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Page 1 of 2 Back from Tech Ed Sounding Cool:
A Guide to the Latest SAP Terms in Use at Cocktail Parties
Unabridged and Unadulterated Edition, Never Before Released
by Jon Reed
In life, there’s a fine line between sounding cool and sounding out of date. In the SAP universe, the “cool problem” is even more extreme. We go to a conference talking one way, only to realize the terms we are using have already been tossed into the SAP junk heap. When you hear someone say “New Dimension” these days, you figure they don’t get out much.
One of the benefits of attending enough TechEd sessions to make your brain freeze is that you get the inside track on the industry lingo SAP is currently branding. During my interviews with SAP executives, I had a chance to turn my terminology confusion into product wisdom. I’m not sure if I fully succeeded, but I did my best to come back with some hip new terms to toss around the water cooler. But be forewarned: some of these terms are not easy to work into a sentence. Let’s face it: no matter how many times we say, “business network transformation,” we’re still going to feel a little geeky when it comes out.
Of course, there’s a more important reason to monitor SAP terms than sounding cool.
Terminology matters because terms define trends, and trends create the demand for the skills we should be chasing. Over the years, I have noticed one common characteristic of the most successful SAP consultants: they are always one step ahead with the latest releases and the skills associated with them.
Hopefully this TechEd terminology primer will provide some insight into where SAP is headed. And as a bonus, hopefully you’ll get some nods of respect when these terms roll off your tongue with ease at the water cooler.
SAP Terms That Are “Cool” To Use
“BBD” - Business By Design is the formal name for SAP’s on-demand product for the “lower mid-market.” BBD was formally announced at TechEd 2007. BBD fills the gap between small companies that might run Business One, and larger mid-market companies that would likely run All-in-One. When SAP announced BBD, they also noted that BDD would access the same Enterprise Services that the larger SAP product would provide in the Enterprise Services Repository, thereby leveraging the eSOA landscape for BBD. The overall success of BBD probably rides on the broader challenges facing the Software As A Service (SaaS) market, which has struggled mightily, but does have some recent success stories, specifically salesforce.com. Whether SAP can add to those success stories remains to be seen.
“BIA” - Enterprise SOA got most of the hype at the conference, but in the workshop sessions and breakout rooms, BI was the product that stood out the most. With BI, you have some of the same “buzz factor” that you get from eSOA, but in this case, you’re talking about a product that the majority of SAP customers are already effectively utilizing. One of the biggest BI developments is the BI Accelerator, or BI, which is an “in memory” solution that allows SAP customers to use BI for speedy on-the-fly queries without having to compile aggregates. The speed of BIA should help NetWeaver BI to be a major factor in the eSOA “mashups” that SAP and its partners design in the future.
“Business Network Transformation” - SAP’s catch phrase, used throughout TechEd, to illustrate the transition between the internal ERP concepts of the ‘90s and the “extended enterprise” of the eSOA era.
“Business Process Expert” - the term SAP is using to describe the next-generation consultant who will be needed to implement the SAP systems of the future and fulfill the eSOA vision. “BPEs” will come from both technical and functional SAP backgrounds. Consultants who want to become BPEs will need to take their integrated the IT and business skills into one integrated skill set, not unlike how companies are merging IT and business agendas in order to stay competitive. More information on becoming a BPE is available in SAP's BPX community.
“eSOA” - formerly called ESA, SAP’s “Enterprise SOA” is their own customized, business-process-centric version of the standard SOA architecture developed by the TOGAF open standards group. If you’ve missed the buzz on eSOA yet, stay tuned, there will surely be another batch of press releases on eSOA issued shortly.
“Individual Developer’s License” - SAP is now offering an individual developer’s license to SAP through SDN at a price of $2,300 per year. This is the first time that a tech-savvy SAP developer can get their own access to an SAP system from SAP itself, loaded with the latest and greatest SAP technology. Whether this access will be worth it depends on the developer’s budget and their access to other SAP systems. Perhaps the best aspect of this particular announcement is that it indicates SAP’s increasing willingness to “open up their ecosystem” and let enterprising smaller players make important contributions.
“NetWeaver Process Integration (PI)” - Formerly called Exchange Infrastructure, NetWeaver 7.1 now features PI, SAP’s integration hub and a vital part of SAP’s Enterprise Service Architecture (eSOA). The success of PI depends on how whether companies will be wiling to switch over to PI from whatever messaging systems they are already using. The feeling here is that PI will survive the performance tests and will eventually be a frequently-used part of SAP’s overall architecture.
“NetWeaver ESR (Enterprise Services Repository)” - SAP’s state-of-the-art Enterprise Services Repository, which ships as part of NetWeaver 7.1.
“NetWeaver CE (Composition Environment)” - SAP’s new development environment, which is based on the Java EE 5 architecture, and includes cutting edge modeling tools. NetWeaver CE ships with NetWeaver 7.1, but the good news is that NetWeaver CE is now available on SDN, so aspiring CE developers can roll up their sleeves and practice their technique right now. CE is part of SAP’s intentional shift into the age of modeling, where manual coding will be de-emphasized, in favor of visual modeling and business process modeling. Welcome to the age of “composition and re-usability.”
“NetWeaver 7.1” - The latest and greatest SAP technical release, featuring, amongst other things, the new ESR, the new PI, and the new CE.
“SAP Certified Master” - “Certified Master” is the top tier of SAP’s new three tiered certification program. According to this new program, you can get an “Associate” Certification (the equivalent of the ‘classic’ SAP certification), or a “Professional Certification” (one tier higher in skills). Sometime in 2008, SAP will also offer the “Certified Master” level. The delay in the launch of the “Certified Master” program is because this will be the first certification from SAP that is likely to involve more than a sit-down test. Some type of hands-on or field evaluation is slated to be included, and how that will be accomplished has yet to be hammered out. Over time, these advanced certification levels could have an impact on the market. On the positive side, these higher-level certifications could help independent SAP consultants achieve an extra level of perceived credibility when applying for project openings. On the down side, we have heard from consultants who view the new SAP certifications as a “cash grab.” Perhaps the best attitude for now is the good-old wait-and-see.
“SAP Ecosystem” – The “SAP ecosystem” is SAP’s term for the cottage industry that has grown around SAP’s “Web 2.0” communities, such as the 900,000+ member SAP Developer Network, as well as the rapidly growing Business Process Expert community (200,000+ members). The “SAP ecosystem” also refers to all of SAP’s development and technology partners, as well as any free agents who are making an active contribution to SAP’s online communities or to some kind of third party development effort. In fact, SAP’s ecosystem has become such a factor that IDC recently released a report citing that the SAP ecosystem has become its own economy. Cynics noted that SAP was only too happy to share that news at TechEd, but my view is that the SAP ecosystem is one achievement that probably deserves even more hype than SAP gives it. The SDN in particular has been a major success, completely changing how SAP interacts with its constituency throughout the product development process.
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