sap's release strategy for large enterprises

SAP’S RELEASE STRATEGY FOR LARGE ENTERPRISESFor all major shipments From 2005 onwardstatus: march 2011

For SAP Customers and Partners

Disclaimer

this document reflects the status of sap’s release planning as of march 2011. it contains only intended strategies, developments, and/or functionalities of sap® solutions, applications, and technologies and is not intended to be binding upon sap to any particular course of business, product strategy, and/or development; its content is subject to change without notice.

this document is not subject to your license agreement or any other service or subscription agreement with sap.

sap assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions in this document. sap does not warrant the accuracy or completeness of the information, text, graphics, links, or other items contained within this material. this document is provided without a warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or noninfringement.

sap shall have no liability for damages of any kind including without limitation direct, special, indirect, or consequential damages that may result from the use of these materials. this limitation shall not apply in cases of intent or gross negligence. the statutory liability for personal injury and defective products is not affected. sap has no control over the information that you may access through the use of hot links contained in these materials and does not endorse your use of third-party web pages nor provide any warranty whatsoever relating to third-party web pages.

all forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the publication date, and they should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions.

Purpose of the Document 4

1. SAP Solutions for Large Enterprises 51.1. industry and line of Business solutions 51.2. sap software products 111.2.1. product strategy 111.2.2. product portfolio for large enterprises 131.2.3. small and midsize solutions for subsidiaries and partners of large enterprises 261.2.4. road map (2005–2010) 281.2.5. licensing model 321.3. sap services and support 331.3.1. sap enterprise support and sap standard support 341.3.2. upgrade offerings from sap 361.4. sap ecosystem and partners 371.4.1. complementary solutions 371.4.2. sap communities 38

2. SAP Release and Maintenance Strategy 392.1. sap release and maintenance strategy for on-premise software 392.1.1. availability 392.1.2. shipment phases 392.1.3. the sap maintenance strategy rules 412.1.4. maintenance strategy exceptions 442.1.5. maintenance phases 442.1.6. upgrade 472.1.7. integration 472.1.8. product availability matrix 472.2. sap release and maintenance strategy for on-demand software 482.2.1. availability 482.2.2. Functional enhancements and maintenance 482.2.3. integration 48

3. SAP Release Planning in Detail 493.1. on premise: Business process

management 503.1.1. sap Business suite 503.2. on premise: Business analytics 703.2.1. enterprise performance management (epm) 703.2.2. Governance, risk, and compliance (Grc) 733.2.3. Business intelligence 743.2.4. enterprise information management 763.2.5. analytic applications 783.3. on demand 813.4. on device: mobile applications 813.5. orchestration and technology 823.5.1. sap netweaver 823.5.2. application lifecycle management 843.5.3. mobile platform 853.5.4. in-memory computing 853.5.5. Virtualization and cloud technology 853.5.6. solution extensions for user collaboration

and user training 86

Glossary 87

Appendix 905–1–2 maintenance strategy versus 7−2

maintenance strategy 90renaming 91

CONTENT

For information on sap software that was released before 2005, please consult sap’s release strategy for all major shipments up to 2005 from the sap service marketplace extranet at www.service.sap.com/releasestrategy (logon requires user name and password; new users can register at www.service.sap.com).

PuRPOSE OF ThE DOCumENT

this release strategy brochure focuses on the sap® portfolio for large enterprises. it documents the sap release and maintenance strategy for releases that have been shipped from 2005 onward. the release planning data for future releases is intended to support the planning of sap implementation and upgrade projects.

4 SAP’s Release Strategy for Large Enterprises

1.1. Industry and Line of Business Solutions

run Betterto capture business opportunities in today’s globally connected and collaborative world, enterprises require clear, real-time insight into the business network, efficient end-to-end processes that span departmental boundaries and connect to business partners, and the ability to rapidly adjust and change business processes and behavior. sap supports companies in achieving this and helps the best-run businesses do what they do best even better by offering a comprehensive portfolio of solutions that cover the needs of industries and

their lines of business and that are delivered on premise, on demand, or on device, depending on business and deployment needs. the solutions are leveraged by a comprehensive portfolio of SAP services that help customers realize the greatest value from their SAP software investment in a way that reduces total cost of ownership and helps business run better. in addition, the SAP ecosystem and partners are essential to help sap customers run their business operations more efficiently. through the sap ecosystem and partners, companies engage with sap and its partners, customers, and other individuals in a trusted network to enable solutions that best fit their specific needs.

1. SAP SOLuTIONS FOR LARGE ENTERPRISES

Figure 1: SAP Solutions for Large Enterprises

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5SAP’s Release Strategy for Large Enterprises

trends and it consequencesthe world continues to change, and companies are facing new trends, business challenges, and opportunities. in order to get feedback about these key trends, sap is running more than 50 industry advisory councils annually and is thus working with leading companies on a constant basis. From these councils as well as interactions with other thought leaders, sap is seeing a number of key trends emerging in the market. sap reacts to these key trends by expanding its portfolio of solutions in the relevant areas.

Sustainability – IT as a Catalyst for Short- and Long-Term ProfitabilityGlobal, macroeconomic trends, such as tightened government regulations in many countries, energy prices that are expected to stay extremely volatile, the globalization of employees, and sensitized customers, are preparing the ground for businesses to focus on sustainability. c-level agendas are filling up with the challenges associated with managing risks and exploiting operational and business opportunities regarding social, environmental, and economic sustainability.

sap has made a strategic and operational commitment to sustainability: it recognizes that it needs to both demonstrate how to achieve measurable and defined internal goals using sap technology as well as help customers achieve their goals, whether delivered on premise, on demand, or on device. the sap sustainability solution strategy is to develop integrated sustainability solutions that help its customers to not only achieve their sustainability goals but also improve financial performance.

Further, sap has identified where it can support customer goals for sustainability by publishing a sustainability map, allowing customers to match their objectives and priorities to available solutions. the current sustainability offerings from sap help customers with:• sustainability reporting and analytics• driving an operational risk management methodology• achieving a sustainable supply chain and product strategy• managing energy and environmental performance

Further, the sap sustainability solutions come with significant content and analytics for a more complete and robust solution.

Everywhere and Anytime – Mobile Access in a People-Centric Worldenterprise information is now on the move, as mobile workers use smart phones and other devices to stay connected and productive in and out of the office. customers and partners of enterprises are mobile too. as per Gartner, 70% of all workers will be mobile by 2012. today, there is one mobile phone per two people on earth. in many countries, there are more mobile devices than pcs.

apple and Google’s strategy of initially launching smart phones to consumers won people over with fun, easy-to-use mobile applications, and information access. the move has also generated intense demand outside the consumer sphere: in the enterprise, from business people and executives. no longer satisfied with limited device choices and a few mobile applications to help them stay in touch and be productive on the go, employees are now putting intense pressure on it for change on both sides of the mobility coin: devices and mobile applications.

with the recent acquisition of sybase, sap reacted to these new customer expectations and broadened its product portfolio for mobility. leveraging the joint synergies of the sybase enterprise mobility solutions together with the existing sap product portfolio for mobile solutions, sap is enhancing its infrastructure, tools, and applications to access data stored in sap software systems from anywhere and on any device. this mobile platform is based on open standards; it runs on all major mobile operating systems and manages and supports all major device types.

the mobile platform allows sap, customers, and partners to build mobile applications on top of existing applications like sap Business suite software. with that it will be possible to unlock significant business value out of existing sap software investments and deliver value to people everywhere.

Focus on Business, Not Technology – On-Demand Solutionsthe increasing pace of globalization, combined with recent economic turmoil, has accentuated the need for sap’s large enterprise customers to respond rapidly to changing business conditions. driven by technology advances in cloud


computing and a new business model of rapid value, the on-demand delivery of business solutions has emerged as a new option for large enterprise customers. sap has embraced this shift and has made a strong, demonstrable commitment to offer its customers the right portfolio of highly strategic and reliant on-demand solutions that are synergistic with their existing sap software investments.

on-demand solutions from sap leverage technologies such as collaboration and content services to offer new people-centric approaches to solving business problems. as technology-savvy millennial workers proliferate the enterprise, they bring high expectations of the capabilities necessary to support their work. technology must be sophisticated but easy to consume and highly adaptive to the work habits. sap solutions are designed to take advantage of the inherently networked nature of the on-demand model to allow people and businesses to collaborate within and across enterprise boundaries. Built on a well-orchestrated set of platform features, these solutions strive to offer ease of integration to existing sap solutions, fast time to value, and a fundamentally low-risk deployment option to helps ensure our customers business success.

Plan Smarter, Run Faster, and Perform Better – In-Memory Computingin order to gain competitive advantage, companies are always looking for ways to optimize the performance of their businesses. it supports companies in achieving this by helping them implement new strategies and make business processes more flexible. analysts also report that, in addition to lower costs, cios want to see innovations and tools that increase employee productivity.

it reacts to this with in-memory computing, an innovative technology made viable by almost unimaginable improvements in data processing, speed, and volume. its benefits are that it• increases the speed of analyses• makes decision making faster, easier, and fact based with

new ways to look at the business based on instant, easy access to relevant information

• Fosters collaboration

also, it enables innovative new applications, combining high-volume transactions with analytics to dramatically improve existing planning, forecasting, pricing optimization, and other processes. in addition it accelerates business performance while reducing total cost of ownership (tco) via less hardware, maintenance, and testing based on proven tools that are easy to implement whether delivered on demand or via appliances.

sap invests in this technology and already offers applications that are enabled with in-memory technology. they combine both in-memory analytics and in-memory transactional applications. By going beyond just analytics and just in-memory databases, sap software helps customers to establish a continuous real-time link between insight, foresight, and action. to increase the in-memory applications in its portfolio, sap is collaborating with partners such as intel, hp, iBm, and samsung.

solutions for industriesas the world around us continues to change, companies are choosing different strategies for success depending on their strengths, their assets, and their specific corporate culture. however, sap sees two major trends in its customer base across all industries:• companies are evolving from a single industry focus to

a multi-industry value chain view. Business networks emerge and develop because they deliver the best value to customers and the best outcomes to the participants by connecting enterprises from multiple industries.

• in doing that, they need to acquire new business compe-tencies and supporting it systems that provide both:– Business value: Functionalities and solutions enabling

functional areas to execute on the corporate strategy and get tactical tasks done in an efficient manner

– it value: it systems that are agile and scalable to react to current and future business challenges in a flexible and cost-efficient way

Based on this understanding, it is sap’s industry strategy to “Help enterprises to run, grow, and transform their business as they are evolving into multi-industry value chains.”


sap does this by delivering solutions that enable end-to-end processes and that provide a healthy balance of business value and IT value.

they provide business value through:• trusted and commitment-based customer engagements,

including co-innovation models, best practice development, and value engineering and benchmarking

• enablement of end-to-end business processes for multi-industry value chains that span traditional application boundaries and are preintegrated and tested

• Very industry-specific functionality for many industries and subverticals

and they provide IT value through:• sap’s product strategy, which allows deployment of

functionality on premise, on demand, and on device • easier consumption of functionality through implementable

steps and rapid-deployment solutions

sap supports enterprises in the following 24 industries with solution portfolios that enable best-practice industry processes. these portfolios are the result of decades of trustful co-innovation with industry-leading customers who have been sharing their best practices to help customers, suppliers, and partners in their business networks to optimize the joint network performance.

Industry Sector Industry Portfolio

energy and natural resources

sap for utilitiessap for oil & Gassap for mining

healthcare sap for healthcare

manufacturing: discrete industries

sap for aerospace & defensesap for automotivesap for high techsap for industrial machinery & components

manufacturing: process industries

sap for chemicalssap for mill products

consumer products and life sciences

sap for consumer productssap for life sciences

services sap for engineering, construction & operationssap for mediasap for professional servicessap for telecommunicationssap for transportation & logistics

Financial services

sap for Bankingsap for insurance

public services sap for defense & securitysap for higher education & researchsap for public sector

retail and wholesale

sap for retailsap for wholesale distribution


Industry Portfolio Overviewtoday, customers in all industries run their mission-critical processes supported by sap Business suite, including high-volume transaction banking, manufacturing optimization for the chemical industry, and integrated supply chains connecting consumer product companies to their suppliers, logistics service providers, and retailers. aircraft companies run sap software to support performance-based logistics; governments run sap software for case management and tax management. the financials backbone in sap Business suite supports global customers worldwide and enables legal compliance and best practices, with 55 country-specific versions and more than 37 languages.

many enterprises diversify into new industry segments by expanding their product, service, and market portfolio to capture new business opportunities. sap Business suite provides unparalleled value to those enterprises by supporting a wide array of business best practices and business processes on a unified business process platform, accelerating the expansion into new segments of the value network. high-tech companies deliver world-class distributed services using business processes co-innovated with service leaders to maximize profitability. industrial machinery manu-facturers start monetizing their products by selling outcomes rather than units. morphing business networks and blurring industry boundaries require a business process platform that transcends traditional application categories and product silos – the sap portfolio of solutions is unparalleled and in a class of its own.

to provide a quick overview of the industry portfolios, sap has developed solution maps for each industry and selected industry segments. the industry solution maps describe business processes relevant and specific to the industry. the industry solution maps are oriented along the industry value chain and define business processes (a business scenario), showing the relationship of the enterprise with its business network of suppliers, partners, customers, and channels. the solution maps are available at the sap service marketplace extranet at www.service.sap.com/bmet.1

large enterprises can use software that supports business processes from multiple industry portfolios where applicable.

this business agility is enabled by sap Business suite, which supports industry best practices and runs on the underlying sap netweaver® technology platform. in addition, the sap Businessobjects™ portfolio provides tools and applications designed to help companies optimize business performance by enabling strategic alignment, predictable performance, and confident decisions.

sap Businessobjects solutions deliver analytic applications for individual industries to enable specific planning, risk management, and performance optimization processes.

learn more about industry solutions based on the sap Businessobjects portfolio atwww.sap.com/solutions/sapbusinessobjects/large/industries.

solutions for lines of Businessthe industry solution portfolios provide software to support the full set of business processes relevant for an industry. the line of business solutions complement this view by aggregating the best practices for specific business function domains across all industries.

the business processes required by large enterprises have their origins in the best practices developed in individual industries to support specific functions in the areas of finance, human resources, sales, service, manufacturing, supply chain, procurement, and others.

continuously evolving business networks challenge the lines of business management to rapidly adopt and deploy new business processes and practices. the sap solution portfolio, which supports a broad spectrum of business functions across all industries, allows large enterprises to “borrow” best practices from industries that traditionally have been considered to exist in separate dominions. oil companies use retail best practices to optimize store operations and

1. logon requires user name and password; new users can register at www.service.sap.com.



http://www.service.sap.com/bmet

merchandizing to increase revenue and profit in their gas station network. Banks look at supply chain processes to optimize cash supply and “stock outages” for their automatic teller machines. industrial machinery and components manu-facturers firms borrow service processes and practices to drive customer profitability and competitive differentiation with processes invented and optimized in the services industries.

sap accommodates the need to optimize business functions with best practice processes, products, and solutions by defining line of business–oriented solution overviews and road maps to foster the co-innovation of customers from a wide array of industries around common business process domains.

sap rapid deployment solutionssap rapid deployment solutions strive to enable fast time to value and low cost of implementation. customers may fulfill specific business requirements at significantly reduced service-to-software ratios.

sap rapid deployment solutions combine sap software and sap predefined services with preconfigured content, and enablement content to implement a fixed-scope solution at a fixed price, delivering immediate and tangible customer value.

sap rapid deployment solutions are already available for solution areas like customer relationship management, supplier relationship management, business communications management, mobile, sustainability, manufacturing, and supply chain management, with quarterly releases planned to support the entire sap portfolio.

available by either traditional or subscription licensing models, customers will know the cost and scope of their solution up front. these complete solutions accelerate the time to value today and enable the flexibility to accommodate future growth.

A complete solution combines SAP software and SAP predefined services with preconfigured content and enablement content. sap rapid deployment solutions leverage an innovative delivery model to accelerate the implementation times and lower risk. implementation is supported by a standardized methodology, accelerators developed uniquely for each offering, and predefined best practices, meeting typical business requirements to address the customer’s immediate needs. even as customers benefit from prebuilt functionality, these solutions provide a platform designed to evolve and extend as the customer’s business grows.

Predictable cost, scope, and trusted expertise. with sap rapid deployment solutions, customers know the cost and scope of their implementation up front. the implementation accelerators include preconfigured content, checklists, questionnaires, and guidelines unique to each offering, clarifying expectations for scope and project duration. available through sap as well as sap partners by traditional licensing or subscription pricing, transparency of price and scope eliminate project risks for companies. with knowledge gained from thousands of implementations and by utilizing sap Best practices packages, only sap can integrate these insights into the project, making deployment as easy and straightforward as possible.

Learn more: with decades of market experience, sap has built award-winning solutions for companies of all sizes. the extensive network of sap partners can help customers implement an sap rapid-deployment solution that meets their needs now – and provides a foundation for future growth.

to learn more about sap rapid deployment solutions, visit www.sap.com/solutions/index.epx.


http://www.sap.com/solutions/index.epx

1.2. SAP Software Products

1.2.1. product strategythe overall goal for sap is to deliver instant value to orga-nizations and people everywhere by expanding its solution portfolio with innovations that reach out to many people and deliver instant value while maintaining maximum consistency of data, processes, and applications. therefore, sap continues to focus on the following key areas (see Figure 2).

On Premisesap plans to continue to provide on-premise software products for all industries, lines of businesses, and market segments. the offered software products will help customers optimize their core business processes with respect to process flexibility, efficiency, and insight into their business networks. to ease the consumption of these software products, they will be as preintegrated as possible and aiming at a nondisruptive implementation with low costs. thereby, specific business requirements can be fulfilled quickly, letting customers receive instant value.

Via service-oriented architecture (soa), other independent solutions will be able to integrate consistently with the customers’ core business processes. one major deliverable within this area – sap Business suite 7 software and sap Business suite 7 innovations 2010 – is already available, and more are planned to follow in the next years.

other key deliverables are sap rapid deployment solutions, which enable fast time to value and low cost of implementation, as well as sap Businessobjects analytic applications, which provide customers with instant analytics in real time.

