SAP Debuts NetWeaver Tools to Create and Change Business Processes Quickly

The technologies will let business users work with developers to quickly design, model, and execute new or adapted business processes without developing any code, SAP said at Sapphire 2008

SAP has been working on a new set of tools to simplify the business process by enabling IT organizations to answer requests more efficiently. The SAP NetWeaver Business Process Management and SAP NetWeaver Business Rules Management will allow business process experts to design, model and implement business processes without having to develop code, the company unveiled during two events: SAPPHIRE 2008 (SAP's international customer conference) and ASUG (America's SAP Users' Group) Annual Conference, both held in Orlando.

A vital part of SAP's robust platform offering, SAP NetWeaver allows IT organizations to drive more value by providing the agility to quickly respond to requests from the business for new or adapted business processes. The SAP NetWeaver technology platform and its full set of capabilities allows companies to accelerate the consolidation of their IT landscapes, enabling them to enjoy new levels of the business process flexibility used to drive innovation and competitive advantage.

"The planned addition of business process management tools to the SAP NetWeaver technology platform will further establish SAP NetWeaver as the platform of choice for companies committed to a strategic approach to IT," Klaus Kreplin, corporate officer and member of the Executive Council, and head of SAP NetWeaver Technology, said in a statement.

SAP NetWeaver Business Process Management, developed at SAP under the codename "Project Galaxy," is part of SAP NetWeaver Composition Environment and is planned to feature three major capabilities:

• The process composer — to model business processes based on the business process modeling notation (BPMN) standard and integrated into the Eclipse development framework together with a rules composer tool for modeling of business rules.
• The process server — based on Java EE, to directly execute these process models, without requiring brittle translation steps between model and code ("round tripping").
• The process desk — the process participants' interface to their assigned tasks, allowing interaction with the running process instances and other participants by means of forms, interactive screens and collaboration tasks.

SAP NetWeaver Business Process Management is planned to provide customers a standardized, unified environment for the implementation and management of complex, multifaceted business processes focusing on four cornerstones:

• Unified modeling — In an Eclipse-based tooling environment, business process experts throughout the organization will be able to access a single version of a business process and edit and make changes without the danger of losing details in translation.
• Business rules management — Built on Yasu Technologies' Quickrules technology acquired by SAP in 2007, SAP NetWeaver Business Rules Management, combined with SAP NetWeaver Business Process Management, is intended to provide the ability to refine rules by editing decision tables to directly impact the execution of composite processes — all in a single user interface with no need to switch back and forth between tools, reducing errors.
• Immediate execution speeds time to value — SAP NetWeaver Business Process Management will allow IT departments to accelerate implementation of innovative business processes and composite applications that in turn can result in value for the business.
• Built-in efficiencies via Enterprise Services Repository — The Enterprise Services Repository of SAP NetWeaver enables users to easily track and identify ready-made process steps of SAP and non-SAP applications for reuse throughout the enterprise in the development of new business processes.

SAP NetWeaver Business Process Management and SAP NetWeaver Business Rules Management are planned to be available to ramp-up customers in Q3 2008 with general availability within the SAP NetWeaver Composition Environment enhancement package 1 expected in early 2009. SAP NetWeaver Business Process Management further delivers on the SAP NetWeaver innovation road map.

Bob Mick, ARC Advisory Group, commented, "SAP's new Business Process Management with Rules Management is exactly what the NetWeaver platform needed, and the timing is excellent. Businesses are looking or ways to get broader participation in process optimization and reduce the dependency on IT staffing, and the new BPM capability will do just that. There is also a growing need for better workflow in other areas, such as MDM and data quality management, and having a single SAP capability moving forward will be welcomed."