SAP

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 :

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:

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

Posted by Siddhant Metkar at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

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

Posted by Jay Barta at 7:55 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

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

Posted by Mike Lee at 3:47 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

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 " »

Posted by Jay Barta at 3:57 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

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? " »

Posted by Guest Blogger at 12:21 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

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 " »

Posted by Guest Blogger at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

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 " »

Posted by Guest Blogger at 1:18 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 1 )

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 " »

Posted by Guest Blogger at 3:17 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

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? " »

Posted by Guest Blogger at 9:37 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 2 )

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 " »

Posted by Guest Blogger at 1:42 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )