SAP Calls On Community Feedback

SAP AG launched the Enterprise Services Community Tuesday looking for input from customers, systems integrators and developers.

The community meant to increase interoperability for SAP products and services will focus on building better composite applications for its NetWeaver platform. That means fine-tuned business processes and closer collaboration to drive new ideas and cross-industry technology projects.

As SAP's defines and builds composite applications, the enterprise software maker will look toward the Enterprise Services Community for feedback, said Zia Yusuf, SAP's executive vice president of Platform Ecosystem. "Members will form groups to define business processes and applications sets," he said. "They can either advise SAP on what they are building or propose new services."

Definition groups will focus on business or technical challenges and follow a standard framework to propose new services or review services from SAP. Enterprise Services Community advisory groups provide feedback on the community, its operation and best practices around SAP's enterprise services architecture platform. The groups dissolve after proposal or findings are submitted.

SAP also believes collaboration through the Enterprise Services Community will drive down development times and protect intellectual property (IP) by providing a formal framework for companies to follow. It also increases visibility into enterprise services already created, provides insight when new services are available, and gives companies early access to information for building composite applications for specific functions and processes.Yusuf said the new community doesn't replace existing similar collaborative projects. Many companies that participate in SAP's Industry Value Networks and Powered by SAP NetWeaver will contribute in the Enterprise Services Community, too.

Colgate-Palmolive and Halliburton are charter members. Fifty companies belong to the community, including Adobe, Arcway, Cisco Systems, GlobeRanger, Juniper Networks, Mercury Interactive, Open text, Research in Motion (RIM) and University of St. Gallen.

Bill Pataky, SAP's vice president of Enterprise Services Community, said the community will "define common interfaces and give us a clear understanding on the businesses problem and how we’ll solve them."

SAP said members can join Enterprise Services Community definition and advisory groups aimed at identifying and addressing the business challenges within their particular industries or technologies.

The first three definition groups will collaborate on needs in the banking industry, radio frequency identification (RFID) and geospatial technology, and will services for mobile technologies.The RFID definition group, for example, will focus on solutions for providing business users with real-time inventory process information across layers of infrastructure, software and hardware devices. Additional definition groups will roll out in the coming weeks.