Big boys go for portal- and Web services-based big picture applications

Web portals, but much more than the current understanding of role- and browser-based self-service human-to-system interfaces, will be paving the way for new levels of business efficiency with real, low cost cross-system, cross-application, cross-company interactivity and automation. Latest to go public on serious portal developments are enterprise software big boys SAP, PeopleSoft and JD Edwards. And all are talking of Web services – at least as the loose application linking standards – as the enabler for being able to connect and run truly heterogeneous computing environments. While there’s plenty of hype around Web services, this does mean the prospect of getting away from compartmentalised roles, modules and functions is almost with us. This is the dawn of what the ERP hype machine has promised for years – real time, overarching, portal-based function and module-independent business process-based operations. Why now? Cynically, because the growth for enterprise software developers in the foreseeable future is in supply chain, PLM (product lifecycle management) and associated e-enabled collaborative IT suites, not ERP. And that’s because that’s what clued-up users want – and the rest will come to be persuaded that’s what they have to have – because it knocks down the final barriers to better business efficiencies and potentially huge cost savings through fast, easy information sharing. The goal is to build on existing ERP and legacy applications, no matter what they are, using web integration where possible, instead of expensive application integration with conventional middleware and associated technologies. At SAP’s Orlando, Florida Sapphire user event, recently closed, portals and Web services formed the basis of a whole new technology infrastructure (mySAP Technology platform) set to be the backbone of the firm’s future releases, while also bringing in third party applications and providing for big picture, business process-orientated collaborative environment building. Similarly, PeopleSoft’s London event focused on real time, Internet-driven ‘digitised business’ – based on portals and Web services connectors, again linking functions, application modules and third party software. These are key to its totally Internet-based PeopleSoft 8 enterprise system, covering everything from CRM to SRM (supplier relationship management) and its heartland HR. Meanwhile, JD Edwards’ big deal from its Denver user conference wasn’t particularly its new JD Edwards 5 total ‘ERP II’ business modules replacement for OneWorld, nor its clever universal implementation methodology, nor even its ERP 8.0 or APS (advanced planning and scheduling) 4.1 releases, but its move to Web services standards for integration. Again, the vision is of mix’n’match, adding to what you’ve got according to your needs. We’re all tired of hype, but there are here the seeds of a real business IT revolution. As PeopleSoft vice president for supply chain management Mike Fransden says: “We now have the tools to deliver what we promsed.” In SAP’s case, the big deal has been spelt out as its new ‘cross applications’ (xApps) – sets of new composite, collaborative applications, based on SAP’s portal developments, that will sit astride the main SAP mySAP-cum-R/3 suite and/or disparate third party applications, providing for cross functional and cross boundary business processes. First up will be Resource and Programme Management (RPM) in Q4, apparently aimed at making change and innovation easier across supply chains. SAP says other cross-functional and cross-system processes it intends to enable will include new product introductions, mergers and acquisitions and business change management, while chemical and oil and gas industry xApps are also being developed with consultancy Accenture. Foundation kit includes a Web Application Server (which includes the SAP J2EE engine) – part of SAP’s whole Technology platform, with its Exchange Infrastructure (integration), BIW (analytics) and SAP Enterprise Portal – and Web Dynpro middleware. The former will host business applications written as Web services (including SAP), while the latter is aimed at creating and running SAP interfaces, bridging the divide between SAP’s own ABAP (advanced business application programming) language and modern de facto standards like J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition) and Microsoft.Net. PeopleSoft and JDE were less about formal releases where big picture portal technology is concerned, and more about capabilities and business benefits. JD Edwards marketing director Trevor Salomon says the standards of Web services – SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), WSDL (Web services Description Language) and UDDI (Universal Discovery Description Integration) – provide the keys to real business users’ and systems’ ‘plug-n-play’. They will move us away from any need to know where, or on what system, information resides, merely allowing them to get and connect to the information they need. PeopleSoft’s Fransden likened the likely portal take-up picture to that of business IT over the last 30 years. He believes we’re currently going through the information access revolution with first, employees, departments, suppliers and customers getting sensible self-service access to relevant and permitted information and analytics far more easily and feasibly than before. Next, re-usable software components and Web services will move portals up to application interaction capability, and offer to get over companies’ difficulties with non-communicating disparate and legacy systems in organisations. Users will potentially be able to view live records for any aspect of their businesses directly via their browsers. Then looms the prospect of everything up to and including joint business planning – if we have the stomach for it.