This blog covers the stream regarding SOA. Okay, lets get something out of the way straight away - we will not refer to eSOA (that is Enterprise SOA) and SOA as different things. Most of the big players agree that services architecture needs to the approached from the enterprise level - global data types, governance and using business semantics - an agreed and common approach to the services structure. Hence, it is now 'SOA'.
Notice the tagline? Clarity - it appears here again in the SOA discussion and is just as important in the Netweaver platform (service orientated platform, or business process platform that is) as it is in the Business Suite as well as a company's vision and strategy.
So what is the current thought train around SOA?
Put simply, a composition of services is now needed more in today's skills market than ever before. With more and more applications coming along it is unrealistic to expect an employee to come to grips with all or even several of them. Developments need to be less customer specific as well as less standard software application delivery.
How does SAP achieve this?
Again, this is with SAP Busines Suite 7, but we must also look at SAP Netweaver 7.0 as well. They both work together to form the entire development process and make it much, much easier. However, it should be noted it is not mandatory to have Netweaver but it will be more difficult to develop composite applications and user interfaces as well as harder to deliver them effectively to employees e.g. through a portal.
The top down architecture goes something like this:
- Enterprise Services Architecture (we know this in SAP as Netweaver and/or the Composition Environment)
- SAP Business Suite 7.0
- Composite Applications (running in Netweaver/Composition Environment)
- Enterprise Services Repository. This is VERY important as it is where all the business suite services are published to and consumed from (by the composite applications).
- Best Practice Scenarios. These are 'vanilla' or 'out-of-the-box' business process scenarios you can use 'as-is' or extend.
- Data
1-3 are the innnovation layers - where you extend the standard and/or create your own business processes using composite applications, with the Netweaver/CE suites to assist. 4-6 are the core layers, where the standard process exist and services are published. These are not changed.
So what does SAP Business Suite provide for SOA?
Business Suite 7.0 offers the following support for SOA development:
- Business Network Connectivity
- Innovation (ELP)
- End-to-End Best Practice business processes
- Extended Process (custom)
- 130 + enterprise service bundles.
What was that last one? Bundles are a logical collection of enterprise services that are used to make up a business process e.g. Create Sales Order is the bundle, but includes among many others, 'Find Customer by Name and Address' enterprise service. Those 130 'bundles' contain over 2800 enterprise services between them.
These bundles (and hence enterprise services) are delivered through Enhancement Packs (EhP). Now this is important - EhPs are not technical or code support packs - they are purely functional. As well as providing enterprise services they also bring in more functions that can be activated by the customer. Support Packs (technical) follow a different roadmap and can be applied separately.
So what is SOA being used for today?
A survey of the Asia-Pacific region has revealed the customer base that have adopted SOA used them for the following gains:
- Connectivity. 47% of Enterprise Services project have this as a project goal.
- Lean Interaction. 35% of ES project have a better user experience as a project goal.
- Fast Process Innovation. 40% of projects have ES as a basis for fast innovation when introducing a new business process.
- Standardisation. 43% use ES as a basis for consolidation of their development platform
- Enterprise Services Repository. Development lifecycle times can be reduced by up to 66% when compared to using a traditional development platform i.e. when there is no common place to publish and consume services. Or more importantly, component re-use.
Examples:
- Asian Paints. Business Process Transformation with SOA. A portal was created for interior deisgn by the public, using an SOA based composite application. The application allows end-to-end experience for the user allowing a print off of the final design with colour schemes, cost etc. If the order is placed, the colloborative network of vendor, customer and service providrs are aware of the order and supply requirements & timelines.
- Jebsen & Jessen. Capacity to handle 30% higher volume of service requests without additional headcount.
- Auckland Regional Council. This is a live implmentation of Microsoft Duet, a collobarative venture with SAP that allows users to access and record information in SAP from MS Office suite. It uses Kerberos as authentication and SAP Netweaver as the intermediary to SAP Business Suite. e.g. Outlook has new tabs that allow leave requests, time recording and travel requests within a new calendar appointment. Minimal user training has led to streamlined leave, time and team management
Towards SOA: Governance and Skills
The Enterprise Services Repository is used for design time governance. It is very important and provides (through published services from the Business Suite) a number of supported services and tools:
- Enterprise Services (Published)
- Pre-Delivered SOA content (these are the best practice scenarios)
- Design Methodology
- Organisation of Content
- Controlled Modification.
For SOA it is important to define the granularity definition, name scope and global data types. These are enforced by ESR and the development tools to ensure that industry standards are adhered to. The process follows the standard SAP approach to development lifecycles:
Analyze > Design > Transform > Improve
So what should i take away from all this?
SOA is always included with a new business initiative. Otherwise it is a waste of SAP Business Suite's capabilities (this contains ERP, which as an aside can be implemented on its own if you wish). SOA enables business tranformation to give direct business value from your implementation.
SOA should never be implemented on its own, for its own sake - it is part of business transformation using Business Suite (or just ERP) and the Netweaver platform. SOA is the foundation architecture for an agile IT environment and SAP Business Suite is SOA enabled & ready to use.
Adopt SAP Neweaver Business Process Platform (commonly known as just 'Netweaver') as it will be invaluable given the reasons above. However, also adopt SOA with the right approach and proper governance.
"Plan your Roadmap!"
Chris Enstock
August 6th 2009
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