

others that are a must have in each enterprise application. According to SAP, while developing

this language they made sure that connections between user interface and application logic is

very easy to develop and maintain. Now, SAP puts its strengths in order to implement other

programming language – Java. So, as mentioned before, SAP applications can now be written

in Java as well.

SAP Basis could be treated as an operating system for SAP. This provides all the

necessary functionality that could be used by SAP applications in order to function properly:

create processes, display date and time, open files, send e-mails, etc. SAP Basis ability to

enable operating system activities is defined in an application server. [47] This server provides

a possibility to create applications and run them on many different operating systems. The

newest application server that is used by SAP is SAP Web Application Server – a component

of SAP NetWeaver. It is based on J2EE standards. The most important benefit of the new Web

Application Server is that it supports both languages – ABAP and Java (along with all the

features of both).

Remote Function Calls (or RFCs) that were used before are transformed into Web

Services. RFC enables other applications to invoke the functionality of the enterprise

application. In this case, RFCs used to allow external systems to use the functionality of SAP

Business Suite solutions. [47] These allow developers to create applications and let others to

use them.

48

However, SAP NetWeaver changed the way of invoking the functionality of SAP

Business Suite components. SAP NetWeaver, as mentioned before, works on the basis of Web

Services. As Web Services are easier to understand, this made lives of developers easier. In

order to use RFCs, developers needed to know what exactly this RFC was performing. So, they

were searching for these descriptions in the Business Object Repository of Business Suite

solutions. As Web Services are self-describing, there is no need to search for their definitions.

The descriptions of Web Services could be found in Web Services Description Language file.

[47]

Used earlier ABAP Business Workflow becomes a Workflow. ABAP’s Business Workflow

was used in order to define different steps in the process and enable user to automatically go

from one dialog screen to another and from one function module in ABAP program to another.

ABAP Business Workflow allows modelling different chains of business processes and relating

transactions to one another in a certain order, when a process involves one or several users. The

tasks that are assigned to a certain user could be seen in an inbox or a to do list structure. The

workflow is then monitoring the whole process and the correct assignment of tasks to different

users. When using the workflow functionality, developers do not need to write that much code

because it helps to form processes from different activities.

The importance of using this functionality is now understood on various levels of the

processes and is used in different NetWeaver components. For example, SAP Enterprise Portal

uses workflow in order to guide user through different screens, SAP Web Application Server

uses it to handle complex processes. But the most important new feature of the workflow

functionality is a Business Process Management (BPM) feature (SAP XI). This tool helps to

model the process that handles even asynchronous events. [47]

ALE and IDocs in SAP NetWeaver become Exchange Infrastructure, SAP Master Data

Management, and XML. Application Linking and Embedding (ALE) was used in order to

communicate between SAP R/3 components. From the beginning of SAP as a system,

customers used to have only one SAP R/3 solution. However, with years, SAP was growing

and many more solutions appeared on the market and were installed by SAP customers.

Moreover, SAP was sold to big enterprises that sometimes needed several installations of the

R/3 systems. So the need to connect these systems was a “must have” then. ALE enabled

different types of MD (master data) to be transferred from one SAP system to another. Master

data could be understood as a basic data that needs to be present in the system (data about

customers, materials, vendors, chart of account, etc.), These ALE were based on RFCs,

described earlier, and were solving the problems of transferring data from one application to

another.

49

Idocs on the other hand, are the format for exchanging different types of information. So,

in SAP case ALE sent Idocs from one R/3 system to another. In general, Idocs are used to send

information between different RFCs. [47]

With the introduction of SAP NetWeaver this functionality was transformed into a very

complex architecture of information exchange. In the market this called Enterprise Application

Integration, but in SAP case it is an SAP Exchange Infrastructure (or SAP XI). It is a very

complex and functional way of sending and receiving messages between systems and

connecting message formats. Idoc message formats are now replaced with XMLs. Another

SAP NetWeaver component – Master Data Management (MDM) – is taking care of the

functionality that ALE was designed for. It ensures that master data is present in all the system

where it should be.

A very simple Report Writer and ABAP Query tools has now grown into the SAP

Business Intelligence component (SAP BI). In the beginning, report writer tool was meant to be

a very simple tool to create reports. They were a part of SAP R/3 controlling module. ABAP

Query was an interface to create queries in a user-friendly (at that time) manner. It worked on

the Open SQL layer. [47]

Later, the importance of information consolidation and different reports was understood

and this functionality was started to enhance. First module of the reporting and information

consolidation was called a Business Warehouse. It included complex reporting and information

analysis tools (like OLAP – Online Analytical Processing). The newest version of the

information analysis tools is the component of the SAP NetWeaver – SAP Business

Intelligence (SAP BI). This component allows collecting and consolidating the information

from different sources. SAP BI OLAP enables to analyze this information from different

perspectives.

So, summing these changes up, it is obvious that Enterprise SOA changed the way

systems are developed. In other words, SAP NetWeaver is a whole new toolkit for developing

SAP applications and these tools put together are bringing the new programming model to life.

With help of re-usable services developers can build different kinds of applications in shorter

time and all other tools are helping to make the development process easier.

In general, SAP NetWeaver brought many changes to the way SAP solutions are

developed, but these changes are more connected with the changing programming environment

as a whole than the revolutionary thinking of SAP. The development tools that form SAP

NetWeaver are not new, but enhanced old environments used to develop and integrate SAP

solutions.

50

4.4. SAP NetWeaver impact on SAP implementation

Implementation of SAP solutions is a long lasting and costly process. So, in order to

standardize it, SAP came up with an implementation methodology. This methodology and

supporting software tools are being developed all the time. Before SAP NetWeaver was

introduced consulting companies used ASAP (Accelerated SAP) implementation methodology

and few tools that helped to make this process easier. These tools were: ValueSAP, which

contained all the roadmap descriptions and templates of different documents; Q&A database,

which could be used in order to keep the documentation connected with the current project.

However, with introduction of SAP NetWeaver, SAP Solution Manager replaced these tools.