On DemandBesides offering on-premise software products that scale to the customers’ core business, sap provides rapid innovations that deliver extended functionality for specific lines of business. these extensions will be delivered on demand. in this way, customers can consume the innovations instantly without

the need for on-site it to manage the infrastructure. as these extensions will integrate with the customers’ core business processes, customers will benefit from business process integration.

several on-demand solutions are already available (for example, the sap sourcing ondemand, sap carbon impact ondemand, and sap Businessobjects Bi ondemand solutions), and – with the sap sales ondemand and sap travel ondemand solutions, among others – more on-demand solutions are planned to follow in 2011 and beyond.

another offering within the on-demand area is the sap Business Bydesign™ solution. with sap Business Bydesign, sap is delivering a complete enterprise solution for small businesses, midsize companies, and large enterprise subsidiaries in an on-demand deployment model that enables companies to focus on developing and growing their business while minimizing their focus on building and operating it systems.

On Devicein addition, sap intends to extend the customers’ reach by: • enabling end users to consume sap data and processes

from different devices everywhere (sap applications for mobile business)

• providing end users with information from both inside and outside the enterprise so that they can make decisions based on a broad array of data according to their individual use case (analytical capabilities)

• helping end users to cooperate and optimize performance across a dynamic business network of people (tools for collaboration)

• enabling partners, customers, and end users to extend the functionality of sap and build own user experiences.

an important milestone in this area is the acquisition of sybase, which led to an enhanced sap portfolio, including a mobile platform and mobile applications.


Orchestration and Technologyto ensure that all these layers fit together, an orchestration layer that works across all applications within a customer landscape is required. therefore, sap plans to continue to invest in the areas of lifecycle management, master data management, and process orchestration. the goal is to reduce the cost of ownership continuously and to help ensure data consistency and process management across multiple layers of applications. in addition, sap will invest in its technology portfolio in order to provide a technology foundation that powers all applications, whatever deployment mode (on premise, on demand, or on device) they have.

this strategy allows sap customers to take full advantage of new technologies and deployment models, such as mobile or on-demand solutions, but still reap the benefits of standardized, integrated software. sap’s strength will be to offer carefully orchestrated solutions that enable end-to-end business processes and that work across different deployment scenarios without sacrificing consistency. customers and their partners can optimize their respective value-to-cost ratios and user experience by choosing the solutions that suit them best. the sap solution architecture will make sure that the pieces fit together and that each end user has full access to the relevant steps in the process through a state-of-the art user interface.

Figure 2: SAP Product Strategy

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1.2.2. product portfolio for large enterprises1.2.2.1. On Premise: Business Process Management

sap Business suitesap Business suite software helps large enterprises in all industries execute and optimize their business and it strategies by providing modular applications that improve their ability to perform their end-to-end business processes across and beyond the enterprise. what’s more, the applications are designed to work with other sap and non-sap software.

organizations and departments can incrementally deploy sap Business suite to address specific business challenges in line with their business priorities without costly upgrades. sap Business suite provides better insight and visibility across organizations, improves operational efficiency and effectiveness, and increases the flexibility to address business change.

the applications that make up sap Business suite are described in the following sections.

Figure 3: SAP Business Suite

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SAP NetWeaver® Composition Environment

SAP NetWeaver Process Integration

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Core Applicationsthe core applications of sap Business suite are a set of business applications that support all the essential business processes of an enterprise. they are summarized here.• the SAP ERP application is a market-leading application

for optimizing business and it by reducing it complexity, increasing adaptability, and delivering more it value at a lower cost than traditional enterprise resource planning (erp) solutions. it supports mission-critical business processes for finance, human capital management, asset management, sales, procurement, and other essential corporate functions. sap erp also supports industry-specific processes by providing industry-specific business functions that can be activated selectively via the switch framework, which keeps the application core stable and helps to ensure maximum performance.

• the SAP Customer Relationship Management (sap crm) application provides a comprehensive platform for marketing, sales, and service professionals to obtain complete customer intelligence that they can leverage to effectively manage customers and customer-related processes. sap crm enables multichannel customer interactions, including mobile “smart phones,” the internet, and social media, and also offers a dedicated communications infrastructure that helps to connect all users anytime, anywhere.

• the SAP Product Lifecycle Management (sap plm) application helps companies manage, track, and control all product-related information over the complete product and asset lifecycle as well as throughout the extended supply chain. sap plm facilitates creativity and frees the process of product innovation from organizational constraints.

• the SAP Supplier Relationship Management (sap srm) application provides a procurement platform that helps organizations in all industries improve their centralized sourcing and contract management and interact with suppliers through multiple channels. sap srm accelerates and optimizes the entire procure-to-pay process by supporting integrated processes and enforcing contract compliance, resulting in realizable savings.

• the SAP Supply Chain Management (sap scm) application allows companies to adapt their supply chain processes to an ever-changing competitive environment. sap scm transforms traditional supply chains from linear, sequential processes into open, configurable, responsive supply networks in which customer-centric, demand-driven companies can sense and respond more intelligently and more quickly to demand-and-supply dynamics across a globally distributed environment.

Enhancement Packages for Core Applicationssap enhancement packages for the core applications of sap Business suite are a proven approach to continuously deliver innovation to sap customers without disruption. enhancement packages provide new and improved business functions that companies can deploy in a modular fashion and on their own timetable to improve the efficiency and flexibility of existing business processes. enhancement packages have the same maintenance duration as the under-lying core applications and give customers increased return on investment. sap recommends that customers apply the most recent support package stacks regularly, including the latest enhancement package in the unrestricted shipment phase. the advantage is that the customer gets the most recent corrections and legal changes within one effort and is furthermore enabled to activate new functionality flexibly.

Enhancement package x+2

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Figure 4: Recommended Update Path for Enhancement Packages


Industry Applicationssap addresses the requirements of specific business processes for many industries by complementing the support for basic business processes common to all large enterprises with support for industry-specific processes. support for these industry-specific processes is delivered as part of sap erp or as a separate industry application (for example, the sap dealer Business management application or the sap reinsurance management application) that integrates with the other applications of sap Business suite. the architecture and business functionality of the industry applications are a result of sap’s in-depth understanding of industry-specific business requirements and the resulting business processes. sap industry portfolios are continuously enhanced by adding new applications that address the highly specialized business needs of customers in niche targeted markets.

For an overview of available industry application releases, please refer to section 5.1.6. “industry applications.”

Supplementary Applicationssupplementary applications include applications that drive specialized business processes common to a large number of industries. they deliver a short time to value, appeal to specialized business users, and offer a high degree of process flexibility. supplementary applications include, for example, the sap portfolio and project management application and sap Business communication management software.

in section 5, “sap release planning in detail,” the supplementary applications are grouped with the core application or industry portfolio they complement.

Duet® Enterprise Softwareduet® enterprise software, a product developed jointly by sap and microsoft, helps it serve the business more effectively and enables employees to consume and extend sap applications through microsoft sharepoint and microsoft office. Business users benefit from unified and simplified access to the information and actions they need, addressing the growing need for team collaboration, business insight, and improved personal and team productivity.

the software provides the foundation for technical interoperability between sap applications and microsoft sharepoint. duet enterprise helps ensure that the communication between the systems is secure, scalable, and manageable. in addition, tools and business content enable composition of solutions that blend process-oriented and collaborative work. sap expects its partner ecosystem to deliver solutions based on duet enterprise that address business needs as well as the needs of specific verticals and customers. additionally, customers can compose custom solutions to address their specific business needs. duet enterprise delivers ready-to-use features with quick time to value, for people to interact with and collaborate around information, participate in workflows, access reports, and explore human resources–related data stored in sap applications. customers that plan to deploy duet enterprise should expect to improve employee productivity and overall business efficiency, to expand the value from the investments they have made in sap and microsoft software, and to rapidly respond to their business needs.

Enterprise Servicesenterprise services are used as a standards-based way of encapsulating enterprise software functionality and exposing it as a business service in the form of a reusable software component. enterprise services for sap applications are web services designed according to business-driven governance processes and expose business interfaces that can be reused in newly composed business processes. adhering to open standards and based on well-documented data types, the enterprise services from sap conform to the sap data and process model, helping to ensure efficient operations and the integrity of core business processes. co-innovated by sap and its partners and customers, enterprise services can be quickly combined to support new business processes that deliver the flexibility and efficiency large enterprises need to optimize their business and it across the business network. By using enterprise services, it departments respond quickly and cost-effectively to changing business requirements by reusing existing and proven business functionality.


1.2.2.2. On Premise: Business Analytics 1.2.2.2.1. enterprise performance managemententerprise performance management (epm) solutions help companies capitalize on the value of their existing data assets. with these solutions, organizations become more agile, gaining alignment, visibility, and confidence in decision making that gives them optimal control and competitive advantage. Better control of performance is enabled by an understanding of how strategies will be impacted by risk and the ability to adjust plans and expectations accordingly. additionally, by closely monitoring and understanding company spending, companies can reduce costs and increase working capital. Businesses also have the ability to optimize profitability by gaining deeper insight into costs and profitability across a number of dimensions of their business – such as customer, channel, and product. organizational agility is made possible through the ability to close books more quickly and more accurately, create what-if scenarios and plan versions to compare alternatives and make appropriate decisions, in addition to aligning operational capacity and support functions with demand. Better control and increased agility provides competitive advantage. Finally, these solutions empower every stakeholder to communicate, collaborate, and execute on a defined plan of action in context and real time.

some of the key epm solutions include the following:• the SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation

application unifies and streamlines the planning, budgeting, and forecasting process and enables a faster close. owned and maintained by finance, the application unifies planning, financial consolidation, and management reporting for the enterprise – improving budget cycle times, driving compliance with regulatory and financial standards, helping reduce external audit costs, instilling confidence, and reducing business risk.

• the SAP BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation application provides customers with the speed, processing power, agility, and breadth of analysis necessary to complete strict regulatory consolidation and financial reporting cycles more quickly and with confidence. with full process control and data transparency, customers can simulate unlimited scenarios to address all reporting requirements.

• the SAP BusinessObjects Intercompany application removes the biggest barrier from a company’s financial close process by tackling intercompany reconciliation outside the critical reporting path. the application operates with any consolidations product and enables reporting units to reconcile intercompany balances earlier and directly with one another, eliminating extra work and delays at the corporate and divisional levels.

• the SAP BusinessObjects XBRL Publishing application by uBmatrix enables business users to leverage data in sap Business suite and epm solutions and prepare XBrl documents. designed to be user friendly, fast, and flexible, the application gives customers greater control over the XBrl generation process for the communication of financial and business data.

• the SAP BusinessObjects Profitability and Cost Management application enables customers to gain a deep understanding of the levers affecting organizational costs and profitability throughout the enterprise. it helps identify underlying causes of underperformance, test potential impacts of changes, and take incisive action to reduce costs and optimize profitability of products, customers, and channels.

• the SAP BusinessObjects Financial Information Management application helps reduce the risk, cost, and effort of collecting, mapping, and loading enterprise data into consolidation software. customers can integrate directly with data sources, help ensure data loads correctly, and facilitate compliance reporting.

• the SAP BusinessObjects Strategy Management application empowers business users at all levels to rapidly align resources to execute on strategies, understand risk, and drive effectiveness. Goal synchronization and custom-designed communications drive user adoption across the enterprise. live operational reviews help ensure alignment with goals while managing resources and exceptions.

SAP’s Release Strategy for Large Enterprises16

• the SAP BusinessObjects Spend Performance Management application provides full visibility into direct and indirect spend and helps to proactively identify cost savings opportunities and supplier risk. as a result, companies are better positioned to reduce cost and ensure supply continuity and hence to increase spend under management.

• the SAP BusinessObjects Supply Chain Performance Management application helps companies measurably improve supply chain effectiveness, for more responsive supply chain networks and improved cost control. By focusing on the right process metrics, companies can identify and diagnose bottlenecks and uncover opportunities, to take informed action toward improved supply chain performance.

1.2.2.2.2. Governance, risk, and complianceGovernance, risk, and compliance (Grc) solutions provide continuous monitoring of key risk indicators and compliance effectiveness across the customer’s heterogeneous systems, business processes, and it infrastructure – aligning risks and compliance programs to strategic initiatives, plans, and execution. Better management of compliance and risk is achieved through automated risk management and compliance and monitoring activities that minimize the associated effort and reduce cost. By proactively preventing risk events and compliance violations from occurring, organizations can better protect value. they can also deliver better performance by incorporating risk and compliance into strategy, planning, and operational execution.

some of the key Grc solutions include the following:• the SAP BusinessObjects Access Control application

enables business managers, auditors, and it security managers to collaboratively and confidently control access and prevent fraud across the enterprise. it helps to streamline segregation of duties (sod), critical access risk, and user access assignment compliance processes, minimizing audit-time and audit-related costs..

• the SAP BusinessObjects Process Control application provides continuous control monitoring across policies and regulatory requirements. the automated rules framework, with over 120 delivered rules, enables quick deployment. the application delivers cross-system visibility and a unified repository of compliance information for efficient multi-initiative management. automated workflows and notifications promote enterprise-wide accountability and confidence in decision making.

• the SAP BusinessObjects Risk Management application provides risk-adjusted management of enterprise performance to optimize efficiency, increase effectiveness, and maximize visibility across risk initiatives. Business owners are provided the tools needed to make risk-intelligent decisions across their areas of responsibility, drawing from proven best-practice risk responses.

• the SAP BusinessObjects Global Trade Services application helps companies reduce the cost and risk of international trade by helping to ensure compliance with global regulations, accelerating trade activity, and minimizing duties and landed cost. companies can streamline complex import and export processes and compliance checks, help ensure expedited customs clearance, and use automation and e-filing to optimize trade for lowest risk and minimal cost.

• the SAP BusinessObjects Electronic Invoicing for Brazil (SAP BusinessObjects Nota Fiscal Eletronica) application helps ensure comprehensive compliance with Brazil’s electronic invoicing requirements and ongoing support for evolving Brazilian e-trade and tax regulation. it helps reduce compliance costs with automated, certified, and secure interfaces to state- and federal-level government systems while efficiently utilizing existing it investments by connecting to sap and non-sap software systems.

• the SAP BusinessObjects Sustainability Performance Management application helps organizations define and communicate their sustainability objectives, appropriately manage risks, and report on sustainability performance while reducing the time spent collecting data. this solution provides a reporting and management framework to social, environmental, and economic key performance indicators, enabling organizations to focus on driving sustainability performance rather than data collection and report compilation.

1.2.2.2.3. Business intelligenceBusiness intelligence (Bi) solutions provide users with everything they need to discover, investigate, and share information, so they can know their business, transform their decision making, and turn every organization into a best-run business. Bi solutions provide a flexible, scalable business intelligence solution with integrated platform services that provide the business intelligence foundation that can provide everyone in a company with the information they need to achieve remarkable results.

SAP’s Release Strategy for Large Enterprises 17

Bi solutions allow end users to interact with business information and accurately answer ad hoc questions without advanced knowledge of the underlying data sources and structures. they help users to gather data across all sources and formats and deliver it as useful, consumable information inside and outside the organization. customers can use these tools to uncover trends and patterns to solve business problems, anticipate business changes, and help reach organizational goals. with them, end users can track and analyze key business metrics via dashboards, interact with sophisticated visual representations of information, and take advantage of user-friendly features that provide self-service access to critical business information.

some of the key solutions include the following:• the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform

is a business intelligence platform that combines end-user insight with flexible systems management for a single Bi standard that allows administrators to confidently deploy and standardize their Bi implementations on a proven, scalable, and adaptive service-oriented architecture.

• SAP Crystal Reports® software is a powerful reporting tool that helps developers and it professionals rapidly create flexible, feature-rich reports and tightly integrate them into web and microsoft windows applications.

• SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards software provides secure, interactive dashboards and visualizations with live, refreshable data from the sap Businessobjects Business intelligence platform, sap Businessobjects edge solutions, microsoft excel spreadsheets, or corporate databases. these dashboards and visual models enable effective decision making while providing a live view into the customer’s business from the sap Businessobjects Bi platform, a business intelligence portal, microsoft office sharepoint, adobe pdF, or the web.

• SAP BusinessObjects Explorer™ software offers users an intuitive path to quickly search and explore data for instant insight into the business. they can get quick answers to on-the-fly questions without training or it involvement by simply entering a few keywords to search for relevant information and then intuitively exploring large volumes of data – without prior knowledge about what data exists or where to find it. additionally, this intuitive information search-and-exploration functionality can be leveraged with the high performance and scalability of sap netweaver Business warehouse accelerator (sap netweaver Bw accelerator) software, so customers can empower their organization and extend the reach of Bi to all of their business users. with immediate insights into vast amounts of data, users can explore business at the speed of thought – and improve their ability to make sound, timely decisions.

• SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence®2 software allows users self-service access to data, reporting, and analysis. sap Businessobjects web intelligence is an ad hoc query, reporting, and analysis tool designed to empower users with its intuitive interface, allowing them to turn information into actionable insight and make better decisions in less time.

• SAP BusinessObjects Analysis software is a next-generation business intelligence solution that provides business analysts with user-friendly and powerful multi-dimensional analysis functionality. users of the edition for microsoft office enjoy a modern and familiar microsoft office user experience with a few simple clicks and intuitive drag-and-drop steps to analyze multidimensional data sets with immediate response time, regardless of data volume. the online analytical processing (olap) edition provides users with self-service analysis workspaces for personal or shared use over the web. sap Businessobjects analysis fits without disruption into existing sap netweaver Business warehouse component environments to smoothly transition users from sap Business explorer tools to sap Businessobjects solutions.

2. sap Businessobjects web intelligence functionalities are technically delivered via releases of the sap Businessobjects Business intelligence platform.

