NetWhat?
Introduced in 2002, NetWeaver is Java-based middleware that runs MySAP programs, presents information through a Web browser to desktop PCs and links to other systems. All of SAP's business applications are now built on top of NetWeaver, the company said.
To make it easier to share data between SAP applications and other systems, NetWeaver uses Web services to expose data and transactions. Traditionally, SAP's products have had proprietary APIs, that require specialised skills and tools.
With its planned software development kit, the company will make the capabilities of SAP's application suite available to other software companies. The SAP application features can be presented via Web services interfaces. The company has catalogued about 1,200 services that can be accessed and combined with other services.
This provides a blueprint for all the business processes that can be automated through SAP software. The company calls this blueprint the Enterprise Services Architecture, or ESA.
The first services to be published in the spring will be commonly used tasks already in the SAP system, such as a financial program for tracking the time between a purchase order receipt and actual payment, Paolini said. Over time, SAP intends to publish more of these services and create a repository to be used by third parties.
SAP will also provide its own Java-based tools to software developers, Paolini said. The company is a member of the Eclipse open source tools foundation.
One goal of the Enterprise Service Architecture effort is to make SAP's products more widely used in its customers' installations, said Bruce Richardson, an analyst at AMR Research. "Opening it up is a subtle way to get customers to begin investing again."
In theory, ESA will provide a more flexible software infrastructure, called a services-oriented architecture, for SAP's applications and make it easier to make changes, he said.
"SAP has to figure a way to manage upgrades," Richardson said. "Today, it's like when a lightbulb goes off in your house, you'd have to replace all of the wiring."
Eventually, SAP would like its customers to regularly go to its portal application to get to business information, much as many people use Microsoft Office every day, Richardson said.
But he also noted that there are "many mysteries" in SAP's ecosystem approach, including how much it will cost third parties to access its services and what any eventual certification process will entail.