The methodology used for SAP implementation did not change a lot and is presented on Figure

4.7.

Figure 4.7. ASAP implementation methodology [49]

Phase 0 - Planning 1. Define project goals 2. Develop SAP implementation strategy 3. Conceptualize the new system 4. Budget, project schedule

Phase 1 – Project preparation 1. Develop project plan 2. Define business process re-engineering

tasks

Phase 2 – Business Blueprint 1. Design new business processes 2. Configure the system 3. Define add-on functionality to be developed 4. Approve the project plan

Phase 3.1 Realization Baseline prototype 1. Define the main new

process 2. Complete system

configuration 3. Design add-on

functionality 4. Prepare master data 5.Create overall migration

Phase 3.1 Realization Final Scope 1. Complete testing of the

new business process 2. Develop and conduct unit

testing 3. Create a migration plan 4. Create a training plan 5. Create a system operating

plan

Phase 3.1 Realization Integration testing 1. Final testing of the new

system 2. Conduct a cutover

rehearsal 3. Create operation manual 4. Conduct user trainings 5. System and tolerance

testing

Phase 4 – Final preparation 1. User acceptance testing 2. End-user training 3. Complete migration preparation 4. Final migration 5. Project confirmation

Phase 5 – Go live and support 1. Post go live support 2. Evaluate implementation benefits 3. Close project

51

As seen, the process of implementation starts with the planning and preparations for the

project phases and ends with the support project. The methodology had all the same steps

before NetWeaver as well. However, after NetWeaver was introduced (in particular its

component Solution Manager), it became much easier to carry out all the steps needed in order

to implement the system. As mentioned before, Solution Manager is a tool that helps to manage

different types of processes. It supports the whole lifecycle of the system, mainly focusing on

six areas – requirement analysis, design, development, deployment, operation and optimization.

The tool is running on the separate central system and all other SAP systems are connected to

it. [50]

SAP Solution Manager has this functionality that optimizes the implementation process

[50]:

• It provides all kinds of document and functionality templates for implementation,

upgrade, maintenance, rollout projects.

• It is aligned to the ASAP methodology and provides roadmaps for different types

of projects (e.g. implementation roadmap covers the project management,

configuration of business processes, testing and trainings, and technical activities).

• It has Business Process Repository of SAP best practices.

• It offers an eLearning feature that enables online trainings of SAP functionality.

• It allows storing testing results in a special storage repository. This makes testing

results available all the time.

• It has a built in Helpdesk feature that is available either online or in the SAP

system itself. Helpdesk is connected to Change Request Management

functionality. This simplifies the process of changes transportation to the

production system.

• It has many built-in reports that help to monitor the implementation process.

• It has central documentation storage – Knowledge Warehouse – that allows

keeping any kinds of documents connected with the project.

• It is connected to SAP Service Market Place, an online repository, where all the

documentation about any of SAP solutions is stored.

As seen, SAP Solution Manager not only helps to manage the development process as

explained in the earlier chapter, but also optimizes the whole system implementation process. It

has a built-in functionality that helps to gather requirement for the system, facilitates the

customization and development process, enables an easier deployment and makes the support

and maintenance projects much easier. SAP Solution Manager is free of charge (when

implementing any of SAP solutions) and is a “must have” for all new SAP customers.

52

4.5. SAP NetWeaver influence on project actors

As SAP NetWeaver influence on project actors is not studied in the literature, this

information was gained by carrying out the survey of SAP NetWeaver consultants. The survey

aimed to get opinions and insights of SAP professionals about SAP NetWeaver effects on

different business actors. It consisted of 20 survey questions that were divided into 4 main parts

according to focus of questions: general introductory questions, SAP NetWeaver effects on

customers, SAP NetWeaver effects on developers, SAP NetWeaver effects on consultants.

Some optional open interview questions were added in the end of the survey (these were used

to structure the chapter). All the survey questions are provided in the Appendix 2.

The survey was published via an online survey site – www.surveygizmo.com (see

Appendix 3 for detailed view). 200 SAP consultants, architects and IT specialists were sent an

email with the link to the survey. All of the invitees were selected from the IBM SAP

NetWeaver specialist list.

The overall response ratio of the survey is % 21 with 42 responses in total. Geographic

distribution is very spread all around the world. There are responses from USA, Brazil, India,

UK, Sweden, Norway, France, Germany, Poland, Lithuania and South Africa. SAP experience

of respondents ranges from 1 to 14 years with average of 3.85 years.

As mentioned, the first part of the survey had some general introductory questions about

SOA market growth and the importance of SAP NetWeaver to SAP as a company and as a

system. The first question aimed to measure the general growth rate of SOA market (SOA

customers, new middleware) in three years. The answers were ranging from 1 (very low) to 5

(very high) with average result of 3.8. This means that IT specialists believe that SOA is going

to grow quite rapidly in the next 3 years. None of the respondents answered that SOA is going

to grow very slowly (1) or slowly (2).

The next questions of this part had the same structure with the answers ranging from very

low to very high. Respondents were offered to measure general SAP market share growth,

evaluate the effect of NetWeaver as the competitive advantage on SAP as a system and as a

company. The average expected growth of SAP market share according to respondents is 3.5

out of 5. % 16.7 of participants expect very high (5), % 40.5 of participant expect high (4), %

33.3 of participants expect average (3), and % 4.8 participants expect low growth rate for SAP

market share in overall SOA market for the following three years. The expectation for SAP

growth is positive. However, it is a bit under the whole market growth.

Respondents feel that SAP NetWeaver is very important for SAP as a system in order to

compete in ERP market. The average score for the question “How important will be SAP

NetWeaver for SAP from the perspective of competition in ERP market” is 4.4 out of 5.

53

Similar result is gained for the question about NetWeaver influence on SAP as a company.

Average score is 4.3 out of 5. % 40.5 of participants think that NetWeaver has very high

importance (5) on success of SAP as a company, whereas % 50 of participants think the

importance is high (4).

After the general questions on SOA market growth as well as basic understanding of SAP

place in the SOA market and NetWeaver effects on SAP as a system and as a company, the

respondents were offered to answer the main questions of the survey about NetWeaver

influence on project actors.

