SAP AG told customers attending its Next Generation ERP conference in San Francisco yesterday that it had begun early delivery of a new set of real-time integrated applications closely tied to the latest release of R/3, Release 4.0, which began shipping earlier this year. SAP gave users a sneak preview of its new sales force automation software, and said it is now offering an integrated set of capabilities including R/3 Release 4.0, the SAP Business Information Warehouse, the SAP Advanced Planner and Optimizer supply chain management package, and the new SAP Sales Force Automation package. The separate applications are tied together via SAP’s Business Framework component architecture, based on Microsoft Corp’s COM and DCOM, Java and Corba, and Microsoft and IBM Corp message queuing technology (CI No 3,232). The Advanced Planner and Optimizer is based on SAP’s newly introduced liveCache high-speed memory-based technology for memory resident processing of data objects, so that forecasting, planning and optimization activities can be carried out in real time. Livecache also positions SAP to take advantage of 64-bit processors. Both the application execution processing and the data it needs are contained in the same operating process in RAM, and liveCache is an extension of the memory techniques SAP has been using to some extent since 1992. SAP Advanced Planner and Optimizer is scheduled for pilot customer shipments in July, with first shipments in September and general availability by year- end. Business Information Warehouse is scheduled for first shipments in April, general availability in July. The Sales Force Automation package is further out, with first shipments due in the fourth quarter.
