German enterprise resource planning giant SAP AG this week announced a new technology solutions roadmap, designed to give its customers advice on the best hardware to use with its software. The map, which is available on SAP’s web site at www.sap.com/technology, enables users to input information about their current systems and then works out what systems the company will need to support an ERP system. SAP divides its hardware roadmap into four elaborately named lifecycles. These are: Realization (sizing, installation, configuration); Integration; Extension (complementary products, interfacing, custom development); Reliable operation; and Continuous change. You can equate it to a troubleshooting type program, an SAP spokesperson told ComputerWire, it shows you where the gaps in your hardware solution are and lays out what you need to put in place in order to install SAP’s ERP software. SAP claims it will also save companies time and money on consultants, as well as giving advice on integration issues, for companies using disparate IT systems. It won’t replace the need for consultants altogether, the spokesperson added, but it will save time by highlighting the weak spots and pointing you in the right direction earlier. It will also work for non-SAP software, the company said. As businesses componentize more and more, customers might want to mix and match. They might use SAP for financials but another company for Human Resources, so there’s no point in the technology map only dealing exclusively with our software. The technology maps are designed to work hand in hand with SAP’s industry-solutions maps that the company launched at its user conference in Los Angeles in September. The latter are a series of blueprints targeted at 17 specific industry areas including high- tech, media, oil and gas, public sector and automotive among others. The announcement was timed to coincide with SAP’s TechEd ’98 developer conference being held in Karlsruhe, Germany, this week.