4.5.1. SAP customers

Second part of the survey focused on research of SAP NetWeaver effects on customers. It

started with 1 to 5 scale questions as well as the first part. First question was evaluating the

difference between SAP NetWeaver-based and pre-NetWeaver solutions for SAP customers.

General opinion was there is a considerable difference between pre-NetWeaver and NetWeaver

based solutions for SAP customers with the 3.9 out 5.0 average score.

As SAP claims NetWeaver helps to spread the information all over enterprise, next

question aimed to measure to which extent SAP NetWeaver helps enterprises to solve their

information coherence and availability challenges. % 21.4 of participants rated NetWeaver as

totally solving this problem (5), % 54.8 of participants rated it as solving it to a higher extent

(4) and % 21.4 of participants rated it as solving the information availability problems to a

medium extent (3). Results show that SAP NetWeaver plays an important role for enterprises

to solve these particular problems.

Third question was about the level of benefits gained from common user interface

provided by SAP NetWeaver to SAP customers. Again, most of the respondents agreed on high

benefits of NetWeaver user interface for customers. The average score was 4.1 out of 5.0 and

the distribution of ratings is as follows: % 31 for very high, % 50 for high and % 19 for average

benefits. These results exhibit the essentiality of common user interfaces for applications as

well as effect on success of SAP NetWeaver.

Following question was investigating if it is worth for customers who have pre-

NetWeaver SAP versions to upgrade their systems to NetWeaver-based solutions. Majority of

respondents thinks that it is worth to make this change. % 23.8 of respondents think that this

change is very necessary (5) whereas % 57.1 of respondents agree that it is necessary (4). %

14.3 of respondents feel that this change is slightly important (3) and only one respondent

voted that this change is not really necessary.

Another question was measuring to what extent SAP NetWeaver can help enterprises to

have a better integration between SAP and non-SAP Systems. Results exhibit that SAP

54

NetWeaver has considerable benefits for integration issues as well. % 38.1 respondents gave

very high (5) and % 38.1 gave high (4) rating for the integration capabilities of NetWeaver. %

21.4 of respondents thinks that NetWeaver has only medium impact on integration between

SAP and non-SAP Systems (3), whereas one of respondents thinks that the impact is low (2).

The next question had a different structure. It was asking respondents to choose the most

valuable benefits of SAP NetWeaver to SAP customers. It was a multiple-choice question and

respondents could pick as much options as they want. Respondents were free to add their own

opinions about benefits of SAP NetWeaver that were not among options. “Ability to reuse

existing applications and integrate them on one platform” was selected as the most valuable

benefit by % 71.43 of the participants. The second popular answer was “Better user experience

with advanced common portal interface” with % 64.29 votes and “Improved reporting and

centralized master data management” was selected third by % 61.90 of respondents.

“Advanced integration with external partners for managing data” by % 59.52, “Ability to create

innovative business processes” by % 54.76 and “Ability to adapt to changes by rapidly re-

organizing business processes” selected as most valuable benefits of SAP NetWeaver by %

52.38 of respondents. The least two popular answers were “Access to any kind of information

from any source at any time” and “Reduced TCO” with % 42.86 and % 38.1 percent

respectively. More than this options participants added: “Same code base” and “Unicode

enablement” as another valuable benefits of SAP NetWeaver for customers. The answers of the

respondents are visualized on the figure 4.8.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Ability to reuseexisting

applications

Better userexperience

Improvedreporting andcentralized

MDM

Advancedintegration with

externalpartners

Ability tocreate

innovativebusiness

processes

Ability to adaptto changes

Access toinformation

Reduced TCO Other

Figure 4.8. SAP NetWeaver benefits to SAP customers

In order to be objective difficulties brought by SAP NetWeaver to customers were studied

as well as benefits. The most usual drawback was “Lack of skilled personnel” since NetWeaver

55

does not have a very long history. % 76.19 of participants thought it is the most difficult side of

SAP NetWeaver for customers. However, it is not a drawback of the technology itself. “Since it

is still quite new and changing infrastructure it might have some technical as well as logical

drawbacks” is selected as the following major difficulty by % 64.29 of the participants. So it

can be said that the most difficulties related with NetWeaver arise due to the problems of a new

solution (and each solution would have these). Other difficulties that would be brought by SAP

NetWeaver to SAP customers were “Need to change the way of thinking and culture” selected

by % 45.24, “Additional investment costs” by % 35.71 and “Difficulties to understand, so there

is a need to hire NetWeaver consultants” by % 35.71 of respondents. These answers could be

seen on figure 4.9.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Lack ofskilled

personnel

Technical aswell as logical

drawbacks

Need tochange the

way ofthinking and

culture

Need to hireNetWeaverconsultants

Addit ionalinvestment

costs

Other

Figure 4.9. SAP NetWeaver drawbacks for SAP customers

More than those answers “Lack of exposure to NetWeaver products” was named as

another drawback of the NetWeaver technology.

4.5.2. SAP developers

The next survey part focused on NetWeaver influence on SAP developers. It also started

with 1 to 5 rating based questions. The first question asked to rate the difference between the

development of NetWeaver-based solutions and pre-NetWeaver SAP solutions. The average

rating was 3.4 out of 5 that can be described as slightly different. Half of the respondents think

that the difference between development of NetWeaver-based solutions and pre-NetWeaver

SAP solutions are high (4). % 7.1 of respondents think that this difference is very high (5),

whereas % 26.2 of respondents see it as average (3).

56

Following question was about the ability of SAP NetWeaver to attract more developers

thanks to its more open environment. Responses of participants were optimistic. % 11.9 of

respondents considered the possibility to be very high (5) and also % 45.2 of respondents

consider the possibility to be high (4). % 33.3 give 3 out of 5 for the possibility and % 4.8 do

not think that it is possible (2).

