SAP

Architecture for any IT based solution is a most important factor for aligning IT with business expectation. This also facilitates a transparent and manageable roadmap for most adaptable and efficient system landscape. An effective architectural design of a solution helps business to fulfill their target in an open, scalable and easy to handle infrastructure. This blog will focus on approach of an architecture design for SAP Netweaver based solution.

Continue reading " Architecture Plan for SAP Netweaver based Solution " »

Posted by Ranjeet Kumar Jha at 5:07 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

Continuing from my blog on BI 4.0 strategic direction on the reporting platform http://www.infosysblogs.com/sap/2011/10/arrived_sap_business_intellige.html, I would now like to focus on the strategic direction being taken around data integration or Information Management (IM).

·         Finding your place

When we talk about Information/Data Management we usually talk about 3-4 broad areas:

Continue reading " ARRIVED: SAP Business Intelligence 4.0- PART II " »

Posted by Somnath Mukherjee at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

SAP's Business Intelligence product platform reached a critical milestone last month when the much awaited SAP BI 4.0 was made for General Availability (GA) on September 16^th. Although the event was a bit muted and probably lost in the din and hype on HANA, it was definitely a corner stone in SAP's journey to transform its Business Intelligence bouquet. In this blog I would like to talk about the strategic direction that SAP is taking with this new platform both in terms of Business Intelligence (BI) and Information Management (IM). While in this blog I will provide my view points on the shape that BI is taking, I will be talking about aspects of IM in the subsequent blog.

Continue reading " ARRIVED: SAP Business Intelligence 4.0 -PART I " »

Posted by Somnath Mukherjee at 7:13 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

By Suresh Santhana

The ability to stay connected at all times and the ability to process data faster than ever has made Mobility and HANA the hottest topics in this year's Sapphire. At Infosys we leverage SAP's newest technologies to provide the best in class mobile solutions for our customers. At Sapphire Madrid we will showcase our Mobility capabilities and some of the smart apps like mBrochure, Guided Sales that we have built on devices like iPAD and smart phones.

Continue reading " Mobility at Infosys " »

Posted by Guest Blogger at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

In some of my previous blogs I have been trying to bring to fore some of pertinent questions and choices that our clients are facing in the Business Objects-BI space, there also certain similar dilemma that they are facing with certain choices in the Business Objects Enterprise-Information Management (EIM) area. One of the many questions  that we  face on a regular basis from our client is on whether to use the Business Objects-Data Federator(BO-DF) in a given scenario and the specific advantages of  the tool as such.

Continue reading " Consolidation with a federation based approach- Is it really a way out? " »

Posted by Somnath Mukherjee at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 2 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

By
Naresh Ramamurti
Practice Leader - SAP RETAIL

Customer Centricity and Cross-Channel shopping have been the two greatest trends in RETAIL since 2010. With Apple and Google taking the world's number 1 and 2 spots for global brands this year, these trends have taken a whole new meaning. On the foundation of tomorrow's mobile applications, customers have dynamited the way they interact with retailers - redefining and rewriting the shopper experience from product to point of sale. While organizations around the world continue to grapple with the challenges of reducing their cost of business, Retailers have an exceptional opportunity to take control of the shopping experience - from embracing social networks to crunching core analytics in real time.

Continue reading " The Search for Retail Intelligence " »

Posted by Guest Blogger at 5:54 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

While in my previous blog at http://www.infosysblogs.com/sap/ I had discussed about the typical questions facing organizations looking at adopting Business Objects, I would now like to help provide a way forward towards navigating through those questions and challenges. Before we get into the details of the path forward let us take a peek into how BO version 4.0 compares with version 3.1 based on our experience in the beta testing phase that we had carried out last year.

Continue reading " Standing at the cross roads of the Business Objects journey-PART II " »

Posted by Somnath Mukherjee at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

The Business Intelligence market has grown 13% in 2010, to surpass the 10 billion USD mark, it surely continues to be the top priority at most organizations!

BI, as a domain, has seen continuous evolution and marked with regular innovation cycles. So much so that, at times, it becomes difficult to keep pace with the upcoming trends. You may have just finished getting your implementation aligned with one, only to find that something better, that brings you even more business value is already up at the anvil. While this, at times, is a difficult position for the IS team, but considering the additional value that your business will be able to achieve, it is most important to ensure that you keep moving up the maturity curve and make the most of these innovations.

Numerous questions come to mind -

1. Do I need to look at all the upcoming trends?
2. How can I prioritize these trends for my needs?
3. What is the approach that I should use for implementing these innovations? Should I wait and watch or should I take them head-on?
4. How should I address them - for the short term or the long term?
5. Do I change my BI strategy mid-way to address these new dimensions?

Keeping in mind the dilemma that we see most of our customers face, Infosys brings to you a panel discussion on this topic at the upcoming SAPPHIRE 2011 event at Orlando. We will have three industry experts, leading the BI strategy at three large and leading organizations, share with you their thoughts on the current BI trends, how they see the BI world changing and what they would like to see it transform into. They will also share their experiences and recommendations on how you can approach BI and its numerous innovations to help you build tomorrow's enterprise, today!