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1.2.2.2.4. enterprise information managemententerprise information management (eim) is the business activity of creating, cleansing, integrating, managing, governing, and archiving structured and unstructured data used by an organization. it creates the data foundation for analytical, operational, and governance initiatives. sap helps companies with their business strategies for enterprise information management by delivering software and services. with sap solutions, companies can optimize their business performance by delivering trusted information that is complete, accurate, and accessible.

with eim solutions, customers can:• help ensure that data is complete, accurate, and

accessible, to increase the efficiency of business operations and business intelligence

• accelerate access to business information, to optimize performance and decision making

• manage information throughout its lifecycle, to enhance governance and compliance

some of the key eim solutions include the following:• SAP BusinessObjects Data Services software unifies

leading data integration, data quality management, and data profiling solutions in a single product. it provides one development interface, metadata repository, data connectivity layer, runtime environment, and management console – enabling customers to lower it costs and accelerate time to value

• SAP BusinessObjects Data Integrator software helps organizations integrate and deliver structured and unstructured data from multiple data sources using extraction, transformation, and loading (etl) functionalities. during the etl process, data is profiled, validated, and audited to help ensure data integrity across a heterogeneous data environment.

• SAP BusinessObjects Data Quality Management software allows organizations to centralize the discovery, correction, and prevention of data quality issues across the enterprise regardless of source or type. it helps ensure the integrity and completeness of data and maximizes developer productivity for operational, analytic, or gover-nance initiatives

• SAP BusinessObjects Metadata Management software provides an integrated view of metadata across all products used in business intelligence or data migration projects. it consolidates and integrates metadata into an open, relational repository, bringing it all together to reduce workload, lower project costs and provide trusted data and analysis.

• SAP BusinessObjects Text Analysis software reads and classifies text locked in unstructured data sources (for example, microsoft office documents, web sites, comment fields, and e-mails) so that it can be incorporated into Bi systems. these insights can help customers understand and operate their companies more effectively.

• the SAP Extended Enterprise Content Management (SAP Extended ECM) application by Open Text integrates with sap Business suite utilizing aBap™ programming language and web services. this solution is a bundle consisting of records and document management and document access and archiving. deeply integrated with sap erp, this application enables customers to manage unstructured content throughout business processes. it gives companies the capability to integrate enterprise and enterprise content management applications. sap extended ecm embeds content management directly in the business process, thus allowing all content to have a consistent business context. the application also has the functionalities needed to manage all forms of content throughout the entire lifecycle of the content. it combines secure, automated capture, storage, and organization of documents with archiving, data archiving, records management, and imaging functionality. in addition, it provides team collaboration, content-centric workflow, and search and retrieval features. the application can deliver exactly the right content to the sap or non-sap business user based on his or her role and process step. under-pinning the integration of sap erp and sap extended ecm is the capability to leverage an enterprise records management application on sap unstructured content.


1.2.2.2.5. analytic applicationsanalytic applications are designed to address critical industry-specific business needs. they combine sap Businessobjects software with industry-specific frameworks and visualizations to help ensure rapid deployment in any vendor environment. the applications are designed to be extensible, so customers can adapted then to meet specific needs. these proven solutions are rich with functionality to support best practices, based on knowledge gained from years of industry experience.

1.2.2.3. On Premise: Content Shipmentscontent shipments consist of a collection of objects, templates, or data that deliver predefined configuration settings, process models, and support for best practices for all elements of the sap product portfolio for large enterprises. content shipments help companies integrate applications, including third-party software, and implement functionality in their it landscape. in general, the shipment schedule and maintenance durations coincide with those of the application shipment they are designed for. the following types of content shipments are defined:• SAP Best Practices packages include content shipments

that provide blueprint content consisting of proven methods and tools for implementing best business practices in key functional areas and for a range of industries using sap software. these offerings deliver methodology, documentation, and preconfigured settings that support rapid, reliable deployment with a timely return on investment.

• content for the SAP Solution Manager application mana-gement solution and sap master data for the system land-scape directory provide a collection of business process models that support and accelerate planning and execution of implementation or upgrades of sap releases. they also support best practices for operation of those releases.

• Enterprise Services Repository content consists mostly of standard interface object types, such as web services, message types, and data types. in addition, enterprise services repository content includes process integration scenarios and mappings, as well as modeling object types, such as process component interaction models and object definitions.

• sAP NetWeaver Portal component content provides preassembled objects bundled as business packages for completing business tasks. in essence, the business packages provide access to various sap applications from different applications (for example, sap erp, sap crm) via portal roles. Business packages run on sap netweaver portal and can be easily modified to suit customers’ needs.

• sAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse component content provides predefined analytical insight into business processes. it contains objects for data extraction, data persistency, and information delivery, such as dashboards, formatted reporting, and olap analysis that support sap Businessobjects Bi solutions.

• SAP BusinessObjects Rapid Marts® packages are prepackaged, subject area−specific data marts for enterprise applications, including relational data models, etl mappings, sample reports, dashboards, and business documentation. they reduce the time to develop data marts, lowering costs and accelerating the deployment of business intelligence applications.

• SAP BusinessObjects Data Quality Management software contains a robust set of functionality to profile, parse, cleanse, and intelligently match global data. sap Businessobjects data Quality management content provides contact information (personal names, firm names, addresses, titles, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, and so on) for over 220 countries. it is used to discover, correct, and prevent data quality issues across the enterprise.

• sap offers starter kits for SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation, SAP BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation, and SAP BusinessObjects Process Control applications. these starter kits provide functional content, guidance on best practices, and knowledge that can help to deploy epm and Grc applications more quickly, more easily, and with less risk. For example, starter kits for consolidation appli-cations help to perform, validate, and publish a statutory consolidation in accordance with international Financial reporting standards (iFrs) or u.s. Gaap.

• SAP Knowledge Acceleration software includes content shipments of robust end-user training materials. these offerings deliver prebuilt interactive training, practice, and knowledge support content in a variety of formats and are designed to support rapid deployment of web-based training.


1.2.2.4. On Demandsap understands the wide heterogeneity of our customers’ technology and application landscapes, which includes on-premise, on-demand, mobile, and collaboration applications. our solution strategy is designed to support this heterogeneity while providing coherence in information, process, and decision making. sap will address the needs for fast time to value and leverage the high-value content in its existing on-premise deployments with new and innovative on-demand services. consistent with this strategy, sap is delivering on-demand solutions across key areas of its customers’ landscape. this includes solutions focused on solving the business problems of specific lines-of-businesses (for example, sales, service, marketing, procurement, finance). sap also provides highly differentiated solutions that are focused on personal productivity. at the same time, sap provides a solution best suited for subsidiaries of large enterprises – sap Business Bydesign. this delivers new features for shared insight and collaboration between people and businesses.

on-demand services from sap are characterized by the following ideas:• Deliver people and business collaboration on-demand solutions are used by people, departments,

and enterprises to address specific business issues or to enhance productivity. whether used within the company or across multiple enterprises, these solutions offer a natural opportunity to interconnect structured and unstructured information and deliver solutions that drive both people- to-people and business-to-business collaboration. this also represents an opportunity to redefine and innovate around sap’s extensive knowledge of end-to-end enterprise processes – which can now extend across these networks.

• Deliver an integrated experience that helps ensure full synergy with existing investments– on-demand solutions from sap (whether fully integrated

to run the entire business, focused on a key line-of-business problem, or designed for personal productivity) work together and may be easily integrated with the customer’s existing investments to deliver an end-to-end experience.

– all on-demand solutions from sap are built on a consistent and orchestrated set of platform features that offer transactions, analytics, and collaboration. they share a consistent lifecycle management system, are highly secure, and meet integration standards. they also share an appropriately consistent user experience. and, over time, sap will also deliver a harmonized integrated development environment and public solution model that allows partners and customers to more easily assemble transactional, analytical, and collaborative services into new solutions.

• Provide complete solutions that come with best practices, insight, and all other essential complementary services required for the solution– Beyond delivering software, sap provides customers

with focused solutions that already incorporate the content and services they need to solve their specific business problems. this means the solutions are prepackaged and interconnected to deliver autonomous content and services without significant it intervention.

– sap solutions inherently provide the ability to get real-time and contextual insight into the business.

– sap solutions have an open architecture principle and provide platform features that allow an extensive ecosystem of partners to extend, deliver, and consume content and services.


some already-available on-demand solutions are:• SAP Sourcing OnDemand solution (previously named

sap e-sourcing ondemand) delivers sustainable cost savings, enables comprehensive contract management, and provides superior supplier management. the solution tailors sourcing and contracting processes to specific business needs and establishes and develops a qualified supply base to enable the optimization of the overall value contribution from suppliers. it provides built-in support for best practices, training, support for sourcing events, user and supplier support, and key strategic sourcing enablement services. sap sourcing ondemand is designed to help deliver quick access to benefits, maximize cost savings opportunities, and provide real-time visibility across the customer’s entire sourcing process, so the customer can proactively manage every aspect of it. the solution comprises and is fully integrated with the sap strategic sourcing ondemand, sap contract lifecycle management ondemand, and sap supplier management ondemand solutions.

• SAP Carbon Impact OnDemand solution enables companies to accurately measure and compare carbon intensity across their entire operations as well as execute on the most effective abatement strategy. By gaining this level of insight into carbon emissions across all scopes with up-to-date data from their existing operational systems, customers can rapidly optimize their abatement options with embedded best-practice content.

• SAP BusinessObjects BI OnDemand solution provides complete, intuitive, turnkey business intelligence delivering instant insight. using sap Businessobjects Bi ondemand, end users can follow an intuitive process to upload a spreadsheet, bring in different data sources, and explore data with the software’s unique search-and-browse functionality. the integrated solution lets end users create accurate, timely dashboards and reports. that means there is no longer the need to pull together sales reports from various sources or manually create pivot tables, charts, and graphs. ad hoc and what-if analyses can also be performed. in addition, there is no need to share spreadsheets and reports via e-mail or paper – instead, end users can share the information online.

• SAP StreamWork™ application is an on-demand, collaborative decision-making application that brings together the people, information, and proven business approaches to drive fast, meaningful results. team members inside or outside the organization can come together in a cohesive online environment to strategize, brainstorm, solve problems, make decisions, and track all activity for later reference or reuse. sap streamwork is suited for all lines of business and industries and is available on demand, allowing businesspeople to be up and running quickly.

For details about sap Business Bydesign, please refer to section 1.2.3, “small and midsize solutions for subsidiaries and partners of large enterprises.”

1.2.2.5. On Device: Mobile Applicationsthe value of a mobile platform is directly dependent on the applications running on the platform. sap’s goal is to grow the applications running on its mobile platform exponentially by opening up the mobile application development to its whole ecosystem and supporting them all the way to bring the innovative applications to the market.

sap is building two types of mobile applications. the first type of applications is the “mission-critical mobile application.” these mobile applications are designed to mobilize customers’ core business processes to their core users. with the sybase® mobile sales application for sap crm and the sybase mobile workflow application for sap Business suite, sap has already two mission-critical mobile applications available with more on the way.• Sybase Mobile Sales for SAP CRM provides anywhere,

anytime access to critical sap crm data using smart phones, such as Blackberry, iphone, and microsoft windows mobile. whether at a customer site or in an airplane, sales professionals will always have quick and reliable access to their crm data from their mobile device of choice in order to maximize their productivity and effectiveness. the application provides full access to sap crm accounts, contacts, leads, opportunities, activities, and analytics, all from a mobile device.

• using Sybase Mobile Workflow for SAP Business Suite, mobile workers can complete predefined processes, such as requests and approvals for travel or leave. additionally, time-based events can easily be recorded directly into sap Business suite, all from a mobile device.


the second type of applications is the “mobile instant value application.” these mobile applications have the same design patterns as consumer applications – ease of use, simple use cases, instant deployment, fast development, instant value, and instant return on investment (roi). sap plans to release the first batch of mobile instant value appli cations in 2011. sap partners are doing the same – building both mission-critical and mobile instant value applications, growing the catalog of applications for customers to choose from.

in addition, customers have the ability to write their own mission-critical and mobile instant value applications by using the sybase unwired platform.

1.2.2.6. Orchestration and Technologysap keeps investing in its technology portfolio to move beyond traditional middleware and provide a comprehensive approach to orchestration of people-centric business applications that close the gap between insight and action, no matter if these applications are deployed and consumed on premise, on demand, or on device. the concept of orchestration not only covers the key areas of consistent application architecture; product and technology standards; and process, information, and interface integrity but also embraces key technology practices such as business process management (Bpm), application life cycle management (alm), and master data management (mdm). the sap netweaver technology platform delivers key functions to enable business application orchestration, to form the application infrastructure for sap business applications, and to deliver solutions that enhance team productivity and business and application integration.

1.2.2.6.1. sap netweaversap netweaver is a comprehensive application infrastructure platform that provides the foundation for sap Business suite and other sap applications. it enables enterprises to extend and optimize business processes that are orchestrated across on-premise, on-demand, and on-device interactions. additionally, as the technical foundation for service-oriented architecture, sap netweaver delivers a modular set of functions with the aim of reducing it complexity and increasing business flexibility across heterogeneous it landscapes.

the components that make up sap netweaver are described in the following sections.

Foundation Components of SAP NetWeaverthe main releases of sap netweaver unify a comprehensive set of technologies into a common technology platform. with its core functionality, organizations can efficiently develop and run business applications via the sap netweaver application server component, manage a data warehouse for business intelligence via the sap netweaver Business warehouse component, archive data based on retention rules via the sap netweaver information lifecycle management component, and provide access to applications and information via the sap netweaver portal component or sap netweaver mobile component. it organizations can use sap netweaver to manage the lifecycles of applications to keep the quality, performance, and integrity of business solutions high.

Enterprise Components of SAP NetWeaverparts of the sap netweaver technology platform are shipped separately from the main release to support a quicker adoption of new and innovative technologies:• the SAP NetWeaver Composition Environment (SAP

NetWeaver CE) offering is a lean, standards-based solution that allows customers to leverage the benefits of soa when creating new business logic. providing a visual environment to build and run complete composite applications, sap netweaver ce accelerates business process innovation while leveraging existing investments in the sap netweaver technology platform. the sap netweaver Business process management (sap netweaver Bpm) and sap netweaver Business rules management (sap netweaver Brm) components are delivered with sap netweaver ce. these state-of-the-art, standards-based tools enable customers to model and execute processes without time-consuming, error-prone coding to achieve enhanced responsiveness to changing business needs and reduce the cost of handling exceptions.

• the SAP NetWeaver Process Integration (SAP NetWeaver PI) offering enables application-to-application and business- to-business integration and provides the technical foundation for soa. it includes enterprise services repository (es repository), an enterprise service bus, and prepackaged integration scenarios to support end-to-end process integration across the business network. with support for open standards, sap netweaver pi supports process-centric integration among sap and non-sap applications, both within and beyond enterprise boundaries.


• the SAP NetWeaver Master Data Management (SAP NetWeaver MDM) component provides it organizations with the ability to consolidate, harmonize, and centrally manage master data in a heterogeneous environment master for use in analytical and operational use cases.

• SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator) software improves the response time for queries and searches, helps to reduce administration tasks, and shortens batch processes. developed as an appliance for intel processors, sap netweaver Bw accelerator strives to provide fast response times, even as data volumes, number of users, and analytics increase.

• the new enterprise workspaces add-on for SAP NetWeaver Portal gives people the freedom and flexibility to create their own user experience, with custom dashboards and pages organized to suit their own unique work styles. enterprise workspaces extend sap netweaver portal, which delivers business applications and information via the web. portals are a convenient and secure way to organize content by business role, for people inside and outside the organization.

• the SAP NetWeaver Enterprise Search application helps business users navigate critical business information by providing direct, secure access to sap and non-sap information and process data. the application delivers highly relevant results because it can recognize the business context of the search query and can suggest actions that reflect the user’s role in the enterprise.

• the SAP NetWeaver Identity Management (SAP NetWeaver ID Management) component helps it organizations reduce the complexity and cost associated with centralized management of user authentication and authorizations across the heterogeneous application landscape. it helps improve productivity through automated provisioning and self-support. the integration with Grc solutions from sap and sap Business suite enables a true business-driven, compliant identity management solution.

Enhancement Packages for SAP NetWeaverlike the enhancement packages for the core applications of sap Business suite, enhancement packages for sap netweaver are a proven approach to delivering continuous innovation while keeping the core software stable.

progressing from an sap netweaver release to an enhance-ment package for sap netweaver is optional; however, adopting a business function in an enhancement package for sap Business suite might require a specific sap enhancement package for sap netweaver. during the maintenance period of an sap netweaver release, enhancement packages for sap netweaver may be made available to deliver continuous innovations. the maintenance period for an enhancement package for sap netweaver follows the maintenance strategy for the sap netweaver release it enhances.

1.2.2.6.2. application lifecycle managementsap offers several tools that enable application lifecycle management to manage sap and non-sap solutions throughout their entire lifecycle, to provide accelerated innovation, help ensure business continuity, and reduce risk and total cost of ownership.• the SAP Solution Manager application management

solution supports itil-based alm best practices, enabling customers to manage their sap and non-sap applications efficiently throughout the complete lifecycle, from require-ments, design, build, and test to solution deployment, operations, and continuous improvement. Besides providing functionality for application lifecycle management, sap solution manager integrates the other application lifecycle management solutions to ensure a comprehensive approach. this enables central access to all required functions and central availability of all required information (single source of the truth). in addition, to accelerate implementation and upgrade projects, sap solution manager content – containing mainly configuration data and accelerators – is provided for sap applications and sap netweaver. sap strongly recommends that organizations move to the latest release of sap solution manager.

sap solution manager add-ons provide extensions that can be deployed flexibly to activate functionality specific to focus groups and integration packages to leverage third-party functionality.

For more information on sap solution manager, please see the sap corporate web site at www.sap.com /solutions/netweaver/components/solutionmanager.


http://www.sap.com/solutions/netweaver/components/solutionmanager

http://www.sap.com/solutions/netweaver/components/solutionmanager

1.2.2.6.3. mobile platformmobilizing the enterprise is complex. Business information is sitting in all kinds of applications, data stores, servers, and file storage. in addition, there is the need to deliver this information to various types of devices like BlackBerry, iphone, ipad, and android phone. complexity escalates exponentially. managing this complexity requires a flexible, open, and consistent development platform. Besides that, with so many mobile operating systems and devices choices available, customers also need a solution that can manage and secure all critical enterprise data, mobile applications, and devices.

with the acquisition of sybase, sap now offers a compre-hensive mobility infrastructure that helps sap customers unwire their enterprise by breaking down information technology barriers and delivering critical information and applications to employees, partners, and customers – on any platform, device, or network – anytime, anywhere – without sacrificing security and with the lowest tco possible:• Sybase Unwired Platform is a mobile enterprise application

platform that enables enterprise developers to simply and quickly build and manage applications that securely connect business data from sap and non-sap software systems to mobile workers on all major devices, at any time. sybase unwired platform enables customers to embrace mobility across their entire organization with a development platform that is consistent but highly adaptable. sybase unwired platform is tightly integrated with SAP NetWeaver Mobile and therefore allows the mobilization of sap applications with the fastest time to market and lowest tco possible.