Next question was about the possibility of SAP NetWeaver to help developers in creating

better applications in a shorter time. Responses were quite similar to the previous question. %

45.2 of respondents consider the possibility high (4) and % 9.5 very high (5). % 38.1 rated this

possibility as average and % 5 of respondents evaluated the possibility as low.

For this part respondents were also able to select the main benefits and drawbacks of SAP

NetWeaver for SAP developers. The most popular benefit was “Better development

infrastructure” with selection of % 64.29 of respondents. “Ability to reuse services in different

processes” and “Common approach for different development processes” were other benefits

selected by % 59.52 and % 50 of the respondents respectively. % 45.24 selected “Extensible

best practices supported by NetWeaver” as another important benefit. “Easier development

processes” and “Less complex development environment” are the least selected benefits by %

30.95 and % 28.57 of survey respondents respectively. The respondent as another benefit of

SAP NetWeaver adds “Easy user interface for content development”. The answers are

visualized on figure 4.10.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Better developmentinfrastructure

Ability to reuseservices in different

processes

Common approachfor differentdevelopment

processes

Extensible bestpractices

Less complexdevelopmentenvironment

Easier developmentprocesses

Other

Figure 4.10. SAP NetWeaver benefits for SAP developers

“Need to learn new technologies” is rated as the biggest challenge of SAP NetWeaver by

% 71.43 of respondents. “Need to learn new development methods” by % 69.05 and “More

complex system architecture” by % 61.9 of the respondents were second and third drawback.

57

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Need to learn newtechnologies

Need to learn newdevelopment methods

More complex sy stemarchitecture

Less documentationand sources

Lack of educationaland professional

support

Other

Figure 4.11. SAP NetWeaver drawbacks for SAP developers

“Less documentation and sources” and “Lack of educational and professional support”

were the last options selected by participants with % 40.48 and % 30.95 of votes respectively.

One participant also mentioned “Missing old debugging like in ABAP” as another challenge

brought by SAP NetWeaver to developers.

4.5.3. SAP consultants

NetWeaver influence on SAP consultants was the last area to research on survey. First

question was how big is the difference between implementing SAP NetWeaver-based solutions

and pre-NetWeaver solutions for SAP consultants with ratings from 1 (very low) to 5 (very

high). % 38.1 of respondents evaluated this difference as high (4), whereas % 16.7 mentioned it

as very high (5). % 35.7 of respondents considered the difference as average and % 7.1 thinks

that the difference is low (2). So it can be said that there is quite a big difference for SAP

consultants to implement SAP based on SAP NetWeaver.

The next question was investigating if there is enough experienced SAP consultant to

meet the demand for SAP NetWeaver. This was the question with the most distributed answers.

The ratio of people who totally agree that there is enough experienced consultants is % 7.1 (5).

% 14.3 stated that they believe there is enough (4) experienced consultant for SAP NetWeaver.

% 35.7 of participants prefer to stay neutral (3). % 28.6 think that there are not enough (2)

experienced SAP NetWeaver consultants and also % 14.3 totally disagree (1) with the

sufficiency of NetWeaver consultants.

In this part, the multiple-choice questions were introduced again in order to find out the

benefits and drawbacks of SAP NetWeaver for SAP Consultants. “Ability to easier integrate

58

SAP and non-SAP applications” selected as the major benefit by % 64.29 of respondents. %

57.14 see “More specializations like MDM Consultants, BI consultants, etc.” as considerable

benefit and % 47.62 think that “Improved system governance” is very beneficial for

consultants. “Centralized master data management” is selected by % 38.1 and “Improved

change management” by % 35.71 of respondents as other benefits of SAP NetWeaver. The

benefits of SAP NetWeaver are also presented on figure 4.12. In this part, more IT specialists

added their own opinion about the main benefits of SAP NetWeaver for consultants. Among

them:

• Ability create a greater impact to the business

• Availability of integrated technology and much better portal availability

• Collaboration

• Common components

• Model Driven Approach

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Ability to easierintegrate SAP and

non-SAP applications

More specializations Improved systemgovernance

Centralized MDM Improved changemanagement

Other

Figure 4.12. SAP NetWeaver benefits for SAP consultants

As to drawbacks, “Need to learn new technologies” is the major problem recognized by

% 66.67 of the respondents. “Few recent projects to get experience” followed as a second

challenge with % 57.14 and “Need to explain the customers a more complex system

architecture” with % 54.76 rating. Also half of respondents voted for “Changed implementation

method” as a challenge for SAP consultants brought by SAP NetWeaver. One participant stated

“Needs to change the customer psychology as well as expectation from consultants” as another

59

big challenge waiting for SAP consultants. The drawbacks of SAP NetWeaver brought to SAP

consultants are presented in figure 4.13.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Need to learnnew

technologies

Few recentprojects to get

experience

Need to explainthe customers amore complex

systemarchitecture

Changedimplementation

method

Other

Figure 4.12. SAP NetWeaver drawbacks for SAP consultants

These are the results of the survey. The whole report of the survey is presented in

appendix 4. The results of the survey are also discussed in the next section – Conclusions.

60

5. Conclusions

There are certain conclusions that can be made after analyzing SAP, SOA, SAP NetWeaver

literature and carrying out the survey in order to find out the impact of SAP NetWeaver on

business actors:

1. SAP history shows the ability of this company to adapt quickly to changes in the

market, fulfil customer needs and achieve customer satisfaction. SAP is evolving

together with the technologies and does not give up the first position in the ERP

solutions market, extending its functionality further to CRM, SRM, PLM, SCM and

other areas.

2. SOA is the new trend in the system architecture market, but could be seen as an

evolution rather than revolution in this sphere. It puts services, as business people

understand them (filling up an online form, making a money transfer), as a central

component of the architecture. Most of the IT companies admit SOA benefits and try to

adapt its main principles in their technologies.

3. SAP was one of the first software companies to adapt SOA principles introducing its

integration platform – SAP NetWeaver.

4. SAP NetWeaver is a brand name that covers well-known SAP development and

integration tools with enriched functionality. They form an integration platform for SAP

and non-SAP application. SAP NetWeaver is divided into six main components (EP,

BI, XI, MDM, MI, AS) that ensure better people, information and processes integration.

