SAP plans new architecture by 2007

Rethink IT, March, 2005

By 2007, SAP plans to have all its applications running on a new platform, to be based on the company's NetWeaver integration platform. The new technology, which the company is simply calling Business Process Platform, will lead to an "industrialization of the software industry" similar to the industrialization of the auto industry, according to CEO Henning Kagermann.

Kagermann told IDG News Service: "NetWeaver is an integration platform. We have integrated many technical tools into it so that customers can integrate their legacy systems with SAP technology more easily. Our flagship product, mySAP ERP, is already running on NetWeaver, and we plan to have the entire mySAP Business Suite on the platform this year."

Behind NetWeaver is a fundamental shift in architecture, which SAP calls enterprise service architecture, or services-oriented architecture.

Next will come Business Process Platform. This will take generic elements in SAP technology, such as components, business objects and processes like billing, and put them into an application platform. Then, if a company wants to develop a new add-on application, it has access to functionalities such as CRM (customer relationship management) and SCM (supply chain management) through open interfaces.