• the Afaria® mobile device management solution is a powerful and flexible mobile device management and security solution for the enterprise. afaria provides a single administrative console to centrally manage, secure, and deploy mobile data, applications, and devices. afaria simplifies the management complexities of an on-the-go workforce by helping to ensure that all data stored and transmitted by mobile devices is secure.

• SAP Test Data Migration Server software enables customers to easily create nonproduction environments – for example, for testing development work or upgrades – with relevant extracts of productive business data. For more information on sap test data migration server, please refer to the sap corporate web site at www.sap.com/tdms.

• the SAP Test Acceleration and Optimization application accelerates and optimizes automated testing of sap applications such as sap erp. it focuses on testing functionality supporting end-to-end business processes, for example, the functionality supporting order-to-cash management.

• SAP Landscape Transformation software supports sap customers in effectively managing the impact on the existing sap software landscape for any business or it-driven transformation requirements. whether the company is looking for ways to acquire a new company, carve out a business unit, restructure the company, optimize existing business processes (for example, by making use of shared-service centers), or align and consolidate existing it landscape, sap landscape transformation software can help. this includes support for system clean-up, chart of accounts conversion, and client transfer.

• SAP NetWeaver Adaptive Computing Controller tool provides a single point of control that allows software system administrators to visualize, monitor, and manage data center tasks for deployed sap solutions. masking the underlying complexity of the it infrastructure, this tool enables customers to manage virtualized database and application instances and move them between physical and virtual servers as needed – without logging in to the software each time an application is moved.


1.2.2.6.4. in-memory computingone of the key in-memory computing solutions sap offers is SAP In-Memory Appliance (SAP HANA™) software, which is a flexible, multipurpose, data source agonistic in-memory appliance that combines sap software components optimized on hardware that is provided and delivered by leading hardware partners. it includes a number of integrated sap software components, including the sap in-memory computing engine, real-time replication services, data modeling, and data services. the appliance enables organizations to analyze business operations based on large volumes of detailed information in real time. individuals can create flexible analytic models based on real-time data without impacting back-end enterprise applications or databases. the sap in-memory computing engine is the core “engine” for the next generation of sap high-performance in-memory solutions that leverages technologies such as in-memory computing, columnar databases, massively parallel processing (mpp), and data compression techniques, to allow organizations to instantly explore and analyze large volumes of transactional and analytical data across the enterprise in “real real time.”

1.2.3. small and midsize solutions for subsidiaries and partners of large enterprises

companies are continuing to globalize their operations in an effort to reduce costs as well as penetrate new emerging markets. as a result, their business networks are becoming increasingly complex, with a growing number of dispersed subsidiaries, suppliers, distributors, and other third-party partners, each running different systems and utilizing different business processes.

with sap solutions that enable business network integration, large enterprises can reduce the cost and complexity of managing such a business network. they can quickly and cost effectively integrate headquarter operations with their smaller subsidiaries, divisions, suppliers, and other partners so that they can function as a single, coordinated entity. By doing so, all organizations in the business network achieve tangible benefits.

headquarters can:• standardize and unify business processes with subsidiaries

and business partners to gain operational efficiencies across the entire network

• Get real-time visibility and transparency across entities in the network to optimize performance and improve decision making

• create a single version of the truth, with consistent master data, to enhance governance and compliance

• enhance collaboration across the network to improve its ability to respond quickly to changing customer and market demands

subsidiaries and other business partners can:• streamline and automate business processes to gain

operational efficiencies• maintain the flexibility and independence they need to meet

the needs of the local market while giving headquarters the “control” it wants

• accelerate time to value with solutions designed to match the maturity, budget, and implementation timelines of the local business

• mitigate future risk with proven, scalable solutions that can evolve as the business grows


several sap offerings enable business network integration, including:• SAP solutions for small businesses and midsize

companies3 – complete and integrated business management solutions for every size of organization, budget, functional complexity, country-specific require-ments, and deployment model:– SAP Business One application – an integrated

application with all the essential business functions (accounting, finance, operations, sales, marketing, service, and so on) in one package so that it’s easy to set up, use, and optimize. it is ideal for smaller sales, service and distribution offices.

– SAP Business ByDesign solution – a complete and integrated on-demand solution, offering broad functional features (for example, financials, operations, sales, marketing, service, logistics) and robust, real-time analytics built in. sap Business Bydesign is a strategic solution for large enterprise networks, as it provides subsidiaries and affiliates the full flexibility of software as a service (saas). it is ideal for subsidiaries that have been too small for an on-premise erp solution in the area of sales and service offices, warehouses, and project and service sites. sap Business Bydesign supports corporate standards and compliancy and enables subsidiaries to take advantage of pay-as-you-go monthly fees.

– SAP Business All-in-One solutions – powerful, integrated industry-specific solutions based on the same proven erp technology platform used by the largest enterprises. highly scalable and extensible, with the ability to handle the most demanding and complex business requirements. it is ideal for manufacturing sites and more complex sales, service, and distribution sites that are either midsize or smaller but fast growing.

• BI, GRC, and EPM solutions for small businesses and midsize companies4 – the sap Businessobjects portfolio offers a broad portfolio of tools and applications that provide visibility and insight across the extended enterprise to optimize performance and help ensure accurate decision making. the portfolio includes comprehensive business intelligence software (powerful dashboards that enable companies to analyze, navigate, and share information), complete enterprise performance management software (enable strategy, planning, and forecasting across orga-nizations and networks), enterprise information management software (create, cleanse, integrate, govern, and archive data), and governance, risk, and compliance software (access control and trade compliance). there are also industry-specific analytic applications available to enable specific planning, risk management, and performance optimization processes. specific versions of the analytics software are available for small businesses and midsize companies; these are fully compatible with the versions for large enterprises.

• SAP Best Practices for Business Network Integration package – library of preconfigured integration scenarios, tools, methodologies, and platforms that accelerate the integration of headquarters with their subsidiaries and third-party business partners.

the preconfigured integration scenarios are designed to unify and standardize business processes in a number of areas: – Financial – automates the sharing and consolidation of

financial information between subsidiaries and headquarters for effectively managing finances, increasing visibility, and mitigating risk across the business network.

– sales and supply chain – integrates order processing, inventory, logistics, and procurement across the business network to help automate sales and intercompany operations

– master data – manages a common and single view of master data across the business network.

– Business-to-business on demand – integrates the order-to-cash and procure-to-pay processes between business partners.

3. For detailed solution descriptions, please refer to sap’s release strategy for small Businesses and midsize companies.4. For corresponding solutions and their descriptions, please refer to sap’s release strategy for small Businesses and midsize companies.


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in addition to the integration scenarios, sap Best practices for Business network integration come with a “cookbook” of enhanced procedures for activating sap Best practices in a multi-client environment, detailed configuration guides for communication channels and integration scenario–specific requirements, business process documentation and flow diagrams, extensive project documentation, and, where possible at subsidiaries, automated activation of integration scenarios.

the technology platforms for integrating headquarters, subsidiaries, suppliers, and other business partners orchestrate the networkwide integration and collaboration across heterogeneous applications (sap and non-sap) and integration technologies (for example, application level events [ale] standard, remote function call [rFc], soa). several platforms are available, depending upon the it landscape at headquarters and at the subsidiaries or other business partners:• SAP NetWeaver Process Integration – enables application-

to-application and business-to-business integration and provides the technical foundation for soa. it includes an es repository, an enterprise service bus, and prepackaged integration scenarios to support end-to-end process integration across the business network. with support for open standards, sap netweaver pi supports process-centric integration among sap and non-sap applications, both within and beyond enterprise boundaries. it can be used as the integration platform between sap Business suite and sap Business all-in-one, as well as with the sap information interchange application from crossgate for integration with third-party business partners.

• SAP Business One integration for SAP NetWeaver – a declarative, highly reliable platform based on established integration standards. it offers preconfigured integration content based on the most common integration scenarios, an integrated development environment that provides guided procedures for business process experts to set up, customize, or define new integration content, and tools to administer and monitor integration scenarios during run-time. it can be used to integrate sap Business suite with either the sap Business one application or sap Business all-in-one solutions.

• SAP Information Interchange by Crossgate – a turnkey business-to-business content engine that enables companies to exchange purchase orders, forecasts, invoices, delivery notes, and other documents electronically. the application delivers prebuilt business partner profiles that enable the documents to be exchanged irrespective of application (sap or non-sap) or document structure (for example, information document [idoc] or soa). it can be used as the integration platform between any sap application and the applications of third-party business partners.

1.2.4. road map (2005–2010)over the past few years, sap has adapted incrementally its release strategy to deliver on the key objectives: simplification and innovation without disruption (see Figure 5). thereby, the cornerstones and foundation for the strategy described above were already established and sap’s way forward is connected seamlessly with its past.

2005: Delivery of Business Process Platform–Based SAP ERPin 2005 sap simplified its release and maintenance strategy to ensure the availability of its software application releases on one common technology platform: sap netweaver. sap delivered the market’s first soa-enabled erp application.

leveraging the sap netweaver technology platform, the sap erp 6.0 application release (formerly known as mysap™ erp 2005) was the first offering on the market to give customers the flexibility of a business process platform. this platform provides industry-specific functionality and support for best practices across industries – allowing customers to selectively activate functionality and support for best practices via a switch framework. sap invested in accelerating and simplifying upgrades from sap r/3® software releases. the success of that investment has been proven by thousands of smooth customer upgrades.


sap Business suite introduced by sap going forward. the 7–2 maintenance offer is the longest in the industry and provides customers with more stability to realize their returns on investment in sap Business suite. during the 7–2 maintenance period, the enhancement packages deliver continuous, selectively adoptable innovation for business processes and technology. in addition, the sap enterprise support services are designed to help the customer leverage the full potential of sap Business suite.

with the acquisition of Business objects, sap is in a position to provide a comprehensive set of business intelligence, enterprise information management, enterprise performance management, and governance, risk, and compliance solutions. the sap Businessobjects portfolio can be integrated with sap Business suite, enabling large enterprises to close the gap between strategy and execution.

2009: Continuous Innovation for Business and ITin 2009, with the unrestricted shipment of sap Business suite 7, all customers could obtain sap Business suite 7 software and profit from the following:• process efficiency with harmonized user interfaces, support

for integrated end-to-end business processes, additional business functionality, and embedded analytics

• support for end-to-end processes across all applications with sap Business suite

• Business flexibility with continued enterprise service enablement for rapid and cost-effective composition of new and innovative business processes

• Business insight through embedded analytics and analytical extensions to enable confident decision making based on a single, reliable version of the truth that leverages the sap Businessobjects portfolio of solutions

• reduced tco through a simplified system landscape, reduced integration effort, reduced training requirements, enhanced process management support, and selective activation of new business functionality

to enable an evolutionary path to soa (“soa by evolution”), sap introduced a new delivery model for technology innova-tions that balances nondisruptive continuous innovation with accelerated innovation.

2006: Continuous Innovation for SAP ERPin 2006, sap extended its release strategy around sap erp 6.0 and made this application release the go-to release for sap erp customers. with sap erp serving as the stable core, customers can benefit from the innovation sap delivers much more quickly and without disruption via enhancement packages rather than having to upgrade to new sap erp releases. the first enhancement package for this service-enabled sap erp was shipped in 2006, with continued enhancement packages outlined in a multiyear road map.

2007: Broadening the Business Process Platform – From SAP ERP to All of SAP Business Suitein 2007, sap Business suite applications were soa enabled, providing companies with an even broader base for their business process platforms. these applications, which support supplier relationship management, supply chain management, customer relationship management, and product lifecycle management, are accessible through enterprise services and fuel an entire ecosystem of software solution partners. in addition to a new composition environment that complements the sap netweaver technology platform, sap Business suite introduced industry-specific services and functional enhancements that are leveraged by sap, partners, and customers to compose industry applications.

2008: Synchronizing the Release Timing and Integrating the SAP BusinessObjects Portfolio with SAP Business Suiteall core applications of sap Business suite were synchronized on a common release-to-customer date and constitute the stable core. enhancement packages deliver continuous innovation for this stable core, allowing customers to selectively activate the innovation that matches their business priorities. this means businesses can save the costs involved in large upgrade projects and avoid the business disruption to their operational systems that often results. enhancement packages deliver new functionality, industry-specific enhancements, and enterprise services.

effective november 2008, sap extended its maintenance offering to provide a total of 9 years of support and introduced an industry-leading 7–2 maintenance strategy. the 7–2 maintenance strategy is valid starting with the sap erp 6.0 application and any new core applications from


in 2009, sap made a strategic and operational commitment to sustainability. in addition to the existing sustainability offerings based on sap Business suite software and Grc solutions, sap added a new on-demand solution (sap carbon impact) to assist customers with carbon management to understand their environmental footprint, including greenhouse gas emissions and purchased goods and services.

sap also continued to innovate across the sap Businessobjects portfolio to enable business users by focusing on insight and support it by focusing on efficiency and flexibility. with the launch of sap Businessobjects explorer software, sap provided groundbreaking technology, enabling businesses to get analytical and visual insights into every corner of their business. sap additionally delivered new innovations in the areas of enterprise information management; enterprise performance management; and governance, risk, and compliance.

2010: Instant Value for People Everywherewith sap Business suite 7 innovations 2010, sap released enhancements and innovations for sap Business suite software that contain significant functional improvements and provide business value across all lines of business and all industries. while sap has previously delivered enhancement packages for the sap erp application, the delivery date of innovations 2010 marks the first time that sap offered enhancement packages across all core applications of the sap Business suite. thereby, enhancements to all core applications are delivered in a unique delivery model that allows customers to choose the features they want to include in their current installations quickly and easily, without requiring a full upgrade.

Besides these innovations for sap Business suite, sap delivered several rapid-deployment solutions in 2010 that are designed to deliver fast time to value for sap customers at low total cost of implementation (tci), by providing a ready- to-consume combination of sap software, preconfiguration, fixed-price implementation services, and enablement content. in the business analytics area, sap launched industry-specific analytic applications that help people across the organization make agile yet strategic decisions based on a broad array of critical, industry-specific information. similar to the rapid-deployment solutions, these applications are designed to be deployed quickly and deliver value to customers rapidly.

with the successful release of the feature package 2.5 of sap Business Bydesign in july 2010, sap reached an important milestone in its on-demand history by making a comprehensive, fully integrated on-demand business manage-ment suite generally available in its key markets. in addition, sap released several on-demand solutions delivering extended functionality for specific lines of businesses that can be consumed quickly (for example, sap streamwork and sap Businessobjects Bi ondemand).

the acquisition of sybase will lead to a broadened product portfolio for mobility when sap introduces in late 2010 a complete mobile platform and mobile applications that enable sap customers access to data stored in sap software systems from anywhere and any device.


sap has a clear mandate to provide clarity to customers on how they can generate significant benefits with the current portfolio of solutions as well as how our future innovations will help them to create new value. sap road maps for industries, lines of business, and technology help to meet this goal by highlighting the solutions available today, the value-oriented

planned innovations, and the thought-leading future direction. after thoroughly testing the concept of sap road maps for industries, lines of business, and technology, sap is granting access to them to all registered users on sap service marketplace (www.service.sap.com/roadmap).

Figure 5: SAP Road Map

5–1–2 maintenance strategy 7–2 maintenance strategy

delivery of sap® erp on a business process platform

enhancement packages implementing innovations without disruption initiative for sap erp introduced

delivery of entire sap Business suite on a business process platform

adoption of a service-oriented architecture (soa) to allow new flexible reuse of functionality

core application releases of sap Business suite 7 synchronized and enhance -ment package enabled

7–2 maintenance strategy introduced

sap Business suite and sap Businessobjects™ portfolio integrated

continuous innovation across the sap Businessobjects portfolio

2,800 enterprise services delivered (soa)

launch of sustainability initiative

• scale the customers’ core business via continuous innovation for sap Business suite 7

• deliver innovations and extensions on demand

• extend the customers’ reach by a strong mobile platform and mobile applications

• work to create applications that fit perfectly together (orchestration)

• Broaden the usage of in-memory technology in order to help customers optimize their business performance

2005–2007 2008–2009 2010+ 2015


1.2.5. licensing modelsap offers software licenses that provide comprehensive solutions for business scenarios. sap has therefore grouped applications that support core business processes into solution portfolios that serve the needs of customers in 24 industries. each application within a portfolio has a clear connection to one or more business scenarios of the respective industry solution map provided by sap. the solution maps are available at the sap service marketplace extranet at www.service.sap.com/bmet.5

sap licenses its on-premise software through a combination of package licenses and named user licenses. package licenses entitle a licensee to deploy and use the specified software functionality, provided that the appropriate users accessing the functionality are licensed as well. every user accessing the package license needs to have the appropriate named user license. sap offers several user categories that depend on the role of the individual user. additionally, some sap Businessobjects solutions and sybase solutions may be licensed flexibly based on number of users and other metrics dependent on the solution.

there are four main categories in the sap license portfolio: sap Business suite (including industry portfolios, enterprise extensions, and enterprise foundation), sap Businessobjects solutions, sybase, and sap netweaver. For each category, sap offers a set of package licenses that permit the use of the respective software. note that the three main categories correspond to the main sections of the sap price list – they do not necessarily correspond to the technical solution view. For example, a package license for sap Business suite may include use rights for application components that, from a technical solution perspective, are branded as sap netweaver.

For more information on how sap licenses its products, please refer to www.sap.com/solutions/licensingmodel/index.epx.

the licensing model for on-demand solutions is based on a subscription fee payable to receive the service to get access to the corresponding on-demand solution.


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package licenses and named user licenses cannot be used independently of each other.