In order to make it easier to understand for the customers SAP also presents NetWeaver

as a set of IT practices and scenarios.

5. Other IT companies also offer some SOA-based solutions, however, it is quite difficult

to compare them to SAP NetWeaver as every company has its own view on what

should be under SOA and what should not. The main solutions that could be compared

to SAP NetWeaver are: IBM WebSphere, Oracle Fusion, BEA AquaLogic, and

Microsoft Middleware.

6. It is obvious that SAP NetWeaver changed three-tier SAP architecture to SOA-based

SAP architecture allowing users to perform user-specific functions and workflows and

re-use existing non-SAP system functions.

7. SAP NetWeaver helped to ensure a better integration of SAP solutions forming mySAP

Business Suite. Now all the systems use shared authorization and authentication as well

as other functionality. SAP NetWeaver also provides tools to develop missing

integrations with other non-SAP systems.

61

8. SAP NetWeaver, as mentioned, is formed from various enriched tools that help to

develop further SAP applications. In this sense SAP NetWeaver makes the development

process faster and easier, ensuring the re-use of existing functions.

9. Implementation of SAP solutions method did not change after the introduction of SAP

NetWeaver. However, SAP Solution Manager is a tool that helps to monitor and control

the implementation process much better than before.

10. According to SAP NetWeaver specialists, SOA market (new customers, new software

solutions) is going to grow rapidly in the following three years. However, the growth

rate of SAP is believed to be slower than the overall growth of the market.

11. SAP NetWeaver specialists also claim that SAP NetWeaver is an important competitive

advantage of SAP as a company as well as a system in the ERP market.

12. The impact of SAP NetWeaver on SAP customers is believed to be high, with the main

benefits being: the ability to re-use existing applications and a better user experience

thanks to common user interface. The main drawbacks brought by SAP NetWeaver to

SAP customers are: lack of skilled personnel and possible logical and technical

drawbacks, as it is still a new solution. It is also noticed that NetWeaver brings more

benefits than drawbacks, with latter being quite little.

13. SAP NetWeaver effects on SAP developers are smaller than on customers as the tools

used for the development of new applications are the same just with enriched

functionality. However, NetWeaver specialists admit that it brings a much better

development infrastructure than before. Moreover, ability to re-use processes is also

very beneficial. However, there are also some drawbacks brought by SAP Net Weaver

to developers: need to learn new technologies and development methods. These

drawbacks are more connected with NetWeaver being a new, rather than bad

technology.

14. According to SAP specialists the impact of SAP NetWeaver on SAP consultants is the

least among the three analyzed business partners. It is believed that the main benefits of

SAP NetWeaver are: ability to integrate SAP and non-SAP applications and more

specializations for SAP consultants. The drawbacks are: need to learn new technologies

and lack of experience. So, according to that, with more ongoing project SAP

NetWeaver would bring more benefits.

62

Acknowledgements We would like to appreciate the impact of people, who helped to make this thesis possible. Our

interviewees and respondents at various positions: Edas Kazlauskas (SAP BI/MDM

Consultant) and Norbert Oberndorfer (SAP ABAP Consultant). Our appreciation also goes to

all the respondents to our online survey from all over the world, who gave us a very important

input for our research and great inspiration. We are also grateful to IBM company for

allowance to use valuable resources. Our special thank goes to supervisor of this thesis Mark

Smith for his time and energy put on this research for guiding us and evaluating our works. We

also appreciate our classmates for their support in various ways.

63

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Appendix 1. SAP History from 1972 till now

Figure 1. SAP development1

1 Sources: http://www7.sap.com/about/investor/pdf/SAP_Cheuvreux_19_Jan_2004.pdf (2007 10 24); and http://www.sap.com/about/index.epx (2007 11 06)

1972 1979 …. 1992 1996 2001 2003 Today

0.3 mln EUR revenue 9 employees

R/1 5.1 mln EUR revenue 60 employees 50 customers in 2 countries

R/2 - Mainframe

424 mln EUR revenue 3200 employees 2800 customers in 35 countries

R/3 – Client/Server



Full solution provider for enterprise application services; SAP Netweaver 29 000 employees 20 500 customers in 120 countries

Third largest independent software provider worldwide 42750 employees 43 000 customers in 120 countries

Internet multi-product vendor

MySAP.com – one platform multi SAP solutions

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Appendix 2. Survey and interview questions

General - SOA

What is your expectation of growth rate of overall SOA market (SOA customers, new middleware) in three years?

No growth 1 2 3 4 5 Huge growth

What is your expectation of growth rate of SAP market share in SOA Market in three years?

No growth 1 2 3 4 5 Huge growth

How important will be SAP NetWeaver for SAP from the perspective of

competition in ERP market?

Not important 1 2 3 4 5 Very Important

How important do you think is the influence of SAP NetWeaver on success of SAP overall as a company?

Not important 1 2 3 4 5 Very Important

Effects on customers

How big do you think is the difference between SAP NetWeaver-based solutions comparing to pre-NetWeaver solutions for SAP customers?

Not Big 1 2 3 4 5 Very Big

How do you think SAP NetWeaver helps enterprises to solve information

(spread all over enterprise) coherence and availability challenges?

Does not help 1 2 3 4 5 Helps a lot

What do you think about the benefits of improved common user interface provided by SAP NetWeaver to SAP customers?

Not Beneficial 1 2 3 4 5 Very Beneficial

How important do you think would be the benefits for SAP customers who would upgrade their pre-NetWeaver SAP solution to NetWeaver based

solutions?


To what extent do you think SAP NetWeaver helps enterprises to have

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better integration between SAP and non SAP Systems?


