SAP Flips Web Services Switch at User Confab

Another SAPPHIRE conference means another change in strategy for
SAP executives over the direction they’re taking with a company that ended
2001 with a bang.

If possible, the German enterprise software giant is expected to do even
better in 2002, according to analysts; not faint praise in an industry
trying to shake off the dot com meltdown.

Officials are clearly expecting to wrap up SAP’s dominance in the
enterprise world at SAPPHIRE-Orlando, Fla., the company’s yearly customer
relationship management (CRM) convention for American businesses.

The theme (and new business strategy) for SAP this year is Web services,
the hot-button technology fad that promises to revolutionize the business
world.

First announced in November 2001, executives have only recently beefed its
mySAP Technology on a Web services framework. It wasn’t until March that
SAP signed up to both IBM’s WebSphere and
Microsoft’s .Net
frameworks.

In what must have been a flurry of business meetings given the number of
press releases heralding SAPPHIRE-Orlando, Fla. (last count: 14), SAP has
come a long way since March to shore up its Web services clout.

webMethods signed an agreement Wednesday morning,
giving SAP an “adaptor” for non-SAP applications on the Web services
network, for a program SAP is calling xApps. This way, companies using
Oracle, PeopleSoft or i2 can still sign up for SAPs e-business software
integration suites.

“SAP’s decision to expand their relationship with webMethods complements
SAP’s integration offering by extending the value stored within SAP
applications to the enterprise,” said Phillip Merrick, webMethods chairman
and chief executive officer. “Integration plays an important role in SAP’s
commitment to creating business value for customers, and we’re excited to
continue this partnership by working hand-in-hand to provide SAP customers
with broad integration solutions.”

Putting all pieces of the software pie together, regardless of which
company made the application, is the most important part of xApps, said
Shai Agassi, SAP executive board member.

“The true solution for the integration challenge has outgrown the
technology stack and entered the applications space,” Agassi said. “In
order to drive agility and continuous innovation, enterprises need
applications that combine multiple existing applications with actionable
business intelligence.”

Another attempt to shore up its Web services framework came with an
announcement Wednesday morning with VERITAS , the
disaster recovery and data protection company. A critical element with any
e-business operation is minimizing downtime, SAP officials said, and
VERITAS’ solution fits well with its SAP R/3 software suite.

The “new” business strategy of Web services is one that follows on the
heels of SAPs plans to dominate the enterprise portal market, which in turn
displaced SAP plans to dominate the enterprise resource management (ERP)
market when it first opened up shop in 1972.

It’s been a steady evolution for the company founded by five former IBM
employees who saw a need for software solutions catering to corporate
supply-chain management and ERP, an evolution that slowly incorporated the
Internet into its business operations and culminating in Web services, the
ultimate Internet/intranet marriage.