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May 20, 2013

Future of SAP Sourcing/CLM in SAP Procurement Product Stable

Future of SAP Sourcing/CLM in SAP Procurement Product Stable

 

In current scenario in SAP procurement space we find multiple Products which can cater to same or similar requirements. We have SAP Ariba, SAP SRM, SAP Sourcing and CLM which have similar functionalities. In these Products SAP SRM and SAP sourcing/CLM is for on Premise products whereas SAP Ariba is on demand product. Additionally SAP Sourcing/CLM is an island Product which is mostly implemented as standalone in first place and after a gap of some period is integrated with other procurement products based on requirements. The functionalities which can be covered within these products are :

Functionality

Ariba

SRM

Sourcing/CLM

Requisition/Order

ü   

ü   

NA

RFx/Bidding

ü   

ü   

ü   

Online/Offline Auctions

ü   

ü   

ü   

Contract Management

ü   

ü   

ü   

Catalogues

ü   

ü   

NA

Spend Analysis

ü   

ü   

ü   

 

For the above comparison we can find that Ariba and SRM have mostly same functionalities whereas individual product can have additional specific functionalities.

The future as for these Products seems to be converging procurement products into 1 single product or make the Product as On Premise or Cloud based. In such case the Long term trend as I can see is merging of SAP Sourcing/CLM functionality as add on Functionality in SAP Ariba which can provide Solutions to customer who require cloud based applications or as a Service. Customers who are inclined to have SAP Procurement product as On Premise, shall have to opt for SAP SRM which can provide same functionality. The future as I can predict is:

Functionality

Ariba with

SAP Sourcing/CLM

SRM

Requisition/Order

ü   

ü   

RFx/Bidding

ü   

ü   

Online/Offline Auctions

ü   

ü   

Contract Management

ü   

ü   

Catalogues

ü   

ü   

Spend Analysis

ü   

ü   

 

Key differentiator between SAP SRM and Ariba is:  SAP SRM can easily integrate with SAP ERP system       ( for follow on documents) and SRM MDM(for internal Catalogues) whereas SAP Ariba has advantage of managing multiple Suppliers on Ariba Network. Currently customers who wish to use Best of Functionalities from both the Products; SAP has provided functionality to integrate SAP SRM with Ariba through RDS (Rapid Deployment Solutions). Future decade or may be earlier shall decide which SAP Product behave as the Prime Product in SAP Procurement Offering based on customers inclination, easy to use and future trends.

 

Siddhant  Metkar

Lead Consultant, MFG CSI, Infosys Limited

May 14, 2013

Live from SAPPHIRE - Bill McDermott Keynote

"Let's be clear, SAP is now a Business-to-Business-to Consumer market leader" - Bill McDermott, Co-CEO and Member of the Executive Board of SAP AG said to a crowd of thousands in kicking off this 25 anniversary of SAPPHIRE. 
Bill McDermott's speech, titled "Customer, Fans, and a Better Run World," touched on technologies across SAP's portfolio of products, including SAP HANA, mobility, security, big data, cloud, and more.

Continue reading " Live from SAPPHIRE - Bill McDermott Keynote " »

Hanging Out with Infosys at SAP SAPPHIRE NOW

During this morning's opening keynote, Bill McDermott, Co-CEO and Member of the Executive Board of SAP AG, cited that the SAPPHIRE NOW audience has grown to 100,000 people -- 20,000 in Orlando, 80,000 streaming online. SAP provides live streaming and on-demand videos of the main agenda items for its online viewers.

For those unable to meet the Infosys experts and executives at the conference this year, we are extending the event experience beyond the SAPPHIRE convention center.

Continue reading " Hanging Out with Infosys at SAP SAPPHIRE NOW " »

May 12, 2013

Live From SAPPHIRE - The Build Out

I'm here with our events team setting up and preparing for the big show. While SAPPHIRE doesn't actually start until Tuesday, there is a lot of work going on this weekend to set up the booth and demos (see photos below), train speakers and finalize communications and presentations.

Once the doors open Tuesday, we'll be all set to showcase Infosys and SAP technologies that streamline the processing of multiple types of data to help companies in virtually any sector - including healthcare, automotive manufacturing, chemical processing, high-tech manufacturing, retail sales - and many more.

Continue reading " Live From SAPPHIRE - The Build Out " »

May 6, 2013

SAPPHIRE NOW 2013: What to expect?