Figure 6: SAP Licensing Model for On-Premise Software


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1.3. SAP Services and Support

whether customers are implementing sap software on premise or accessing it over the cloud, the sap services organization delivers a wide range of targeted services designed to fit needs across the solution lifecycle. offering the world’s largest and best trained team for design, imple-mentation, and operation of sap software solutions, sap services can get customers up and running quickly. this is done in a way that minimizes the risk of costly troubleshooting that may occur with other third-party service vendors who may lack the technical and process expertise of sap services.

the services offered by sap services focus on specific areas of concern. these include increasing software business value, reducing the effort required to operate systems, enhancing the value of maintenance, and simplifying software consumption.

SAP Services helps customers realize the greatest value from their SAP software investment in a way that reduces total cost of ownership and helps businesses run better.

sap services delivers the flexibility required by customers – either by fully managing the project or working with another service provider in-house team. whatever the case, the aim is always the same: to deliver the right amount of service at the right time to help ensure business success.

sap services delivers services to reduce costs and get customers up and running quickly. sap predefined services allow customers to engage with sap services through predefined, reusable service packages. this helps minimize the risk and stress of service engagements.

sap services actively supports, enables, and collaborates with an enormous ecosystem of partners to deliver the widest possible range of expertise to organizations. whether working exclusively with sap services, partnering with other vendors, or a combination of both, sap is committed to delivering a world-class experience for its clients.

sap services is made up of the following four organizations:• the SAP Consulting organization comprises a global

team of consultants with extensive industry and business process expertise. working with this team, customers achieve success in specific areas, including business and it transformation, project management, quality assurance, and performance and insight optimization. some key benefits delivered by sap consulting include:– Predefined services that are standardized on industry

best practices and proven business processes. they deliver a clearly defined cost and scope and fast time to value.

– a rich network of global partners that deliver the widest possible range of expertise to organizations. the sap consulting organization trains and provides partner certification, provides methodologies that streamline implementations, and offers interactive communities and platforms for managing customer operations.

– Engagement flexibility to deliver the right amount of service at the right time to help ensure business success. if a customer wants to delegate execution entirely, sap can take the lead, managing the project from end to end. if already working with another service provider or performing the work in-house, the services team can provide expert guidance and oversight.

• the SAP Active Global Support (SAP AGS) organization helps customers manage the application lifecycle and optimize solution performance so that customers can manage complexity, mitigate risks, and control costs with thousands of support engineers and developers on a global scale. its services are available through 7 strategically located global support centers and more than 30 local support centers.


• the SAP Education organization provides high-quality on-site or online courses mixed with products and other training services. this team of experts helps customers ensure adoption among business users, spread knowledge throughout organizations, and realize maximum value from software investments. offerings include courses and certi-fications to help implement, run, and maintain sap software, as well as consulting services to define organizational learning requirements.

• the SAP Custom Development organization offers a comprehensive range of flexible development and support services by leveraging an extensive network of experts across development centers worldwide. these specialists extend, enhance, and optimize existing solutions or build innovative new applications according to customer needs.

1.3.1. sap enterprise support and sap standard support

to successfully develop, implement, and operate it, organizations often focus on developing and outlining processes for managing complexity, mitigating risks, and controlling costs.

to address these business challenges in 2011 and beyond, sap offers a comprehensive and tiered portfolio of support offerings. customers can select their support level based on their individual business needs and considerations, including landscape complexity and desired depth of sap support. sap provides a complete portfolio of support offerings: the industry-leading sap enterprise support agreement and the basic sap standard support agreement. in addition, supplemental support offerings are available, such as sap safeguarding services and sap maxattention™ services, which are tailored to individual requirements.

For more information on these offerings, please refer to the sap corporate web site at www.sap.com/support.

SAP Enterprise Supportcompeting in today’s global marketplace increasingly requires organizations to operate it landscapes that are shaped by global business networks and innovative business processes. Because of this, organizations need the proactive expert support that can help them manage the complexity of integrating solutions across an it ecosystem and optimizing each application’s lifecycle.

the sap services organization can provide the expert support and knowledge transfer that can help customers optimize their sap and non-sap solutions, minimize risks, accelerate innovation, manage the lifecycles of their applications – and gain these advantages:• Continuous improvement and innovation – offers access

to the latest sap software, enhancement packages, support and legal change packages, tools, services and self-services, and procedures for implementing and upgrading sap software, as well as providing customers with up to five days of access to sap solution architects who:– assist customers in evaluating the innovation capabilities

of the latest sap enhancement package – Give customers guidance in the form of knowledge

transfer sessions for defined sap software applications or global support backbone components

• Mission-critical support – provides a service-level agreement outlining our initial reaction times and corrective action commitment along with 24x7 access to the sap support advisory center, 24x7 root cause analysis for both sap software and custom code, and continuous quality checks to identify technical risks and optimization potential

• Global support backbone – helps organizations collaborate across an entire sap ecosystem, providing remote support diagnostics – powered by sap solution manager – that connects customers with sap experts located around the world

• Tools, methodologies, content, and community participation – offers the proven methodologies, support for best practices, and standards that help organizations efficiently implement their sap software and manage their end-to-end solution operations


in working with us, enterprises can gain support across an application’s entire lifecycle, from implementation and testing, to maintenance and operations, to monitoring, optimizing, and upgrading. in addition, customers can acquire the state-of-the-art tools, techniques, content, and support for best practices that help protect and support the customer’s it landscape. with such cutting-edge knowledge, enterprises can be positioned to achieve these business goals:• Maintain business continuity – increase the availability of

business processes and reduce unplanned downtime.• Protect investments and accelerate innovation – enable

innovation without upgrading current systems.• Optimize business processes – manage business

processes more effectively.• Reduce total cost of operations – lower costs by

standardizing, integrating, and managing business and it processes.

in addition, sap enterprise support services include extended maintenance for customers still on sap r/3 4.6c software, sap r/3 enterprise, and 2004 releases. sap is convinced that the value of sap enterprise support will help customers receive the most out of their it investment, enabling their it staff to provide transparency and additional focus on business process improvement.

SAP Standard Supportsap standard support services deliver support to enable continuous and effective business operations. this level of support provides customers with the services and tools that enable them to keep their systems up and running efficiently.

sap standard support delivers the following to organizations:• Sustained system integrity – provides a range of tools and

services designed to maintain the technical robustness of applications, including remote services, such as the sap earlywatch® alert and sap Goinglive™ check services, and the sap os/dB migration check service, to technically assess the customer’s systems

• Response to technical disruptions – provides support for mission-critical business processes, including 24x7 access to the sap notes service for break-fix resolution

• Keeping solutions up to date – includes the delivery of new releases and enhancement packages of the licensed software as well as support packages and technology updates, to keep applications tuned to the latest functional and technological developments

• Tools to better manage SAP solutions – provides sap solution manager, enterprise edition, with limited usage rights to assist organizations in managing the operational tasks involved in maintaining an sap solution

From implementation through operations, sap standard support helps customers run their sap solutions efficiently – and enables the technical execution of their business objectives. with sap standard support, customers gain the following business benefits:• reliable response to technical disruptions• sustained system integrity

SAP Safeguardingsap safeguarding services offer a combination of three expert service components that aim to reduce the technical risk and cost in implementation and upgrade projects and during the customer’s operation phase. the services are delivered either remotely or on-site by technical sap experts. the sap safeguarding engagement is always managed by an sap technical quality manager who is on-site at the customer facilities in order to make sure that the appropriate services are delivered as needed, to ensure that know-how transfer takes place, and also to act as back-office liaison.

sap safeguarding delivers high-quality support with the following scope:• the sap safeguarding for integration Validation portfolio

of services improves the integration testing procedure by using the advanced root cause analysis functionality provided by sap solution manager. this helps to identify issues and their root causes much earlier, therefore minimizing the time needed to complete tests.

• the sap safeguarding for upgrades portfolio of services is a complete service offering that can be tailored to the customer’s specific project needs. the goal is to identify the potential challenges in an upgrade project to help the customer efficiently plan project work.


• Technical upgrade planning service for SAP ERP using a standardized and proven approach, this service

analyzes the specific upgrade situation and calculates the adjustment, test, basis, and project management efforts for the technical upgrade project.

• Technical upgrade service for SAP ERP this service provides expert assistance during the technical

upgrade. experienced upgrade experts support customers in all phases of an upgrade project and help ensure a smooth transition to the latest version of sap erp.

• Technical upgrade planning service for SAP Business Suite

this tool-based service is designed to support customers during the planning phase of an upgrade. it analyzes the specific upgrade situation and calculates the adjustment, test, basis, and project management efforts for the technical upgrade project of a heterogeneous system landscape starting from previous releases of sap Business suite applications.

For the complete portfolio of upgrade offerings, please refer to sap service marketplace at www.service.sap.com/upgrade.6

the upgrade competency centers in each region can assist in a quick start on an sap Business suite upgrade and on any sap Business suite and sap enhancement package topic.they can:• assist with developing upgrade plans – from planning to

building to going live • act as single point of contact to identify resources

(sap and partners) and help streamline the sales cycle• provide upgrade best practices and strategies as

well as access to key upgrade assets, collateral, and webinars

customers can contact the upgrade competency center that is closest to them: • asia pacific japan: [email protected]• europe, middle east, and africa: [email protected]• latin america: [email protected]• north america: [email protected]

• the sap safeguarding for operations portfolio of services offers a series of services to keep sap solutions running optimally in support of the customer’s mission-critical operations. Based on the run sap methodology, the services contribute to an improved return on investment and reduced cost of operations.

SAP MaxAttentionwith sap maxattention, sap offers a set of expert services covering all stages of the customer’s sap solution lifecycle – from planning and implementation to operations and optimi-zation. the wide range of services includes support for safeguarding complex solutions, implementing continuous improvement practices for productive solution operations, and planning new releases and upgrades. when customers choose sap maxattention, they are securing the highest level of commitment sap makes to its customers.

1.3.2. upgrade offerings from sapsap helps customers align their it strategies with the sap release and maintenance strategy and identify the best transition option for their existing sap applications. sap offers tailored services, tools, and information resources to help customers understand the value proposition and requirements of an upgrade project and facilitate and safeguard project execution.

main offerings include:• Solution browser tool this tool can help customers discover new functionality

across different sap erp releases and sap enhancement packages for sap erp. customers can also use the tool to assess the value of upgrading by comparing functional enhancements between the customer’s existing sap r/3 release and sap erp 6.0.

• Upgrade dependency analyzer tool when planning an upgrade of one or more sap Business

suite application and its components, customers want to make sure that this has no effects on other applications or components in their sap software landscape. this is exactly the information they get from the upgrade dependency analyzer tool.



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proven compliance with sap product standards helps ensure that these are the best offerings for sap business and it environments today and are built into the sap technology road map to assure a solid return on investment. to further reduce it administration costs and help ensure peace of mind, maintenance and support is provided through a standardized sap approach to managing the systems environment across all phases of the technology life. this minimizes risks and more efficiently manages the application lifecycle – from implementation and testing, to maintenance and operations, to monitoring, optimizing, and upgrading. no finger pointing – just a single point of contact – sap. the it landscape is better protected, and it is better able to meet the service level objectives for the business. there is also a business administrative overhead benefit associated with reducing the costs associated with maintaining multiple vendor relationships.

examples of how sap customers are taking advantage of solution extensions today include: • improving productivity and process transparency with

sap extended enterprise content management application by open text, which integrates with sap Business suite software to manage unstructured content as processes and transactions supported by enterprise applications

• collapsing customer onboarding from months to days with the sap interactive Forms software by adobe

• implementing sap loadrunner application by hp to reveal system weaknesses and detect bottlenecks to improve system performance

to learn more about available solution extensions, visit www.sap.com/solutions/solutionextensions. or, to learn more about individual solution extensions and view online demos, visit http://ecohub.sdn.sap.com.

SAP EcoHub sap ecohub is a unique online marketplace that leverages sap’s community-based thinking to provide an environment in which customers can discover, evaluate, and buy industry-relevant, sap-certified partner solutions. to view demos, learn what other sap customers are saying, and drill deeper on individual solution extensions, visit sap ecohub at http://ecohub.sdn.sap.com.

1.4. SAP Ecosystem and Partners

the sap ecosystem is a trusted network that helps deliver exceptional results. through the sap ecosystem, companies engage with sap and sap partners, customers, and other individuals to enable solutions that best fit their specific needs. the combination of strong partnerships and sap’s extensive use of community-based thinking creates a pervasive trusted network that complements sap’s own internal capabilities. this approach provides customers the ability to quickly and effectively tap into the broad resources of a diverse set of providers and advisors to get exactly what they need.

1.4.1. complementary solutionsthe sap ecosystem and partners provide an important source of complementary solutions for sap customers seeking specific expertise or products that address a particular requirement. these solutions are sourced from a broad array of partners – including services, software, technology, original equipment manufacturers (oems), and more. From an sap product release perspective, two types of partner solutions are further highlighted below: endorsed business solutions and solution extensions from sap. many of these solutions can be found on the sap ecohub solution market-place, which is also highlighted below.

Endorsed business solutions, available from select sap partners, are complementary to sap software offerings. they are developed in accordance with sap development guidelines and go through solution qualification to provide additional choices and flexibility for businesses running sap software.

Solution extensions from SAP are select third-party offerings that are broadly applicable for sap deployments and are sap branded, sold, and supported. sap solution extensions, developed by independent software partners, integrate easily with sap software. these solutions offer competitive cross-solution and cross-industry functionality that complements sap business solutions. sap tests, validates, approves, and supports these solutions – to meet the sap standards of quality, commitment, and support.


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1.4.2. sap communitiessap communities provide a robust environment for customers to tap into the deep knowledge and expertise of others – including peer customers, sap, partners, and individuals – to address their specific needs. sap community network, the sap professional social network, provides orchestrated online connections between the community of sap customers, partners, employees, and experts. sap community network enables its members to share ideas and engage with real-world experts in an environment that facilitates collaboration. member benefits include:• Answers: Get answers quickly from a vast network with 2 million members, 4,000 community forum posts per

day on more than 350 topics, and 1.5 million topic threads, members get answers to their questions quickly and learn through dialogue with more than 6,000 bloggers.

• Knowledge: Learn from extensive technical and business content.

there are articles, software downloads, and e-learning modules on nearly every topic relevant to sap experts. more than 3 million people view pages, documents, and downloads from the community each week.

• Connections: Build a personal network of experts with whom to interact and problem solve, leading to more successful outcomes for SAP projects and participants.

not only does sap community network help organizations drive existing sap projects to successful outcomes, but also participation helps members grow professionally.

to join the conversation in sap community network, go to www.scn.sap.com.


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sap may deliver several add-on releases (a sequence of releases as depicted in Figure 9), which might build on a specific sap release (for example, the sap Businessobjects Global trade services application offers several releases for the same sap netweaver main release).

application enhancements can also be delivered as a series of enhancement packages for core applications.

a specific sap release may be supported by various content shipments from sap. the release cycle of a content shipment from sap typically follows the release cycle of the sap release it supports. some content shipments deliver a sequence of releases supporting a certain sap release.

2.1.2. shipment phasesshipments of sap releases (except content releases) and corresponding enhancement packages are generally introduced into the market in two shipment phases: restricted and unrestricted (see Figure 7).

2.1. SAP Release and Maintenance Strategy for On-Premise Software

the sap release and maintenance strategy7 determines the availability of new sap software releases (including releases or enhancement packages of sap Business suite, sap netweaver, and the sap Businessobjects portfolio as listed in section 5), the length and conditions of their maintenance, and the dependencies between individual releases.

regarding the sap Businessobjects portfolio, this docu-ment focuses on shipments from march 2008 onward and the corresponding release and maintenance strategy. if customers are interested in former Business objects software releases that were shipped prior to march 2008 and their release and maintenance strategy, they can refer to www.service.sap.com/maintenance.8

2.1.1. availabilitythe objective of the sap release strategy is to align the availability of sap releases.

usually, releases are shipped in a defined sequence:• sap applications: a new main release of sap netweaver

and new releases of the core applications are shipped first, and then releases of dependent applications follow. once a new sap netweaver main release is available, sap adapts the applications to it over time.

• sap Businessobjects Business intelligence platform9 enhancements may be delivered in major or minor releases. major releases contain major new functionality, and architectural platform changes are possible; minor releases include new and improved business functions that can be implemented and adopted quickly. the interfaces remain stable between major and minor releases. a major sap Businessobjects Business intelligence platform release and the minor releases that follow it are referred to as an sap Businessobjects Business intelligence platform release family10 (as shown in Figure 8). after the availability of a new major sap Businessobjects Business intelligence platform release, stand-alone or add-on applications that work with or are based on that release will be adapted to it over time.

2. SAP RELEASE AND mAINTENANCE STRATEGY

7. the strategy described in this section applies only to standard releases and does not apply to “pilot releases,” “standard-related custom development project releases,” or “custom development project releases.”

8. logon requires user name and password; new users can register at www.service.sap.com. 9. Formerly known as sap Businessobjects enterprise.10. Formerly known as sap Businessobjects enterprise release family.

