This blog follows on from the one I wrote at SAPPHIRE in May 2012 where SAP laid out their vision for the future, now 40 years old they had a guess at what it would be like in another 40 years.
This is a series of blogs that looks at each of the 5 pillars that SAP want to dominate in (App, Database and Technology, Analytics, Mobility and Cloud).
This one focuses on what to do in the Database and Technology space.
So HANA is obviously a key part of this and will soon be available across the suite and on the cloud. So the question isn’t if but when you will start to use HANA.
How will you adopt it ?
A popular way is to replace the database under BW with HANA, bringing the benefts of BWA plus faster loading - the catch with this is that you can only use if for reporitng. If you want to use HANA to create custom apps for your organisation you need the Enterprise version which allows full read/write and modeling capabilities. Finally you could choose to implement one of the accelerators from SAP which sits along side the Suite and speeds up specific applications (e.g CO-PA).
Another area to look at is your integration strategy, is your system ready for real-time ? If not it is worth looking at the NetWeaver Process Orchesration tool which brings together BPM and PI on one stack. This stack is faster than before and allows for easier human to machine patterns. Is it time to take batch out of your integration strategy ?
Another thing to look at would be how moving all the Java stuff you have to 7.31 could simplify and speed up your Java world.
Master Data might also be an area to sort out and if your golden sources are not Business Suite then MDM is worth a look.
SAP Single Sign On is also worth evaluating if your haven’t cracked this nut yet.
Hopefully that has given you plenty to think about.
See the other blogs in the series for info on Apps, Analytics, Mobility and Cloud.
