When it announced the latest version of NetWeaver, SAP presented it as a single product with a single price. This approach contrasted with the previous situation whereby the various components that constitute NetWeaver were sold and priced separately.

There is still potential for confusion nevertheless. There are three ways of buying NetWeaver. One NetWeaver seat is included with mySAP licences, alternatively customers can opt to buy a single NetWeaver seat, or buy under the CPU model which is useful for situations where organizations need to connect large numbers of unnamed users to the system. However, not all components are included in the basic price.

Specifically, Master Data Management and Exchange Infrastructure are assigned different price tags. SAP argues that because they form different functions, they need to be priced differently. This appears to hark back to the discussion over indirect access that arose during 2003, and SAP’s decision to enforce existing conditions within SAP license agreements.

Indirect access describes situations where customers channel data through an SAP engine to a third-party application, where multiple non-SAP licensed users can then access it. SAP believes that where optimization engines add considerable value, it is right to apply a charge.

At the time, CEO Henning Kagermann said: We have to be fair. We deliver large engines that do 80% of the work, then people extract the data and populate [applications used by hundreds of users and are not charged. That cannot be. He said this model works against SAP and is unfair because the customer gains a level of value from its single-user license payment that is not reflected in the cost of the license fee paid.

Master Data Management can be purchased according to volume, with three levels on offer. Exchange Infrastructure users do not have to pay if the technology is used for SAP-to-SAP integration, but charges kick in when SAP to non-SAP integration is the issue.

SAP NetWeaver 2004 comprises SAP Mobile Infrastructure, SAP Enterprise Portal, SAP Business Intelligence, SAP Master Data Management, SAP Exchange Infrastructure, SAP Web Application Server, SAP Composite Application Framework, and SAP Solution Manager.

This article is based on material originally published by ComputerWire