Figure 7: Shipment Phases

num

ber

of c

usto

mer

s

Restricted shipment phase (including ramp-up)

Unrestricted shipment phase

time

default release date

release to customer

Beta shipment


http://www.service.sap.com/maintenance

in some cases, a beta shipment may be offered prior to the restricted shipment phase (before the release-to-customer date). Beta shipments may be used for testing purposes only. they are not available for productive use. the content and the planned release-to-customer date of software product versions made available under a beta shipment might be subject to change. therefore, customers should not place undue reliance on a beta shipment and the features or functionalities presented therein and should not rely upon them in making purchasing decisions.

initially, a new release becomes available in a restricted shipment phase. this begins with the release-to-customer date. during this time, the sap ramp-up program supports productive use of the software with a limited number of customers while performing knowledge transfer to consultants and partners globally and gathering feedback from customers, especially on new features. Beginning with the release-to-customer date:• customers can use the new release in their production

operation.• sap usually provides corrections for this new release.• sap communicates the planned maintenance duration for

this release.

the restricted shipment phase is guided by the sap ramp-up program, serving as the standard process for launching new releases into the market with involvement of field, support, and development personnel. participating in sap ramp-up provides customers a safe way to implement new sap software as soon as it becomes available. For further information, please refer to sap service marketplace at www.service.sap.com/rampup.11

with the successful conclusion of the sap ramp-up program, the unrestricted shipment phase of an sap release begins on the default release date (see Figure 7). during the unrestricted shipment phase, the release is available to all customers.

the most recent release in the unrestricted shipment phase is declared the default release. when ordering an sap application, customers receive the default release unless a different release in mainstream maintenance is explicitly specified.

during the maintenance period, support releases may be offered that contain all previously available support packages in order to facilitate and expedite implementation and upgrade projects.



http://www.service.sap.com/rampup

2.1.3. the sap maintenance strategy rules

Type of Application SAP Maintenance Strategy Rules

core applications (sap® erp, sap plm,12 sap crm, sap scm, and sap srm)

maintenance phases for core application releases have the following durations:13

• seven years of mainstream maintenance• two years of extended maintenance at an additional 2% fee• customer-specific maintenance thereafter

sap netweaver® technology platform maintenance dates for sap netweaver releases are aligned with the maintenance dates for the core application releases..

enhancement packages maintenance dates for enhancement packages follow the underlying release.

sap Businessobjects™ Business intelligence platform release family

the following maintenance durations apply for every release family of the sap Businessobjects Business intelligence platform:• seven years of mainstream maintenance• two years of priority-one support

mainstream maintenance begins with the release-to-customer date for the major release and covers any subsequent minor releases in the release family that might be shipped (see Figure 8).

each release in a release family has a mainstream maintenance period of at least two years after the start of restricted shipment for that release.

as soon as a new release enters unrestricted shipment, the previous release is maintained for at least one more year.

at the end of the seven years of mainstream maintenance, priority-one support begins for the last shipped release within a release family. the last release closes the nine-year maintenance cycle for this release family.

major sap Businessobjects Bi platform release

minor sap Businessobjects Bi platform release

minor sap Businessobjects Bi platform release x.2

sap® Businessobjects™ Business intelligence (Bi) platform release family

end of mainstream maintenance of last release of a family

start of restricted shipment (release-to-customer date) of the first release of a family

end of priority-one support of last release of a family

≥2 years

≥2 years

≥2 years

mainstream maintenancepriority-one support

≥1 year

≥1 year

2 years7 years

9 years

2 years

time

Figure 8: Nine-year Maintenance Cycle for an SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform Release Family

12. sap plm is part of and shipped with sap erp or corresponding enhancement packages and follows the maintenance durations of the relevant sap erp software releases and enhancement packages.

13. For core application releases shipped between 2004 and november 2008, the maintenance phases have the following durations: Five years of mainstream maintenance, one year of extended maintenance at an additional 2% fee, two years of extended maintenance at an additional 4% fee. thereafter, the release enters customer-specific maintenance. For details, see table in appendix.



add-on and stand-alone sap Businessobjects applications that are based on or working with an sap Businessobjects Bi platform release

maintenance dates for these applications are aligned with the latest sap Businessobjects Bi platform release in the family. they might also offer a release sequence.

add-on applications (based on, for example, core applications or sap netweaver)

maintenance dates for add-on applications (for example, the sap dealer Business management application), are aligned with the maintenance dates for the release they are based on.

For some sap applications, several subsequent releases are provided for the same underlying release. in this case, the maintenance period of the release sequence covers the entire maintenance period of the underlying release (see example in Figure 9), specifically:• maintenance dates for the last release of the sequence are aligned with the

maintenance dates for the underlying release.• all other releases within the sequence may have shorter mainstream maintenance

(at least 2 years) and do not offer extended maintenance or priority-one support.

sample release sequence of a specific add-on application based on sap netweaver®

sap netweaver main release

mainstream maintenanceextended maintenancecustomer-specific maintenance

1.1

1.2

1.3

aligned ends of mainstream maintenance

aligned ends of extended maintenance

time

≥ 2 years

≥ 1 year

Figure 9: Sample Release Sequence with Maintenance Durations for an Add-On Release



other stand-alone sap Businessobjects applications

a stand-alone application release that is completely independent of the sap Businessobjects Business intelligence platform (for example, sap Businessobjects text analysis software) has:• at least two years of mainstream maintenance• priority-one support after the end of mainstream maintenance is not offered

other stand-alone sap applications maintenance dates for other stand-alone sap releases (for example, the sap point-of-sale application) are aligned with the maintenance dates for the core application releases. they might also offer a release sequence.

content shipments a specific sap release may be supported by one or more content shipments from sap. maintenance dates for those content shipments are aligned with the maintenance dates of the supported sap release.

a content shipment may deliver a sequence of releases supporting a specific sap release. when it does, the maintenance period for the release sequence covers the entire maintenance period of the release the content shipment supports and the following rules apply:• maintenance end dates for the last release in the sequence are aligned with the

maintenance end dates of the supported sap release.• all other releases within the sequence may have shorter maintenance periods,

and there is no extended maintenance or priority-one support.• all releases within a sequence have maintenance durations of at least one year.


Mainstream Maintenancemainstream maintenance begins with the restricted shipment phase and continues throughout the unrestricted shipment phase. sap usually provides corrections for the entire mainstream maintenance period, such as:• SAP Notes: instructions on how to remove known

errors from sap software; includes a description of the symptoms and the cause of the error, as well as the sap release in which the error occurs and support package level in which the error is corrected.

• Support packages:15 Bundle of software corrections available as a support package for all sap development environments (for example, aBap™ and java programming languages). support packages may include legal changes.

• Support package stacks: sets of support packages and patches for the respective product version that must be used in the given combination. support package stacks should be seen as an entity in themselves – customers must heed the minimum requirements and dependencies between individual components and apply the support packages and patches specified in the support package stack together.

For releases for which sap provides enhancement packages, technology updates will be provided for the latest three enhancement packages and support packages will be provided at least for the last enhancement package that is in the unrestricted shipment phase.

sap strongly recommends regular application of support package stacks at least once a year.

2.1.4. maintenance strategy exceptionsin exceptional cases, specific releases can be exempted from the sap maintenance strategy. For exceptions to the mainte-nance strategy, mainstream maintenance is defined individually and there is no extended maintenance or priority-one support. the exceptions list is posted on sap service marketplace at www.service.sap.com/maintenance14 under maintenancestrategy exceptions to maintenance strategy rules and may be amended from time to time without notice.

please note that these exceptions never apply to core application releases and their enhancement packages or to the main releases of sap netweaver and releases of sap netweaver composition environment.

sap cannot support third-party software after the suppliers’ support has expired. in such cases, customers may have to upgrade to more recent releases of the respective third-party software, provided those releases are supported by the release of sap software in question.

2.1.5. maintenance phasesthere are four distinct maintenance phases: mainstream maintenance, extended maintenance, customer-specific maintenance, and priority-one support:• sap Businessobjects releases not based on sap

netweaver can have mainstream maintenance and priority-one support.

• all other sap releases can have mainstream, extended, and customer-specific maintenance.

14. logon requires user name and password; new users can register at www.service.sap.com.15. including service packs for sap Businessobjects releases.



Priority-One Supportafter the end of mainstream maintenance for sap Businessobjects releases not based on sap netweaver, sap offers priority-one support for selected releases (see Figure 10). during priority-one support, the scope of support is limited to handling of priority-one messages only – for example, there will be no message handling for messages with medium priority. priority-one support is an optional offering giving sap customers more flexibility in deciding on the right time for an upgrade. priority-one support does not require an additional payment or a specific maintenance addendum. depending on the type of the customer’s support contract, the switch to priority-one support will occur during the renewal period or the customer will receive priority-one support by default if continuing to run a release during its priority-one support period.

Extended Maintenancethe scope of support for the entire extended maintenance period is similar to the scope of support provided during mainstream maintenance. sap publishes information on the availability and scope of extended maintenance in advance. extended maintenance can be ordered by completing an easy-to-use form in the maintenance section of sap service marketplace at www.service.sap.com/maintenance.18

if enhancement packages are offered for an application, sap recommends that customers apply the most recent support package stacks regularly, including the latest enhancement package in the unrestricted shipment phase. the advantage is that the customer gets the most recent corrections and legal changes within one project and is furthermore enabled to activate new functionality flexibly.

sap security notes contain expert advise from sap regarding important action items and patches to help ensure the security of sap customers’ systems. security patches are made available each month on “sap security patch day.” For details and the sap security patch day schedule, see www.service.sap.com/securitynotes16 sap security patch day.

additional information, a list of supported releases, and the current support package stacks are available in the support package stacks section of sap service marketplace at www.service.sap.com/sp-stacks.17

16. logon requires user name and password; new users can register at www.service.sap.com.17. logon requires user name and password; new users can register at www.service.sap.com.18. logon requires user name and password; new users can register at www.service.sap.com.

Figure 10: Example: Maintenance Phases for an SAP® BusinessObjects™ Business Intelligence Platform Release Familyrestricted

shipmentunrestricted shipment

7 years 2 years

Mainstream maintenance Priority-one support

time



http://www.service.sap.com/securitynotes

http://www.service.sap.com/sp-stacks

Customer-Specific Maintenancesoftware deployed at the customer’s site can enter into the customer-specific maintenance phase in one of three ways (see Figure 11):• the customer’s extended maintenance contract term ends.• the mainstream maintenance period ends, and extended

maintenance is not offered.• the mainstream maintenance period ends, and extended

maintenance is offered, but the customer does not choose to take advantage of the offer.

a release enters into customer-specific maintenance automatically. there is no need to apply for an additional contract. during this phase, customers receive support services similar to those offered in the mainstream maintenance phase, with some restrictions. For example, sap does not deliver new support packages or updates to cover legal changes, and technology updates are limited. problem resolution is customer specific, which means customers are charged for solving problems not yet known to sap.

For more information, please refer to the sap note 52505 or the maintenance section in sap service marketplace at www.service.sap.com/maintenance.19

Figure 11: Example: Maintenance Phases for Core Application Releases

restricted shipment

unrestricted shipment

7 years 2 years

Customer-specific maintenance

time

Mainstream maintenance

Extended maintenance (+2% fee)




• to take full advantage of new or enhanced functionality that extends support for the customer’s business scenarios and broadens their scope, customers may be required to upgrade more than one sap application within their application landscape. typically, customers need to upgrade only the sap applications that deliver the new or enhanced functionality.

in terms of compatibility, the following rules apply for content shipments from sap:• an upgrade of a back-end sap release usually requires an

upgrade of the corresponding content release.• after an upgrade of the underlying sap netweaver or

sap solution manager release, all functionality supporting the customer’s business scenarios that was available and supported by a specific content release will still be running – and previously activated objects or custom objects will continue to work as before.

2.1.8. product availability matrixthrough the product availability matrix in sap service marketplace, sap regularly publishes the following information about sap releases:• release type (standard release, pilot release, standard-

related custom development project release, or custom development project release)

• availability• maintenance durations• upgrade paths• platform availability, including database platforms and

operating systems

For further information, please refer to the product availability matrix at sap service marketplace at www.service.sap.com/pam.20

2.1.6. upgradesap provides upgrade paths for sap releases and the corresponding content releases and provides access to upgrade procedures to the current release. usually customers can upgrade directly from one release to any other subsequent sap release as long as the releases are in the mainstream maintenance phase. depending on technological constraints, an upgrade to a release that is several releases removed from a customer’s current release may have to be performed in more than one step.

to facilitate smooth upgrades, sap provides a sufficient overlap of two successive releases to make sure that the time in which customers may upgrade from one release to the next is at least one year for sap releases. For content releases, the overlap is at least six months. this helps ensure that the window customers have to upgrade from one release to the next is sufficient.

2.1.7. integrationthe sap release strategy supports integration between sap releases. integration is the prerequisite for stable cross-application functionality and offers maximum flexibility for continuous improvement.

the first release of an sap application can be integrated with a defined set of releases of other sap applications. a follow-up release usually supports at least the same set as its predecessor, as long as the application releases within this set are in mainstream maintenance, extended maintenance, or priority-one support.• Functionality supporting the customer’s current business

scenarios will be available after an upgrade of an sap application. details and exceptions are indicated within the master guides available from sap service marketplace, the migration guide, or the release notes.



http://www.service.sap.com/pam

2.2. SAP Release and Maintenance Strategy for On-Demand Software

the sap strategy for making on-demand solutions available to customers – including maintenance, functional extensions, and integration of the software – is detailed in the following sections.

2.2.1. availabilityon-demand solutions from sap are offered as software as a service to customers. the customer subscribes to the services and accesses the solutions via the internet. For available on-demand solutions and on-demand solutions planned for 2011, see section 3, “sap release planning in detail.”

2.2.2. Functional enhancements and maintenanceon-demand solutions from sap are updated continuously for all productive customers as part of their subscription to the on-demand service. updates may contain new business functionality as well as error corrections.

2.2.3. integrationthe sap release strategy supports integration between on-premise applications and on-demand solutions from sap.

an on-demand solution may be integrated with a defined set of on-premise sap application releases. after an update of the on-demand solution, the updated on-demand solution usually supports at least the same set as before as long as the on-premise application releases within this set are in mainstream maintenance, extended maintenance, or priority-one support.

to take full advantage of new or enhanced functionality of the on-demand solution that extends the customer’s business scenarios, customers may be required to update integration-specific on-premise components that enable the integration of on-demand solutions to other on-premise sap applications and may be required to upgrade the corresponding on-premise sap application that the on-demand solution integrates with.


the following section provides the current release planning and the corresponding release-to-customer and maintenance dates of major releases for large enterprises.

For detailed information regarding components of which an sap release consist, refer to the master guides available at sap service marketplace at www.service.sap.com/instguides.21

releases with a release-to-customer date in 2011 are currently in planning, and the dates are subject to change.

this section reflects the release data status from February 2011. For up-to-date release data information, please visit the product availability matrix at sap service marketplace.

with regard to solution extensions, this section lists only the most current available versions of select solution extensions. For a complete overview, please visit the product availability matrix at sap service marketplace.

the following abbreviations are used in the tables in this section:• in the “Based on” field, “n/a” stands for “application

is not based on an sap release.”• in the “end of extended maintenance” field, “n/a”

stands for “extended maintenance is not offered.”• in the “priority-one support” field, “n/a” stands for

“priority-one support is not offered.”• in the “date” field, “tbd” stands for “release-to-customer

or maintenance date is not yet determined.”

3. SAP RELEASE PLANNING IN DETAIL



http://www.service.sap.com/instguides

http://www.service.sap.com/pam

3.1. On Premise: Business Process Management

3.1.1. sap Business suite3.1.1.1. SAP ERP

Core Application Release

Release Based On Availability (Release to Customer)

End of Mainstream Maintenance

End of Extended MaintenanceName Version

sap® erp 6.0 sap netweaver® 7.0 october 2005 december 2015 december 2017

Corresponding Enhancement Packages

Enhancement Package Based On Availability (Release to Customer)


End of Extended Maintenance

sap enhancement package 1 for sap erp 6.0

sap erp 6.0 december 2006 december 2015 december 2017


sap erp 6.0 july 2007 december 2015 december 2017




sap erp 6.0 november 2008 december 2015 december 2017




sap erp 6.0 estimated for Q4 2011

december 2015 december 2017

Enterprise Services




sap erp enterprise services bundle

2004 mysap™ erp 2004 april 2006 march 2010 march 2013

2005 sap erp 6.0 june 2006 december 2015 december 2017


Supplementary Applications




sap Billing consolidation 1.5 n/a december 2004 march 2010 march 2013

2.0 n/a june 2008 december 2015 december 2017

collaboration projects (cprojects)

collaboration Folders (cFolders)

4.5

4.5

sap netweaver 7.0 december 2007 december 2015 december 2017

sap reach compliance 1.1 sap netweaver 7.0 may 2008 march 2013 n/a

2.0 sap netweaver composition environment 7.1

december 2009 december 2015 december 2017

sap environmental compliance 3.0 sap netweaver composition environment 7.1

march 2009 december 2015 december 2017

component extension for sap environment, health, and safety management

1.0 sap enhancement package 5 for sap erp 6.0


sap enterprise learning 7.0 sap erp 6.0 march 2010 december 2015 december 2017


may 2010 december 2015 december 2017

sap application interface Framework22

1.0 sap netweaver 7.0 november 2010 december 2015 december 2017

manager self-services add-on 1.0 sap enhancement package 5 for sap erp 6.0

estimated for Q2 2011


sap asset retirement obligation management23




sap lessee contract management and accounting24




22. application focuses on highly specialized business needs of customers in very specifically targeted markets. For details on availability of product versions, see www.service.sap.com/fbs/availability.




3.1.1.2. SAP Product Lifecycle Management

Core Application Releases




sap® product lifecycle management (sap plm)

6.025 sap netweaver® 7.0 october 2005 december 2015 december 2017

7.026 sap erp 6.0 november 2008 december 2015 december 2017

7.0127 sap erp 6.0 december 2010 december 2015 december 2017

7.0228 sap erp 6.0 estimated for Q4 2011


25. this version is part of and shipped with sap erp 6.0.26. this version is part of and shipped with sap enhancement package 4 for sap erp 6.0.27. this version is part of and shipped with sap enhancement package 5 for sap erp 6.0.28. this version is part of and shipped with sap enhancement package 6 for sap erp 6.0.

