SAP makes collaboration core to business apps

Jack Miller, global vice president of Collaboration and Cloud Analytics at SAP, says that individuals, teams and entire organisations can now collectively problem-solve, brainstorm and make decisions from within their business applications, using the information they know and use every day. Importantly, they can do so without switching to a separate collaboration solution or having to rely on email to drive projects. And for IT, it's all driven from a secure, social solution that companies can standardise on across complex landscapes involving multiple applications – eliminating the management of multiple solutions with differing technology and security capabilities. Miller states that SAP and its partners have already delivered integrations with StreamWork, and adds that additional integrations are currently in development. For now, StreamWork can be integrated easily into SAP applications – including SAP CRM, SAP PLM, Business Objects Strategy Management – with the help of a consultant, SAP partner or by a customer's own IT department, he says. "More and more our customers ask us how they can use collaboration strategically in their businesses," states Miller. "With StreamWork, we've delivered a contextually-relevant approach that's easy for business people to learn and use within their current processes, while at the same time serving the security and flexible management needs of IT."