What do you think are the most valuable benefits for customers?

a. Ability to reuse existing applications and integrate them on one

platform b. Ability to adapt to changes by rapidly re-organizing business

processes c. Ability to create innovative business processes

d. Better user experience with advanced common portal interface

e. Access to any kind of information from any source at any time f. Advanced integration with external partners for managing data

g. Improved reporting and centralized master data management h. Reduced TCO

i. Other _________________________

What do you think are the difficulties brought by SAP NetWeaver to SAP customer?

a. Since it is still quite new and changing infrastructure it might have

some technical as well as logical drawbacks b. It is difficult to understand, so there is a need to hire NetWeaver

consultants c. Need to change the way of thinking and culture

d. Lack of skilled personnel

e. Additional investment costs f. Other __________________________

Effects on developers

How big do you think is the difference between the development of

NetWeaver-based solutions and pre-NetWeaver SAP solutions?


What is the possibility that open environment of SAP NetWeaver would attract more developers to build applications for SAP?


What is the possibility that SAP Netweaver would help developers to create better applications in a shorter time?


What do you think are most valuable benefits for developers?

a. Ability to reuse services in different processes

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b. Better development infrastructure

c. Extensible best practices supported by NetWeaver d. Easier development processes

e. Less complex development environment f. Common approach for different development processes

g. Other__________________________

What do you think are the most important challenges brought by SAP NetWeaver to developers?

a. Need to learn new technologies

b. Need to learn new development methods

c. More complex system architecture d. Less documentation and sources

e. Lack of educational and professional support f. Other _________________________

Effects on consultants

How big do you think is the difference between implementing SAP

NetWeaver-based solutions and pre-NetWeaver solutions for SAP consultants?


To what extent do you agree that there is enough experienced SAP

consultant to meet the demand for SAP NetWeaver ("Very high" meaning totally agree)?


What do you think are the most valuable benefits for SAP Consultants implementing SAP NetWeaver based solutions?

a. More specializations (MDM Consultants, BI consultants, etc.)

b. Centralized master data management c. Improved system governance

d. Improved change management e. Ability to easier integrate SAP and non-SAP applications

f. Other _________________________

What do you think are the biggest challenges brought by SAP NetWeaver to

SAP consultants?

a. Changed implementation method

b. Need to explain the customers a more complex system architecture

c. Need to learn new technologies d. Few recent projects to get experience (or lack of experience)

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e. Other _____________________________

Interview questions

What are the benefits of SAP NetWeaver from perspectives of: - SAP as a company (to compete in ERP market)

- SAP Partners (Consultants, Hardware suppliers, Other Software partners) Why SAP needed to have a platform like NetWeaver? What are the reasons

that made SAP to come up with NetWeaver?

What was the process of developing new SAP solutions before NetWeaver? What were the problems, difficulties or restrictions? How NetWeaver helped

to overcome these issues?

What kind of vulnerabilities there could be due to more open development environment of SAP NetWeaver? What would be your suggestions for the next versions of SAP NetWeaver? Which parts should be developed and enhanced more?

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Appendix 3. Survey website

Figure 1. SAP NetWeaver survey

Figure 2. SAP NetWeaver survey (continued)

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Appendix 4. The survey report 1. What is your occupation?

Summary

Value Count Percent %

Consultant 6 14.29%

SAP Netweaver Consultant 3 7.14%

IT Architect 2 4.76%

SAP BI Consultant 2 4.76%

SAP Consulting 2 4.76%

Application Architect (SAP Netweaver Composite Appliation & eSOA) 1 2.38%

consultant/system administrator 1 2.38%

Consulting Manager SAP NW 1 2.38%

Developer 1 2.38%

I/T Architect 1 2.38%

IBM SAP ABAP Consultant 1 2.38%

IT Specialist 1 2.38%

MBA 1 2.38%

Netweaver administrator consultant 1 2.38%

Netweaver Consultant 1 2.38%

S/w Engineer 1 2.38%

SAP Basis Consult 1 2.38%

SAP Business Consultant 1 2.38%

SAP BW & SEM-BPS Consultant 1 2.38%

SAP NetWeaver 2004 BI Consultant 1 2.38%

SAP Netweaver architect 1 2.38%

SAP Netweaver BI consultant 1 2.38%

SAP Netweaver Portal Sr. Consultant 1 2.38%

SAP NW Basis 1 2.38%

SAP security consultant 1 2.38%

SAP Senior Consultant 1 2.38%

SAP XI Consultant 1 2.38%

Senior Consultant 1 2.38%

Senior IT Consultant SAP 1 2.38%

Senior Manager 1 2.38%

Software Consultant 1 2.38%

Technology Consultant 1 2.38%

2. How much experience do you have with SAP NetWeaver (in years):

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Summary


2 11 26.19%

3 8 19.05%

1 5 11.90%

4 5 11.90%

5 4 9.52%

0 1 2.38%

10 1 2.38%

14 1 2.38%

15 1 2.38%

2+ 1 2.38%

2.5 1 2.38%

4.5 1 2.38%

8 1 2.38%

9 1 2.38%

3. GENERAL SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) QUESTIONS

Item Very High

High Normal Low Very Low

Not Applicable

Total

What is your expectation of growth rate of overall SOA market (SOA customers, new middleware) in three years?

19.0%8 59.5%25 16.7%7 - - 4.8%2 42

What is your expectation of growth rate of SAP market share in SOA Market in three years?

16.7%7 40.5%17 33.3%14 4.8%2 - 4.8%2 42

How important will be SAP NetWeaver for SAP from the perspective of competition in ERP market?

47.6%20 45.2%19 7.1%3 - - - 42

How important do you think is the influence of SAP NetWeaver on success of SAP overall as a company?

40.5%17 50.0%21 9.5%4 - - - 42

Average %: 31.0% 48.8% 16.7% 1.2% 0.0% 2.4%

4. EFFECTS ON CUSTOMERS

Item Very High

High Average Low Very Low

Not Applicable

Total

How big do you think is the 19.0%8 59.5%25 16.7%7 2.4%1 - 2.4%1 42

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difference between SAP NetWeaver-based solutions comparing to pre-NetWeaver solutions for SAP customers?

How do you think SAP NetWeaver helps enterprises to solve information (spread all over enterprise) coherence and availability challenges?

21.4%9 54.8%23 21.4%9 2.4%1 - - 42

What do you think about the benefits of improved common user interface provided by SAP Netweaver to SAP customers?