Solution Extensions




sap information interchange by crossgate

3.6.1 n/a december 2009 december 2012 n/a

sap talent Visualization by nakisa 3.0 n/a september 2010 september 2013 n/a

sap organizational Visualization by nakisa

3.0 n/a september 2010 september 2013 n/a

sap invoice management by open text


sap invoice capture center by open text

5.2 n/a november 2009 november 2015 n/a

sap incentive administration by Vistex sap paybacks and chargebacks by Vistex

6.0 c sap erp 6.0 august 2010 december 2015 december 2017


3.1.1.3. SAP Customer Relationship Management

29. the sap resource and portfolio management and collaboration projects (cprojects) applications are encompassed by sap portfolio and project management.





sap® customer relationship management (sap crm)

2005 sap netweaver® 7.0 october 2005 march 2011 march 2014

2007 sap netweaver 7.0 december 2007 march 2013 march 2016

7.0 sap enhancement package 1 for sap netweaver 7.0

november 2008 december 2015 december 2017

Corresponding Enhancement Package




sap enhancement package 1 for sap crm 7.0

sap crm 7.0 december 2010 december 2015 december 2017

sap enhancement package 2 for sap crm 7.0

sap crm 7.0 estimated for Q4 2011






sap product definition 2.0 sap netweaver 7.0 november 2005 december 2012 n/a

sap resource and portfolio management

4.5 sap netweaver 7.0 december 2007 december 2015 december 2017

sap portfolio and project management29


april 2010 december 2015 december 2017

sap easy document management

7.1 n/a september 2010 december 2015 december 2017

sap enterprise project connection

1.0 sap enhancement package 1 for sap netweaver composition environment 7.1

may 2010 august 2012 n/a


3.1.1.4. SAP Supplier Relationship Management





sap® supplier relationship management (sap srm)

2005 sap netweaver® 7.0 october 2005 march 2012 march 2015

2007 sap netweaver 7.0 december 2007 march 2013 march 2016







sap Business communications management

6.0 n/a june 2008 december 2012 n/a

7.0 n/a estimated for Q2 2011

october 2013 n/a

sap real-time offer management30

7.1 n/a july 2010 december 2015 december 2017

sap web channel experience management

1.0 sap netweaver 7.3 estimated for Q3 2011


Solution Extensions




sap price and margin management by Vendavo



sap workforce scheduling and optimization by clicksoftware

2.1.2 n/a december 2010 march 2015 n/a







sap enhancement package 1 for sap supplier relationship management 7.0

sap srm 7.0 december 2010 december 2015 december 2017

sap enhancement package 2 for sap supplier relationship management 7.0

sap srm 7.0 estimated for Q4 2011


Enterprise Services




sap supplier relationship management enterprise services bundle

5.0 sap supplier relationship management 2005

june 2006 march 2012 march 2015





sap sourcing31 5.0 n/a september 2007 june 2011 n/a



February 2011 december 2015 december 2017

sap contract lifecycle management

1.0 n/a september 2007 june 2011 n/a



February 2011 december 2015 december 2017

supplier relationship management procurement for public sector

6.032 sap srm 2007 may 2008 march 2013 n/a

31. Formerly known as sap e-sourcing.32. the successor version is part of sap supplier relationship management 7.0.


3.1.1.5. SAP Supply Chain Management





sap® supply chain management (sap scm)

2005 sap netweaver® 7.0 december 2005 march 2011 march 2014

2007 sap netweaver 7.0 august 2007 march 2013 march 2016







sap enhancement package 1 for sap scm 7.0

sap supply chain management 7.0


sap enhancement package 2 for sap supply chain management 7.0




Enterprise Services




sap supply chain management enterprise services bundle

5.0 sap supply chain management 2005

june 2006 march 2011 march 2014






sap supply chain management 2005 add-on transportation management


september 2006 march 2011 march 2014

sap transportation management 7.0 sap enhancement package 1 for sap netweaver 7.0




sap supply network collaboration

2007 sap netweaver 7.0 july 2007 december 2015 december 2017



sap enhancement package 1 for sap supply network collaboration 7.0

sap enhancement package 2 for sap netweaver 7.0


sap enhancement package 2 for sap supply network collaboration 7.0




sap event management 5.1 sap netweaver 7.0 march 2008 december 2015 december 2017



sap enhancement package 1 for sap event management 7.0



sap extended warehouse management

5.1 sap erp 6.0 july 2007 december 2015 december 2017



sap enhancement package 1 for sap extended warehouse management 7.0



sap enhancement package 2 for sap extended warehouse management 7.0





SAP Solutions for Auto-ID and Item Serialization




sap auto-id infrastructure 2007 sap netweaver 7.0 may 2007 december 2015 december 2017





sap auto-id enterprise 2007 sap netweaver 7.0 may 2007 december 2015 december 2017





Solution Extensions




sap enterprise inventory optimization by smartops

6.3 n/a july 2009 july 2012 n/a

sap supply chain response management by icon-scm

10.1 n/a september 2010 december 2015 n/a


3.1.1.6. Industry Applications

Energy and Natural Resources




SAP for Utilities solutions

sap utility customer e-services 6.0 sap netweaver 7.0 october 2005 december 2015 december 2017

sap intercompany data exchange for German metering33



sap pricing and costing for utilities34

1.0 sap customer relationship management 7.0

july 2010 december 2015 december 2017

sap asset lifecycle accounting35 1.0 sap enhancement package 4 for sap erp 6.0



sap Business process tracking for utilities36



sap waste and recycling by proloGa


october 2009 december 2015 december 2017

SAP for Oil & Gas solutions

sap oil & Gas secondary distribution

2005 sap erp 6.0 june 2006 december 2015 december 2017








Manufacturing: Discrete Industries




SAP for Automotive Solutions

sap® dealer Business management

5.0 sap erp central component discrete industries and mill products 5.0

july 2005 march 2010 march 2013






Consumer Products and Life Sciences




SAP for Consumer Products Solutions

sap apparel and Footwear 6.0 sap erp 6.0 december 2006 december 2015 december 2017


june 2008 december 2015 december 2017






sap netweaver® master data management global data synchronization option

2.0 sap netweaver 7.0 march 2009 december 2015 december 2017


may 2010 december 2015 december 2017

sap trade promotion optimization37

1.0 sap enhancement package 1 for sap crm 7.0



sap trade promotion planning, version for in-memory computing





Services




SAP for Professional Services solutions

sap multiresource scheduling38






SAP for Engineering, Construction & Operations

sap common area maintenance expense recovery39




SAP for Media solutions

sap classified advertising management

2.0 sap netweaver 7.0 august 2006 december 2015 n/a


4.0 sap netweaver 7.0 september 2010 december 2015 december 2017

SAP for Telecommunications solutions

sap convergent charging 1.0 n/a june 2009 december 2013 n/a

2.0 n/a september 2010 december 2015 december 2017






Financial Services




SAP for Banking solutions

sap Bank analyzer 4.2 sap netweaver 2004 october 2005 march 2010 march 2013

5.0 sap netweaver 7.0 april 2006 december 2015 december 2017

sap capital Yield tax management

4.0 sap deposits management 4.0


5.0 Banking services from sap 5.0

april 2007 december 2015 n/a





sap capital Yield tax management for Banking


sap deposits management 4.0 sap netweaver 7.0 october 2005 december 2015 december 2017

Banking services from sapsap deposits management sap loans managementsap collateral management

5.05.05.05.0

sap netweaver application server 7.1, version for aBap™

april 2007 december 2015 n/a

Banking services from sapsap deposits managementsap loans managementsap collateral managementsap Bank analyzer

6.06.06.06.06.0

sap netweaver application server 7.1, version for aBap



7.07.07.07.07.0

sap enhancement package 1 for sap netweaver application server 7.1, version for aBap

september 2009 december 2015 december 2017


8.08.08.08.08.0

sap enhancement package 1 for sap netweaver application server 7.1, version for aBap



analytical banking extension for banking services from sap 6.0




Financial Services (continued)




SAP for Banking solutions

sap Funding management40 1.0 sap erp 6.0 december 2005 december 2015 december 2017

2.0 sap netweaver 7.0 june 2009 december 2015 december 2017

sap price optimization for Banking



sap payment engine41 7.0 sap netweaver application server 7.1, version for aBap


sap connector to eBagent42 1.0 sap enhancement package 4 for sap erp 6.0


regulatory reporting by iBs 3.0 banking services from sap 7.0


SAP for Insurance solutions

sap policy management 5.0 sap enhancement package 1 for sap netweaver 7.0

december 2009 december 2011 n/a



sap policy management add-on for auto insurance

1.1 sap policy management 5.1


sap reinsurance management 6.0 sap erp 6.0 march 2006 december 2015 december 2017








40. Formerly known as the sap syndications management application.41. application focuses on highly specialized business needs of customers in very specifically targeted markets.

For details on availability of product versions, see www.service.sap.com/fbs/availability.42. application focuses on highly specialized business needs of customers in very specifically targeted markets.

For details on availability of product versions, see www.service.sap.com/fbs/availability.


Public Services




SAP for Defense & Security solutions

sap military data exchange 3.0 sap enhancement package 3 for sap erp 6.0


sap defense milstrip purchasing43

1.0 sap erp 6.0 june 2008 december 2015 december 2017




SAP for Public Sector solutions

sap document Builder 2.0 sap netweaver 7.0 February 2006 march 2013 n/a

3.044 sap netweaver 7.0 may 2008 december 2015 december 2017

extended functions for u.s. federal agencies


taxpayer online services 2.0 sap enhancement package 1 for sap netweaver composition environment 7.1


sap public Budget Formulation45 7.1 sap enhancement package 1 for sap netweaver 7.0



44. successor version will be shipped as part of the core applications of sap Business suite 7 innovations 2010.45. application focuses on highly specialized business needs of customers in very specifically targeted markets.

For details on availability of product versions, see www.service.sap.com/fbs/availability.


Retail and Wholesale




Name Version

SAP for Retail Solutions

sap customer analytics for retail 5.0 n/a august 2005 march 2012 march 2013

6.0 n/a september 2006 march 2012 march 2015

demand management offerings 6.4 n/a december 2006 june 2013 n/a

sap Forecasting and replenishment


december 2005 march 2011 march 2014


november 2007 march 2013 march 2016





sap promotion management for retail


march 2009 december 2011 n/a



sap point-of-sale 1.0 n/a september 2006 march 2012 march 2015

2.0 n/a july 2007 march 2013 march 2016


2.2 n/a march 2009 december 2015 december 2017


Retail and Wholesale (continued)




Name Version

SAP for Retail solutions

sap point-of-sale Base 1.0 n/a september 2006 march 2012 march 2015

2.0 n/a october 2007 march 2013 march 2016


sap enterprise point-of-sale 3.1 n/a november 2008 december 2015 december 2017

sap enterprise point-of-sale Base

3.1 n/a november 2008 december 2015 december 2017

sap workforce management 3.0 sap netweaver 7.0 december 2006 december 2015 december 2017


sap Fraud watch 3.0 n/a july 2005 march 2012 march 2013

3.5 n/a september 2006 march 2012 march 2015


3.1.1.7. Supplementary Applications

Manufacturing Applications




sap® manufacturing integration and intelligence

12.0 sap netweaver® 7.0 march 2007 march 2013 n/a


december 2008 march 2013 n/a



sap manufacturing execution 5.1 sap netweaver 7.0 march 2008 july 2012 n/a


june 2009 december 2013 n/a




3.1.1.8. Duet Enterprise Software

Applications for Mobile Business




sap mobile asset management 3.0 sap netweaver 2004 january 2006 march 2010 march 2013

sap netweaver 7.0 january 2006 december 2015 december 2017

sap mobile asset management, version for utilities

3.0 sap netweaver 2004 February 2007 march 2010 march 2013

sap netweaver 7.0 February 2007 december 2015 december 2017

sap mobile sales, handheld version

5.0 sap netweaver 2004 september 2005 march 2010 march 2013

sap netweaver 7.0 september 2005 december 2015 december 2017

sap mobile time and travel 2.0 sap netweaver 2004 december 2005 march 2010 march 2013

sap netweaver 7.0 december 2005 december 2015 december 2017

sap netweaver mobile 7.1


sap mobile direct store delivery 2.1 sap netweaver 2004 october 2006 march 2010 march 2013

sap netweaver 7.0 october 2006 december 2015 december 2017


4.0 sap enhancement package 1 for sap netweaver mobile 7.1

august 2009 december 2015 december 2017

sap mobile defense & security 1.6 sap enhancement package 1 for sap netweaver mobile 7.1


Duet® Software




duet® enterprise 1.0 sap enhancement package 2 for sap netweaver 7.0

october 2010 october 2012 n/a


3.2. On Premise: Business Analytics

3.2.1. enterprise performance management (epm)

EPM Solutions



End of Priority-One SupportName Version

Enterprise Performance Management for Finance

sap® Businessobjects™ Financial consolidation

7.0 n/a july 2008 june 2012 n/a

7.5 n/a march 2009 december 2015 december 2017

10.0 n/a december 2010 december 2012 n/a

sap Businessobjects intercompany

7.5 n/a march 2009 december 2015 n/a


sap Businessobjects Financial information management

7.0 sap Businessobjects data services Xi 3.0

october 2008 june 2012 n/a

7.5 sap Businessobjects data services Xi 3.1


sap Businessobjects profitability and cost management

7.0 n/a july 2008 june 2012 n/a

7.5 n/a march 2009 march 2013 n/a


december 2012 n/a


EPM Solutions




Enterprise Performance Management for Finance

sap Businessobjects planning and consolidation, version for sap netweaver


september 2008 march 2013 n/a




may 2013 n/a

sap Businessobjects planning and consolidation, version for the microsoft platform

7.0 n/a august 2008 march 2013 march 2016

7.5 n/a december 2009 march 2013 march 2016


may 2013 n/a

sap Businessobjects strategy management


march 2008 september 2010 n/a





sap Businessobjects disclosure management


april 2013 n/a


EPM Solutions (continued)




Enterprise Performance Management for Operations

sap Businessobjects spend performance management


2.1 sap netweaver 7.0 july 2009 december 2015 december 2017



june 2013 n/a

sap Businessobjects supply chain performance management

1.0 sap netweaver 7.0 march 2009 september 2011 n/a


may 2013 n/a

sap Businessobjects sustainability performance management





Solution Extensions




sap Businessobjects XBrl publishing by uBmatrix

1.1 n/a october 2010 january 2013 n/a


3.2.2. Governance, risk, and compliance (Grc)

GRC Solutions




Access Control

sap® Businessobjects™ access control46

5.2 sap netweaver® 2004 december 2006 march 2010 march 2013

5.3 sap netweaver 7.0 march 2008 december 2015 n/a



Process Control

sap Businessobjects process control


may 2009 march 2013 n/a



Risk Management

sap Businessobjects risk management


may 2009 march 2013 n/a



Global Trade Services

sap Businessobjects Global trade services

7.1 sap netweaver 7.0 october 2006 march 2013 n/a

7.2 sap netweaver 7.0 december 2007 march 2013 n/a

8.0 sap netweaver 7.0 march 2009 march 2013 n/a



sap Businessobjects electronic invoicing for Brazil47

1.0 sap netweaver 7.0 april 2008 december 2011 n/a



46. Formerly known as sap Grc access control.47. this application is known in Brazil as sap Businessobjects nota Fiscal eletrônica.


3.2.3. Business intelligence

BI Solutions




Business Intelligence Platform

sap® Businessobjects™ Business intelligence platform48

Xi 3.049 n/a march 2008 march 2013 march 2016

Xi 3.150 n/a september 2008 december 2015 december 2017

4.051 n/a november 2010 march 2013 n/a


august 2013 n/a

sap Businessobjects mobile Xi 3.152 sap Businessobjects enterprise Xi 3.1


Reporting and Analysis

sap crystal reports® 2008 V0 n/a march 2008 march 2013 march 2016

2008 V1 n/a october 2008 december 2015 december 2017

201153 n/a november 2010 march 2013 n/a

2011 V1 n/a estimated for Q3 2011

august 2013 n/a

sap Businessobjects dashboards54

2008 n/a march 2008 december 2015 december 2017

4.0 n/a november 2010 march 2013 n/a


august 2013 n/a

48. Formerly known as sap Businessobjects enterprise.49. technically contains platform services and applications like sap Businessobjects Voyager,

sap Businessobjects web intelligence, sap Businessobjects dashboard Builder, and sap Businessobjects desktop intelligence™.50. technically contains platform services and applications like sap Businessobjects Voyager, sap Businessobjects web intelligence,

sap Businessobjects dashboard Builder, and sap Businessobjects desktop intelligence.51. technically contains platform services and applications like sap Businessobjects web intelligence, sap Businessobjects mobile,

sap Businessobjects analysis, sap Businessobjects dashboards, and sap Businessobjects live office.52. successor version will be shipped as part of sap Businessobjects Business intelligence platform 4.0.53. Formerly known as crystal reports 2010.54. Formerly known as Xcelsius dashboard design and sap Businessobjects Xcelsius enterprise.


55. Formerly known as sap Businessobjects advanced analysis.

BI Solutions (continued)




Business Intelligence Platform

sap Businessobjects explorer™ Xi 3.1 sap Businessobjects enterprise Xi 3.1

january 2009 may 2011 n/a

Xi 3.2 sap Businessobjects enterprise Xi 3.1


4.0 sap Businessobjects Business intelligence platform 4.0

november 2010 march 2013 n/a

4.1 sap Businessobjects Business intelligence platform 4.1


august 2013 n/a

sap Businessobjects explorer (blade)

1.0 n/a june 2009 may 2011 n/a

2.0 n/a november 2009 december 2015 december 2017

sap Businessobjects analysis, edition for microsoft office55

1.0 n/a june 2010 may 2011 n/a


november 2011 n/a


3.2.4. enterprise information management

EIM Solutions




sap® Businessobjects™ data services

Xi 3.1 n/a september 2008 march 2011 n/a

Xi 3.2 n/a june 2009 december 2012 n/a

4.0 n/a december 2010 march 2013 n/a

sap Businessobjects data Federator

Xi 3.056 n/a april 2008 december 2015 december 2017

sap Businessobjects text analysis Xi 3.0 n/a december 2008 march 2013 n/a

sap Businessobjects data Quality management, version for sap solutions

Xi 3.1 sap Businessobjects data services Xi 3.1

February 2009 december 2012 n/a

4.0 sap Businessobjects data services 4.0


march 2013 n/a

sap Businessobjects data Quality management, version for sap netweaver mdm


november 2008 december 2012 n/a

sap Businessobjects data Quality management, version for oracle’s siebel customer relationship management 8.0 release57



sap Businessobjects data Quality management, version for oracle’s siebel universal customer master 8.0 release58



sap Businessobjects data Quality management, version for oracle’s siebel applications



march 2013 n/a

sap Businessobjects data Quality management, version for informatica powercenter


september 2009 december 2012 n/a



march 2013 n/a

56. successor version will be shipped as part of sap Businessobjects enterprise Xi 4.0.57. successor version will be shipped as part of sap Businessobjects data Quality management, version for oracle’s siebel applications 4.0.58. successor version will be shipped as part of sap Businessobjects data Quality management, version for oracle’s siebel applications 4.0.


