SAP's enterprise services architecture changes rules of business

SAP's version of services-oriented architecture (SOA) - known as enterprise services architecture (ESA) - finally puts business people in charge of the information technology (IT) that enables business processes.

So said Dr Wolfgang Schaper, SAP AG Director Solution Management ERP, speaking during the South African leg (20th July 2005) of the Best of SAP World Tour - which has brought international specialists in IT trends from SAP's head office in Germany face-to-face with regional customers and business partners all over the world.

"Enterprise architectures are dominated by big suites of enterprise-wide applications designed to integrate disparate corporate information systems via a rigid, uniform structure.

"But that rigidity makes it difficult to change business processes quickly and cost-effectively - and therefore inhibits business agility and responsiveness.

"As a result, business has been asking the IT industry to make architectures more flexible. Delivering that has taken a bit of what business guru, Charles Handy, would have called upside-down thinking.

"Instead of working from the point of view of technology as a work enabler, SAP set about making technology a change enabler. Accordingly, we can now give business people the means of designing new or altering existing business processes without reference to technology specialists.

"In the past, if executives wanted to change their business strategy and therefore the business processes supporting their operations, their ideas had to be interpreted by IT specialists. Business people didn't - and shouldn't have to - understand technology, and IT specialists didn't understand business. And so there was often a gap between the business process support called for and the support actually delivered by the technology that was developed.

"ESA closes that gap. It breaks down overall business processes into their component parts or 'services', creates interfaces among the services, and publishes them as text blocks - along the lines that made HTML such a ubiquitously useful language. The services are incorporated into a visual composer, so that any businessperson wanting to re-arrange business processes can simply assemble the relevant blocks in the required combination on the screen.

"And, because ESA runs on SAP's revolutionary integration and application platform, SAP NetWeaver, which converts multiple systems into a single system landscape, the newly re-arranged enterprise services will run seamlessly throughout that landscape.

"In other words, SAP's ESA makes it easy and simple to connect systems and set up business processes - thereby revolutionising the speed and effectiveness with which businesses create competitive advantage."

Because SAP ESA is standardised and system independent, it is an extremely affordable methodology. Organisations don't have to redesign their existing systems or applications. They simply plug in the services they need on top of what they already have. "You may have a unique manufacturing process, but certain services within that process - such as invoicing or creating an order - will not be unique," Schaper said. "So, a standardised invoicing or ordering 'service' can simply be inserted into the overall process."

Although SOA and the concept of business process fusion is relatively new to the market, SAP's ESA offering is well advanced along the maturity curve. As Schaper said: "It's powered by SAP NetWeaver, which has proven its worth over the past several years. It's pre-integrated into all the mySAP solutions, from enterprise resource planning to customer and supplier relationship management. So, existing customers can start using it immediately. And it interfaces with any non-SAP applications, with a little mapping by the vendors.

"In other words, it's the most comprehensive services package available - incorporating advanced but proven technology as well as best practice industry- and function-specific content. It's what businesses have been asking for. They simply have to apply it."