SAP NetWeaver Opens New Doors By Supporting Both .NET And WebSphere

At the NetWeaver launch last month, SAP executives said this integration and application development software will be "fully interoperable" with both Microsoft's .Net and IBM's J2EE-centric WebSphere products. Software developers can use their programming language of choice, whether it's SAP's proprietary ABAP, C++ or Java, the executives said. But the NetWeaver software components also will compete directly with the various application servers, portals and other offerings within the .Net and Java camps.

Language neutrality is critical. "Customers could care less if we program in C#, C++ or Java. They want to leverage their physical assets, applications and people," said Shai Agassi, executive board member at SAP. "They don't want to have to retool again and again and start their skill sets from scratch."

The neutrality, if SAP can deliver it, means SAP will fit into customer sites where heterogeneity reigns.

"I have many customers out there who don't want to buy SAP portals because they already have WebSphere or WebLogic. This should make them comfortable," said Tom Wilson, president of the Osprey Division of NIIT, an SAP partner in Charlotte, N.C.

NetWeaver "is essentially the rebranded Enterprise Services Architecture . . . and what's exciting is it's a statement about the platform to support existing and future applications," Wilson said. "Many of our clients already have components of this in place, whether it's existing enterprise portals or business intelligence or Xapps %85 the [SAP] master data management module is still to be delivered," he said.

That means solution providers might be able to unbury software capabilities that customers already have but have not used, he said.

"Many customers bought mySAP and other SAP portals but don't really even know it," said Roger Ford, senior manager of Accenture's North American Energy Practice and an SAP specialist.

One key part is that SAP has componentized its patented iView drag-and-drop interface technology so it works "equally well in SharePoint and WebSphere environments," Ford said. "WebSphere is very widely used, and [Microsoft] SharePoint has acceptance in departments. SAP can now fit into those scenarios."

This modularization will also ease upgrades, solution providers said. "In the past when SAP came out with new functionality in its core apps--R3-- you had to upgrade the whole platform. Now if there's a new finance function or CRM function, you can upgrade that function individually, and if you're not using CRM, you don't need to bother. . . . This is a much smoother upgrade path," Wilson said.

At the launch, SAP executives stressed that their applications are no longer islands unto themselves, a message analysts said is key for customers and the integrators supporting them.