EIM Solutions (continued)




sap Businessobjects data Quality management sdK

4.0 n/a october 2010 march 2013 n/a

sap Businessobjects data insight™

Xi 3.059 n/a september 2008 august 2012 n/a

sap Businessobjects watchlist security™



sap Businessobjects information steward60


march 2013 n/a

sap Businessobjects metadata management

Xi 3.1 sap Businessobjects enterprise Xi 3.1

august 2009 august 2012 n/a

sap Businessobjects event insight 4.0 n/a december 2010 march 2013 n/a

sap Businessobjects accelerator 1.0 n/a november 2009 december 2015 december 2017

Solution Extensions




sap extended enterprise content management by open text

9.7.1 n/a july 2009 june 2012 n/a

sap archiving by open text,sap document access by open text

9.6.2 n/a may 2009 june 2012 n/a

sap digital asset management by open text

6.8 n/a january 2010 may 2012 n/a

sap document presentment by streamserve



59. successor version will be shipped as part of sap Businessobjects information steward Xi 4.0.60. Formerly known under the code name “project icc.”


3.2.5. analytic applications

Analytic Applications




sap® Businessobjects™ customer analysis and retention for telecommunications

1.0 sap Businessobjects enterprise Xi 3.1

july 2010 july 2013 n/a

sap Businessobjects data Federator Xi 3.0


sap Businessobjects Xcelsius enterprise 2008


sap Businessobjects readiness assessment for defense & security







sap Businessobjects Quality management for healthcare







sap Businessobjects enterprise risk reporting for Banking







sap Businessobjects trade promotion effectiveness analysis








Analytic Applications (continued)




sap Businessobjects sales analysis for retail







sap Businessobjects explorer™ Xi 3.1


sap Businessobjects on-shelf availability analysis







sap Businessobjects planning and consolidation for Banking

1.1 sap Businessobjects planning and consolidation 7.0, version for the microsoft platform

july 2010 march 2013 n/a

sap Businessobjects planning and consolidation for public sector



sap Businessobjects planning and consolidation for healthcare



sap Businessobjects ip rights analysis


november 2010 july 2013 n/a






Analytic Applications (continued)




sap Businessobjects healthcare practitioner spend analysis and reporting







sap Businessobjects staff productivity management for healthcare


december 2010 july 2013 n/a





sap Businessobjects planning for public sector



sap Businessobjects enterprise risk and solvency management for insurance







sap Businessobjects upstream operations performance analysis








3.4. On Device: Mobile Applications

3.3. On Demand

On-demand solution Availability

sap® streamwork™ available since march 2010

sap Businessobjects™ Bi ondemand available since january 2010

sap sourcing ondemand available since december 2009

sap carbon impact ondemand available since july 2009

sap sales ondemand estimated for Q2 2011

sap travel ondemand estimated for second half of 2011

sap workspaces estimated for Q1 2011

sap netweaver® live environment estimated for Q4 2011

sap Businessobjects data enrichment and classification ondemand

estimated for second half of 2011

SAP Business ByDesign™ Availability

sap Business Bydesign™ feature package 2.6 january 2011

sap Business Bydesign feature package 3.0 estimated for Q3 2011




sybase® mobile sales for sap® crm


sybase mobile workflow for sap Business suite



3.5. Orchestration and Technology

3.5.1. sap netweaver

Foundation Components

Release Availability (Release to Customer)



sap netweaver® 2004 march 2004 march 2010 march 2013

7.0 october 2005 december 2015 december 2017

7.3 november 2010 december 2015 december 2017


Enhancement Package Availability (Release to Customer)



sap® enhancement package 1 for sap netweaver 7.0 october 2008 december 2015 december 2017

sap enhancement package 2 for sap netweaver 7.0 april 2010 december 2015 december 2017



Enhancement Package Availability (Release to Customer)



sap enhancement package 1 for sap netweaver process integration 7.1


sap enhancement package 1 for sap netweaver composition environment 7.1


sap enhancement package 1 for sap netweaver mobile 7.1


Enterprise Components

Release Availability (Release to Customer)



sap netweaver composition environment

7.1 may 2007 december 2015 december 2017

7.2 december 2009 december 2015 december 2017

sap netweaver Business warehouse accelerator

7.0 december 2005 december 2015 december 2017


sap netweaver process integration 7.1 december 2007 december 2015 december 2017

sap netweaver mobile 7.1 may 2007 december 2015 december 2017

sap netweaver master data management

5.5 march 2005 march 2010 march 2013


sap netweaver enterprise search 7.0 september 2007 march 2010 n/a

7.2 February 2010 december 2015 december 2017

sap netweaver identity management 7.0 july 2007 december 2011 n/a

7.1 december 2008 december 2011 n/a

7.2 december 2010 december 2012 n/a

accelerated application delivery for sap netweaver

2.2 march 2010 september 2012 n/a

2.3 estimated for Q3 2011 december 2013 n/a

sap Visual Business 1.1 december 2010 december 2015 december 2017

sap netweaver portal, enterprise workspaces

1.0 july 2010 december 2015 december 2017

1.1 estimated for Q3 2011 december 2015 december 2017


3.5.2. application lifecycle management




sap® solution manager 7.0 sap netweaver® 7.0 december 2005 december 2013 n/a



december 2015 n/a

sap enhancement package 1 for sap solution manager 7.0



sap solution manager adapter for sap Quality center by hp

1.0 sap solution manager 7.0

july 2007 december 2015 n/a

process scheduling adapter for sap solution manager



sap solution manager, enterprise edition


February 2008 december 2013 n/a

landscape verification for sap solution manager

1.0 sap enhancement package 1 for sap solution manager 7.0

august 2010 december 2013 n/a

remote support component 1.0 n/a november 2010 december 2012 n/a

sap test data migration server 3.0 sap netweaver 2004 october 2006 march 2012 n/a


december 2013 n/a

sap test acceleration and optimization

2.0 sap enhancement package 1 for sap solution manager 7.0

september 2009 december 2013 n/a

sap netweaver adaptive computing controller




september 2010 december 2015 december 2017

sap landscape transformation 1.0 sap netweaver 7.0 july 2010 december 2013 n/a


december 2013 n/a


3.5.3. mobile platform

Solution Extensions




sap loadrunner by hp, enterprise edition


sap loadrunner by hp 9.5 n/a september 2009 december 2011 n/a

sap Quality center by hp 10.0 n/a june 2009 january 2014 n/a

sap central process scheduling by redwood

8.0 sap netweaver 7.0 november 2010 december 2015 december 2017




sybase® unwired platform 1.5.2 n/a september 2010 september 2012 n/a

afaria® 6.6 n/a october 2010 october 2012 n/a

project “Gateway” 2.0 sap enhancement package 2 for sap netweaver 7.0


june 2013 n/a




sap® in-memory appliance 1.0 n/a november 2010 december 2012 n/a




sap® landscape management software


december 2013 n/a

3.5.4. in-memory computing

3.5.5. Virtualization and cloud technology


3.5.6. solution extensions for user collaboration and user training

Solution Extensions




User Collaboration

sap® acrobat connect professional meeting by adobe

7.5 n/a april 2010 december 2013 n/a

sap acrobat connect professional learning by adobe

7.5 n/a april 2010 december 2013 n/a

User Training

sap productivity pak by rwd 4.1 n/a january 2010 august 2011 n/a

sap user experience management by Knoa

5.5 n/a september 2009 april 2011 n/a


CContent shipment – complementing software for sap applications that supports the customers’ integration, implementation, and configuration activities

Core applications – set of sap applications that include sap erp, sap customer relationship management, sap product lifecycle management, sap supply chain management, and sap supplier relationship management

Customer-specific maintenance – maintenance phase after mainstream and extended maintenance have expired, with slightly reduced scope of support

DDefault release – most recent release of an sap application once it enters the unrestricted shipment phase, which begins on the default release date

EEnhancement package – an optional package that allows customers to take advantage of ongoing business innovation while keeping their core systems stable

Enterprise service – a web service that has been codefined by sap and sap partners. By using enterprise services, organizations can compose or integrate applications to enable new business processes and business scenarios.

Enterprise services bundle – collection of enterprise services delivered as a discrete bundle that can be used to extend the functionality of sap erp or other core applications

Extended maintenance – optional maintenance phase offered for selected releases of sap software after mainstream maintenance has expired, with similar scope of support as mainstream maintenance

AAdd-on release – sap application release that is technically dependent on and can be installed only on top of another sap application

Application – software unit supporting a specific collection of business processes required to address defined business needs

BBack-end application – sap application for which content shipments are provided

Beta shipment – new release that may be offered prior to the release-to-customer date. Beta shipment should be used for testing purposes only and is not available for productive use. the content and the planned release-to-customer date of software product versions made available under a beta shipment might be subject to change. therefore, customers should not place undue reliance on a beta shipment and the features or functionalities presented therein and should not rely upon them in making purchasing decisions.

Business process – set of logically related tasks performed to achieve a defined business outcome

Business process platform – the prerequisite for the controlled and cost-effective deployment of service-oriented architecture (soa). it provides an extensible repository of enterprise-services definitions, application logic that implements those services in a robust and reusable fashion, and a technology platform to integrate, compose, and deploy enterprise services to enable flexible business processes. a business process platform allows organizations to respond rapidly to change and drive business process innovation

Business scenario – a series of different individual business processes that are linked sequentially and logically

GLOSSARY


Master guide – document containing information on how to install sap software to support business scenarios and which includes links to all other documents required to complete the task

Minor SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform release – sap Businessobjects Business intelligence platform release that includes new and improved business functions whose implementation is straightforward

PPriority-one support – an additional optional maintenance phase offered after the mainstream maintenance phase expires for specific releases of the sap Businessobjects Business intelligence platform and sap Businessobjects solutions

RRelease – sap software that has a version number, is shipped at a particular time, and has defined maintenance phases

Release road map – long-term schedule on how and when new releases for sap software will be delivered

Release-to-customer date – date that marks the initial availability of a release to customers and the beginning of the restricted shipment phase

Restricted shipment phase – First phase of a release delivery, which is rolled out within the framework of the sap ramp-up program. the program determines how many customers receive the release and increases distribution in a controlled way. this phase is followed by the unrestricted shipment phase.

IIndustry application – software unit supporting a specific collection of business processes required to address the needs of a specific industry

Industry solution map – Graphical representation of the end-to-end business processes of a typical enterprise within a specific industry from the customer’s perspective

Integration – interoperability of a defined set of sap releases within a customer’s system landscape

LLegal change – correction to sap software to adapt an sap release to changed legal and regulatory requirements

MMainstream maintenance – First maintenance phase, which includes full scope of support. it is followed by an extended maintenance, customer-specific maintenance, or priority-one support phase.

Maintenance – software support, comprising – depending on the maintenance phase – support for legal changes and corrections delivered through the sap notes tool, support packages, problem support, and access to information and online service channels

Maintenance strategy – set of rules that determines the length and conditions of maintenance for sap software releases. detailed rules can differ depending on the type of application.

Major SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform release – sap Businessobjects Business intelligence platform release that usually contains architectural platform changes and major new functionality. it may require a universal migration when upgrading from a previous release.


Support package – Bundle of software corrections available as a support package for the aBap™ programming language or a java support package

Support package stack – sets of support packages and patches for the respective product version that must be used in the given combination. support package stacks should be seen as an entity in themselves – customers must heed the minimum requirements and dependencies between individual components and apply the support packages and patches specified in the support package stack together.

Support release – release offered after the beginning of the unrestricted shipment phase if required and which contains a collection of all previously available support packages

Switch framework – sap technology to activate industry business function sets and generic business functions within sap erp

TTechnology update – update to sap software to support new or changed technologies, for example, to enable compatibility with new database versions, operating system versions, or browser versions or to integrate the release in new releases of other applications to support new scenarios

UUnrestricted shipment phase – second phase of release delivery, during which all customers can obtain the release. the phase follows the restricted shipment phase.

Upgrade – replacement of an existing application component with a newer component of that same application

SSAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform release family – a sequence of a major sap Businessobjects Business intelligence platform release and its subsequent minor releases

SAP Business Suite – an sap netweaver–based family of integrated core applications, industry applications, and supplementary applications

SAP Notes tool – a tool that provides instructions on how to remove known errors from sap software, including a description of the symptoms and cause of the error as well as the sap release and support package level in which the error occurs

SAP Ramp-Up program – the program sap uses to introduce new application releases on the market to selected customers during the restricted shipment phase

Service pack – adopted from the Businessobjects support policy, a service pack is a bundle of software corrections intended for wide distribution that contains fixes for issues of priority one, two, and three. service packs also contain platform updates and are released on a predefined schedule.

Service-oriented architecture (SOA) – Business-driven software architecture that increases the adaptability, flexibility, openness, and cost-efficiency of it operations. with soa, organizations can compose applications, enable support for business processes rapidly using enterprise services, and increase software reuse to become more agile in responding to change.

Stand-alone release – sap application release that can be deployed independently of other application releases


sap extended its 5–1–2 strategy to seven years, with an additional option for two years of extended maintenance.

the following table provides an overview for which releases the 5−1−2 maintenance strategy still applies and for which releases the 7−2 maintenance strategy applies.

5–1–2 Maintenance Strategy versus 7−2 Maintenance Strategy

the 5–1–2 maintenance strategy was introduced in 2004. it supported aligned maintenance phases between sap releases. in continuing to provide a strong, reliable support structure for some of the industry’s leading solutions,

APPENDIx

5−1−2 Maintenance Strategy 7−2 Maintenance Strategy

• introduced in 2004

• applies to core applications based on sap netweaver® 2004 and higher, as well as add-on releases– sap netweaver 2004 and add-on releases– sap® erp 2004 and add-on releases– sap crm 2005, sap crm 2007, and add-on releases– sap scm 2004, sap scm 2005, sap scm 2007, and

add-on releases

• offers longest mainstream maintenance window, extending until march 2013

• introduced in 2008

• applies to new releases of core applications of sap Business suite as of november 2008, as well as add-on releases and enhancement packages– sap netweaver 7.0 and add-on releases– sap erp 6.0 and add-on releases– sap crm 7.0 and add-on releases– sap scm 7.0 and add-on releases– sap srm 7.0 and add-on releases

• offers longest mainstream maintenance window, extending until december 2015


Renaming

Former Software Product Name New Software Product Name

mysap™ erp 2005 sap® erp 6.0

mysap product lifecycle management 2005 sap product lifecycle management 6.0

mysap customer relationship management sap customer relationship management

mysap supply chain management sap supply chain management

mysap supplier relationship management sap supplier relationship management

mysap customer relationship management sap customer relationship management

sap supply chain management 5.1 sap supply chain management 2007

sap supplier relationship management 6.0 sap supplier relationship management 2007

mysap erp enterprise services bundle sap erp enterprise services bundle

mysap supply chain management enterprise services bundle sap supply chain management enterprise services bundle

mysap supplier relationship management enterprise services bundle sap supplier relationship management enterprise services bundle

sap enhancement package 1 for mysap erp 2005 sap enhancement package 1 for sap erp 6.0



sap supply chain management 5.0 add-on: transportation management

sap supply chain management 2005 add-on: transportation management

sap supply network collaboration 5.1 sap supply network collaboration 2007

sap auto-id infrastructure 5.1 for sap netweaver® 2004s sap auto-id infrastructure 2007

sap xapp™ manufacturing integration and intelligence sap manufacturing integration and intelligence

sap xapp product definition sap product definition

sap xapp resource and portfolio management sap resource and portfolio management

sap xapp mobile asset management sap mobile asset management

sap xapp mobile asset management , version for utilities sap mobile asset management , version for utilities

sap xapp mobile sales for handheld devices (with sap customer relationship management)

sap mobile sales, handheld version


Former Software Product Name New Software Product Name

sap xapp mobile time and travel sap mobile time and travel

sap xapp mobile direct store delivery sap mobile direct store delivery

sap xapp mobile for defense & security sap mobile defense & security

sap xapp spend analytics sap spend analytics

sap solution manager 4.0 sap solution manager 7.0

sap test data migration server 2006 sap test data migration server 3.0

sap syndications management sap Funding management

sap spend analytics sap Businessobjects™ spend performance management

sap Businessobjects polestar sap Businessobjects explorer

crystal reports sap crystal reports

sap e-sourcing sap sourcing

sap Grc access control sap Businessobjects access control

sap Businessobjects enterprise sap Businessobjects Business intelligence platform

sap Businessobjects Xcelsius enterprise; sap Businessobjects dashboard design

sap Businessobjects dashboards

sap Businessobjects advanced analysis, edition for microsoft office

sap Businessobjects analysis, edition for microsoft office

sap netweaver 2004s sap netweaver 7.0

sap netweaver composition environment 1.0 sap netweaver composition environment 7.1

sap netweaver master data management 6.0 sap netweaver master data management 7.1

sap netweaver Business intelligence accelerator 2004s sap netweaver Business warehouse accelerator 7.0

sap netweaver enterprise search 1.0 sap netweaver enterprise search 7.0

sap netweaver master data management 7.2 sap netweaver master data management 7.3

Renaming (continued)


www.sap.com/contactsap

50 019 667 (11/03) ©2011 sap aG. all rights reserved.

sap, r/3, sap netweaver, duet, partneredge, Bydesign, sap Businessobjects explorer, streamwork, and other sap products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of sap aG in Germany and other countries.

Business objects and the Business objects logo, Businessobjects, crystal reports, crystal decisions, web intelligence, Xcelsius, and other Business objects products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Business objects software ltd. Business objects is an sap company.

sybase and adaptive server, ianywhere, sybase 365, sQl anywhere, and other sybase products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of sybase, inc. sybase is an sap company.

all other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. data contained in this document serves informational purposes only. national product specifications may vary.

these materials are subject to change without notice. these materials are provided by sap aG and its affiliated companies (“sap Group”) for informational purposes only, without representation or warranty of any kind, and sap Group shall not be liable for errors or omissions with respect to the materials. the only warranties for sap Group products and services are those that are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services, if any. nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty.

sap's release strategy for large enterprises

Documents

place undue reliance

specifically targeted markets

logon requires user

highly specialized business

recommended update path

sap businessobjects explorer

sap businessobjects voyager

supply chain processes