SAP
Value Proposition
Define flexible and agile enterprise architecture
To keep pace with the rapid changes in business brought about by a flattening world, IT has to be flexible, adaptive and agile. Infosys believes that organizations should focus on "built-to-change" and not "built-to-last". SAP R/3 based on the client-server architecture has provided a solid foundation for companies to run their business operations. However, as businesses demand enhanced agility from current IT investments, they expect enhanced business process efficiency and configurability from current systems. The roadmap defining an SAP landscape based enterprise architecture that supports rapid business changes is a three-stage process as illustrated in the figure below:
- Business strategy / operations plan high level analysis
- Application Portfolio Analysis, To-Be Architecture development including business case and implementation roadmap definition
- Implementation and Execution
Infosys' Approach to Define Agile Architecture
The E-SOA (Enterprise-SOA) concept development facilitates interoperability by streamlining processes and enabling interaction between multiple heterogeneous systems. The services leveraged in the application are common across processes and geographies. These services can be used anywhere, for any process. The process-based modeling enables a business-centric approach to IT implementation. This application is flexible enough to be adapted to different application landscapes and extensible for future requirements. Infosys' approach protects legacy investments while enhancing the life and performance of applications.
The key challenge in E-SOA-based architecture development is accurate identification of the services to be used. While designing services, companies must consider a communication mechanism, choice of parameters/ encoding format, and several network trips to complete one logical operation. Once developed, these services can be deployed across enterprise applications. Independent of application implementation, enterprise services are identified at the business or supporting business process level.
In a nutshell, E-SOA is a business-driven software architecture that ensures increased flexibility, adaptability, openness and cost efficiencies. It is a suite of web services providing enterprise-level business functionality. These services range from simple look-up to complex and composite services, but what they have in common is a high degree of integration with the process or application. Typically, E-SOA comprises high-level components aggregating granular web services into an enterprise service which orchestrates an entire business event. Web services are technology components, when integrated together in a logical way, to address a meaningful part of a business process, forming an Enterprise Service. SAP ERP 2005 (ECC 6.0), based on the SAP NetWeaver platform, opens the core processes through services which overcome some of the traditional constraints and leverages the existing application investments.
Traditionally, SAP R/3 and individual applications had a proprietary mechanism for integration, which mandated the use of middleware. Any change in the business process required long, expensive integration rework at the middleware and back-end layers. With standards-based services, it is possible to develop composite applications in a quicker and configurable manner with less IT involvement.
ERP 2005 (ECC 6.0) enables companies to optimize the entire organization value chain and make business processes more innovative. This will allow companies to react quickly and cost-effectively to changes in the market place and industry. The services-based ECC platform allows core processes such as Finance and Inventory Management to be service-enabled. The SAP NetWeaver platform allows creation of edge processes such as Procurement and CRM based on Enterprise Services. Together, the core and edge processes allow rapid innovation without disruption of core IT applications.A Charter Member of the SAP Enterprise Services Community Process (ESCP), Infosys provides:
- Expertise to build an SOA enterprise by exposing current applications through web services enablement platforms such as SAP J2EE and ABAP server
- Assistance in establishing a Center of Excellence and Governance for harmonizing services across various business units in the organization, including support in setting an SOA governance committee with representatives from business units and central IT function
- A design and implementation philosophy that identifies coarse-grained interfaces (services) at a business application level
- Partnership with SAP and the ecosystem partners for developing E-SOA solutions to address white/grey spaces
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