By Adam Zeckel

Principal - Business Consulting; Energy, Communications and Services Unit, Infosys

As SAPPHIRE approaches, I've started to think about what has changed since this time last year. In May 2012, HANA was a hot topic in Orlando. The Infosys HANA COE had been up and running for nearly a year and my experience had been limited to just a few clients. By that time, however, we had laid the groundwork for value based discussions for BW on HANA focused on adding value for the business and reducing IT costs. We had created a demonstration on our internal system to showcase one business scenario for HANA. Many of our clients were talking about HANA. Some had started POCs and others were planning on start dates in 2013. One of our premier clients presented their journey to date implementing BW on HANA in the Database & Technology Theater at Sapphire.

Continue reading " SAPPHIRE NOW 2013: What to expect? " »

April 25, 2013

HANA: Yes, No or Never! - Part 2

By Kishor Gummaraju

Client Partner, Head - BI Strategic Focus Area, Retail, CPG, Logistics & Life Sciences, Infosys

In Part 1 of this blog series, we have discussed what problems can SAP HANA solve for business. In this part we will see where SAP is heading.

Can I use Hadoop instead of HANA?

The answer is yes. SAP itself has recognized this and has built adapters to Hadoop to facilitate Big Data computations and augment the SAP BI Architecture. However Hadoop will not fit every situation. Due to the disk based architecture, Hadoop is not suitable for on-demand, interactive and ad-hoc analytics and implementation requires high end engineering skills and large amount of design and engineering effort.  

Continue reading " HANA: Yes, No or Never! - Part 2 " »

April 17, 2013

HANA: Yes, No or Never! - Part 1

By Kishor Gummaraju

Client Partner, Head - BI Strategic Focus Area, Retail, CPG, Logistics & Life Sciences, Infosys

For all our customers on SAP, the house is clearly divided into 3 parts.
• One that says "We need HANA now! Or else we will miss the buss". This set believes that HANA is the cure for all the data ills of the past and it will magically solve for all past sins.
• The other that pragmatically asks "What is the business use case?" These are the rationalists who have realized that technology for the sake of technology does not make sense. They do not want an IT based business case, they want a Business Scenario based business case.
• The third is the business who says "What HANA? Forget it, add that money to my Trade Promotion Budget!"

Continue reading " HANA: Yes, No or Never! - Part 1 " »

March 28, 2013

SAP High-Performance Analytic Appliance (HANA) - Business benefits

By Kamya Nagpal

Senior Associate Consultant, SAP Practice, Energy, Utilities, Communications and Services Unit

Today, all companies are looking for business benefits in terms of short decision cycles from their IT departments and CIOs. In-Memory Computing provides processing of massive quantities of real time data in the main memory of a server delivering immediate results from analysis and transactions and providing companies with tangible business benefits.

Continue reading " SAP High-Performance Analytic Appliance (HANA) - Business benefits " »

March 14, 2013

Will SAP HANA replace SAP BW in the long run?

By Ankush Hallan

Technology Lead, SAP Practice, Energy, Utilities, Communications and Services Unit

SAP HANA is SAP's answer for real time reporting on massive amount of data. "WHY WAIT  "to see current business data if existing technology allows key business users to see business data immediately in real time and make critical business decisions and remain a step ahead of the competition ? "WHY WAIT" for data to be loaded to BW if HANA can support OLTP and OLAP? In Jan 2013 SAP announced that SAP business suite could now run on SAP HANA. Does it mean the end of SAP BW? I have asked this question to myself and in this blog let us see what the future might hold for SAP BW.

Continue reading " Will SAP HANA replace SAP BW in the long run? " »

March 7, 2013

Delivering the promise of reduced TCO from HANA implementations

By Nitin Vilas Kulkarni

Industry Principal, Retail, CPG, Logistics and Life Sciences Unit, Infosys

While SAP HANA has gained market traction, one key apprehension organizations have is around the cost of ownership.  This comes due to the following

• One of the promises of HANA is data compression and eliminating of layers.  While this is largely true, it has been found that for complex scenarios, layers cannot be fully eliminated. Also, compression ratio varies based on original database compression as well as old database. Thus, significant compression is not guaranteed for many organizations.
• The agility and promise of reduced development cost are not fully realized due to multiple challenges associated with adoption of cutting edge technology.
• HANA license is very expensive and especially when one owns enterprise license this cost is quite significant.

Continue reading " Delivering the promise of reduced TCO from HANA implementations " »

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