31.0%13 50.0%21 19.0%8 - - - 42

How important do you think would be the benefits for SAP customers who would upgrade their pre-Netweaver SAP solution to NetWeaver based solutions?

23.8%10 57.1%24 14.3%6 2.4%1 - 2.4%1 42

To what extent do you think SAP NetWeaver helps enterprises to have better integration between SAP and non SAP Systems?

38.1%16 38.1%16 21.4%9 2.4%1 - - 42

Average %: 26.7% 51.9% 18.6% 1.9% 0.0% 1.0%

5. What do you think are the most valuable benefits for customers?

Summary


Ability to reuse existing applications and integrate them on one platform 30 71.43%

Better user experience with advanced common portal interface 27 64.29%

Improved reporting and centralized master data management 26 61.90%

Advanced integration with external partners for managing data 25 59.52%

Ability to create innovative business processes 23 54.76%

Ability to adapt to changes by rapidly re-organizing business processes 22 52.38%

Access to any kind of information from any source at any time 18 42.86%

Reduced TCO 16 38.10%

same code base 1 2.38%

unicode enablemant 1 2.38%

6. What do you think are the difficulties brought by SAP NetWeaver to SAP customer?

Summary


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Lack of skilled personnel 32 76.19%

Since it is still quite new and changing infrastructure it might have some technical as well as logical drawbacks

27 64.29%

Need to change the way of thinking and culture 19 45.24%

It is difficult to understand, so there is a need to hire NetWeaver consultants 15 35.71%

Additional investment costs 15 35.71%

lack of exposure to Netweaver products 1 2.38%

Other than the Java bits the technology is the same. A big problem is the constant product renames.

1 2.38%

7. EFFECTS ON DEVELOPERS

Item Very High

High Average Low Very Low

Not Applicable

Total

How big do you think is the difference between the development of NetWeaver-based solutions and pre-NetWeaver SAP solutions?

7.1%3 52.4%22 26.2%11 9.5%4 - 4.8%2 42

What is the possibility that open environment of SAP Netweaver would attract more developers to build applications for SAP?

11.9%5 45.2%19 33.3%14 4.8%2 - 4.8%2 42

What is the possibility that SAP Netweaver would help developers to create better applications in a shorter time?

9.5%4 45.2%19 38.1%16 4.8%2 - 2.4%1 42

Average %: 9.5% 47.6% 32.5% 6.3% 0.0% 4.0%

8. What do you think are most valuable benefits for developers?

Summary


Better development infrastructure 27 64.29%

Ability to reuse services in different processes 25 59.52%

Common approach for different development processes 21 50.00%

Extensible best practices supported by NetWeaver 19 45.24%

Less complex development environment 13 30.95%

Easier development processes 12 28.57%

Easy and SAP are mutually exclusive terms 1 2.38%

Easy UI's for content development 1 2.38% 9. What do you think are the most important challenges brought by SAP NetWeaver to developers?

Summary

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Need to learn new technologies 30 71.43%

Need to learn new development methods 29 69.05%

More complex system architecture 26 61.90%

Less documentation and sources 17 40.48%

Lack of educational and professional support 13 30.95%

Missing old debugging like in ABAP 1 2.38%

10. EFFECTS ON CONSULTANTS

Item Very High

High Normal Low Very Low

Not Applicable

Total

How big do you think is the difference between implementing SAP NetWeaver-based solutions and pre-NetWeaver solutions for SAP consultants?

16.7%7 38.1%16 35.7%15 7.1%3 - 2.4%1 42

To what extent do you agree that there is enough experienced SAP consultant to meet the demand for SAP Netweaver ("Very high" meaning totaly agree)?

7.1%3 14.3%6 35.7%15 28.6%12 14.3%6 - 42

Average %: 11.9% 26.2% 35.7% 17.9% 7.1% 1.2%

11. What do you think are the most valuable benefits for SAP Consultants implementing SAP NetWeaver based solutions?

Summary


Ability to easier integrate SAP and non-SAP applications 27 64.29%

More specializations (MDM Consultants, BI consultants, etc.) 24 57.14%

Improved system governance 20 47.62%

Centralized master data management 16 38.10%

Improved change management 15 35.71%

Ability create a greater impact to the business 1 2.38%

Availability of integrated technology and Much better Portal avaulablility starting from EP6 SR1

1 2.38%

Collaboration 1 2.38%

common components 1 2.38%

don´t under stand question 1 2.38%

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Model Driven Approach 1 2.38%

12. What do you think are the biggest challenges brought by SAP NetWeaver to SAP consultants?

Summary


Need to learn new technologies 28 66.67%

Few recent projects to get experience 24 57.14%

Need to explain the customers a more complex system architecture 23 54.76%

Changed implementation method 21 50.00%

Customer psychology needs to change as well as expectation from Consultants

1 2.38%

Appendix: 13. What are the benefits of SAP NetWeaver from perspectives of: - SAP as a company (to compete in ERP market) - SAP Partners (Consultants, Hardware suppliers, Other Software partners)

Data

Code Value

6013707 Consultants: SAP is niche, but a big challenge to master and keep up-to-date

6012958 -SAP as a company - It can get more market share as it allows custiomer to reduce TCO, ease of administration -SAP Partners - They have to trained more consultants for netweaver technologies has to gear up to meet the challenges

6013380

For SAP it's a great idea once they are forecasting the step ahead on what would be needed / what is needed for an Enterprise once they have implemented the full ERP(like the business one). What usually is needed is a more integrated scenario plus a better user interface and SAP NetWeaver technology family comes with this purpose. For Consultants and Suppliers it's "next step" and at same time a new "world"(not totally known), they must explored it.

6015334

SAP has to move to SOA to compete in the ERP market. It is not an option. At the same time, they are challenged on how to expose themselves via services and be able to make money. The re-tooling of skills, hardware, and software is disruptive. This disruption offers opportunities.

6020480

Allowed open development and introduced JAVA applications which helps in integrating NON SAP applications without third party solutions. Allows Partners to work with ramp-up releases and help them to design solutions before actual release which helps in understanding the issues in the pre-release and by the time actual release available SAP will have much better solution.

6026307 Many large companies have already implemented SAP, so there's a customer base to work from (at some release level).

6036182 SAP: enlarge software spectrum Partners: develop new services, new processes on this basis

6094196 Highly beneficial for SAP because it is integrated and there is no need for 3rd party software.

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6094356

A more or less common platform helps, as the base tech is reused by most components. This lowers the cost for SAP development, documentation and delivery for SAP as a company. Consultants will benefit by seeing a more consistent landscape to work in.

6094297

SAP has tried its level best to give the customers best it can provide as far as industry solutions are concerned . SAP has to work more aggresively with Partners like IBM and promote database DB2 UDB which as far my experience goes has more to offer than Oracle.

6156207 SAP As a company - competitiveness, upper hand at ERP. SAP Partners - more project & consulting opportunities

6157855 Common platform, common standards. It's easier to integrate different solutions. Means bigger competition among suppliers.

6158093

Netweaver is a stepping stone towards SOA .. SAP's core business is ERP and SAP as an ERP is quite good -- but contradicting to SOA ERP is tightly integtrated with complex dependencies with proprietory closed products. With Netweaver SAP can utilise the open systems and agile software development.

Appendix: 14. Why SAP needed to have a platform like NetWeaver? What are the reasons that made SAP to come up with NetWeaver?

Data

Code Value

6012888 Strategy that one system covers all is not longer viable

6012958 It's very much needed to integrate all OLTP/OLAP systems, it also helps to exchange data with Non-SAP system.

6013380 it was answered on first question. But I believe SAP saw what was in fact missing to support full ERP cycle, and that is the reason why NetWeaver exists.

6015334 SAP has to have single unifying technology. As the functionality mushrooms, the only place to bind the solutions is at the technical level. In addition, BI, Portal, XI/PI, and MDM provide foundational elements for SOA.

6020480 To have a common platform for all the applications to introduce and make customers understand the integration technology and allow customers know how netweaver applications and tools interact SAP and Non SAP applications. It is a great idea.

6026307 Better interoperability, more consistent technology layer across components.

6036182 needs up to date architecture. needs to reuse development even inhouse. needs a story for growth (capital market)

6094196 Competition

6094356 They had to many development paths, each needing a separate support stack. Very costly.

6094297 Probably the R/3 was not suffient to capture new markets like the retail business and integration with other non-SAP products.

6156207 For Openness in business solutions, To have a platform where all applications can integrate and communicate.

6157855 Just a next step in IT evolution. JAVA has common platform, Microsoft created .NET framework. Market requires much higher level of integration between different system and at higher speed. Common platform as mentioned above and common data

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exchange protocols (XML) allows that.

Appendix: 15. What was the process of developing new SAP solutions before Netweaver? What were the problems, difficulties or restrictions? How Netweaver helped to overcome these issues?

Data

Code Value

6013380 Integration, I guess this was the main problem we faced before NetWeaver family. There were several developments to create a interface between SAP system(ABAP) and non-SAP systems. Today XI comes with a better idea on this case.

6020480 SDN is a big chage which helps lot of developers now and earlier we never had this. SAP tools help developers understand the issues better now by providing developers with lot of troubleshooting techniques. Traces and Logs etc.

6036182 it was different ABAP instead of Java. All in one system instead several. People were trained and used to over several years. With NetWeaver there is a separation between ABAP developers and Java/Portal/XI developers

6094196 -

6094356

Still a mess. ABAP is mature, but still requires business knowledge combined with data knowledge. Java based SOA is an accident that is not just waiting to happen, it is happening. Debugging is a bear, too many black box calls without good programming fundamentals i.e. error reporting, status reporting, success and failure reporting are still immature.

6156207 Can't elaborate

6157855 Before NW it was different programs which could be integrated at data base levels. No programs are created as part of overall system so to say. They are integrated at Application/Business process level.

Appendix: 16. What kind of vulnerabilities there could be due to more open development environment of SAP NetWeaver?

Data

Code Value

6013380 Perhaps on web technologies(like Portal) there might be a high risk to a company(security issue). On this case should be in focus a research regarding vulnerabilities x open developments.

6015334 SAP has exposed themselves via services. In theory, any platform can consume services. The real battle for the next few years will be over who owns the repositories for business processes and services.

6020480 Open Development allow developers to build corss platform and cross technology solutions. It makes solutions affordable. Open sources is a better option.

6036182 by opening SAP to a wider user spectrum (via portal acces, via B2B or B2C connections) there are general security questions like in every other e-Business or integration environment

6094196 -

6094356 Depends on where the server lives. Separation of function by DMZ is well documented by SAP. There are backend issues with security that exist will systems.

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6156207 Can't elaborate

Appendix: 17. What would be your suggestions for the next versions of SAP Netweaver? Which parts should be developed and enhanced more

Data

Code Value

6013380 Development standards and more available test cases(not only documentation at help.sap.com).

6015334 The key to NW is the ability to map the business process. They also will need to develop their ability to do SaaS.

6020480 JAVA based solutions needs more enhancement and even change management. These solutions have to be simple for implementation. SAP support needs to be improved.

6026307 Better Basis tools for management! E.g. Allow searching of fax and email output by document/PO #. Summary reporting of client copy times. Extended selection criteria for BI jobs, where all related jobs can be linked to single process chain.

6036182 already announced and on the way. SAP NW CE and Process Server are the products that make SAP NW a SOA environment

6094196 BI Content should be upgraded to BI 7.0

6094356

BI Java is entirely too complex as are many of the Abap to Jave comms. Improve documentation, find a way to remove or modify OSS notes that conflict with each other. Explain the relationships between products better. Provide more examples. Give the kernel folks a raise...that is some piece of work.

6094700 Mobile infrasturucture and Master Data Management

6094297 I think more of web enablement of products would better suite customers ,

6156207 Should be much documentation inputs for solutions!!

sap netweaver influence on development of further sap business solutions

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