Be there to get answers to your questions!

Posted by Rakhi Makad at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

2010 was a year of change, even turbulence, for SAP - particularly at the leadership level, with the replacement of CEO Leo Apotheker by co-CEOs Bill McDermott and Jim Hageman Snabe. The new leadership brought renewed confidence, which certainly showed in 2010 results. The bold acquisition of Sybase gave a position in mobility, the second largest business application growth topic behind SaaS.

Continue reading " All eyes on SAPPHIRE NOW in 2011 " »

Posted by Peter Russo at 7:46 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

In the last one month I came across the questions and predicament facing a couple of our global customers who were deliberating with the idea of implementing Business Objects on top of their SAP BW landscape.

Scenario-1:

A heavy engineering company is looking at rolling out SAP for its Customer and sales service functions across various service centers in mainland Europe. Along with its SAP ECC roll out it was looking at establishing its analytical platform utilizing SAP BW and Business Objects as the front end. It intends to start work the project from the next month. It is at a cross roads and trying to decide on whether it should go ahead with BO version  3.1 or go with the brand new version 4.0.

Scenario-2:

A large US based logistics company is already on a SAP BW BEx platform and had decided to migrate to a Business Objects reporting suite. It went ahead with performing a pilot of moving a few reports and dashboards to BO using version 3.1 and is now ready to launch the full program. However now it is trying to determine whether it should go ahead with the version 3.1 or move the pilot to version 4.0 and then perform the migration.

Both organizations are facing their moment of truth and am sure that they not in isolation. There would be many more corporations trying to navigate through this situation and making the best out of it. Let us try to understand the typical questions that are arising out of the situation:

·         The first and foremost question running in the mind would be on whether BO 4.0 would be in General Availability within the next one month or would there be further delays?

·         BO 4.0 promises to provide a much more seamless integration with SAP BW backend. Would the product be living up to its promise?

·         Should I decide to go ahead with integrating BO3.1 with BW for now and decide to move to BO 4.0 or higher later, how much would be the migration efforts?

·         Would SAP be protecting my investments on BO 3.1 and BW should I decide to go ahead with 3.1 or would I be again asked to move to 4.0 in the immediate future?

·         Would I be better off waiting for a BO version 4.1 or higher?

I am sure there would be quite a few more that could as well be on the above list but I have tried to capture the most popular questions that we are facing with some of our clients who are looking at adopting BO in the immediate future.

Whereas there are no straight forward answers to the above questions we could definitely work out a strategic fit to decide on whether an organization should look at moving with 4.0 or start with 3.1.  

In the subsequent blog I will try to delve into key differentiators of the two versions of Business Objects and the considerations that should drive the decision of choosing between them

Posted by Somnath Mukherjee at 9:48 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

The key to developing IAM integrated solutions is to start small, build a foundation that can be leveraged for growth.

Key Areas for developing the IAM integrated solution

1.       Vision - Objectives

2.       Governance

3.       Roles and Responsibilities

4.       Process: User Management, Access Controls, and Audit

5.       Architecture - Current and future state

Developing an IAM solution poses several challenges to the business in regards to cost, compliance, and constant changes to the business to align with business objectives.

When choosing an IDM solution an organization must choose solutions that can manage not only Enterprise Applications such as SAP but 3^rd party applications that can work together.

By integrating an HR system as a base for user identity, and using and IDM system as the center for all user access on the enterprise, an organization can realize the following benefits:

1.       Centralized identity management

2.       Centralized User Provision

3.       Centralized Audit  and Compliance

4.       Automated Process for Password Reset, User Approvals, etc.

5.       Reduced cost operating cost

6.       Reduced audit cost.

Let Infosys develop your end to end user access solutions, by integrating it holistic GRC framework and IT infrastructure experience.

Infosys is uniquely positioned to provide cost-effective, value added compliance and IT infrastructure consulting services. Infosys consultants bring a mix of audit, compliance, ERP experience and IT infrastructure experience from across multiple geographies where organizations leverage GRC technology. To learn more about Infosys, visit: www.inofsys.com

Continue reading " Does you GRC User Access Control include IAM? " »

Posted by Ed Siegfried at 1:22 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 1 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Continue reading " Minimize your Customization & Accelerate your Realization - Part III " »

Posted by Sathyanarayana Krishnamurthy at 11:28 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Continue reading " Minimize your Customization & Accelerate your Realization - Part II " »

Posted by Sathyanarayana Krishnamurthy at 9:35 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Continue reading " CIS Modernization and the Need for an Integrated Customer Care & Billing System: Part II " »

Posted by Parmarth Naswa at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Continue reading " Outcome and value based pricing engagement models " »

Posted by Dirk Leifer at 5:27 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Organizations have increasingly sought new, innovative, and (often) expensive ways to get a 360° view of the customer - the reality is that the customer doesn't exist. Customers are many and varied, they have different needs, different motivations, different ways they want to interact with companies and different expectations from the you. Too often companies undergo well-intentioned transformations in pursuit of meeting the customer's needs, only to end the project in frustration having spent millions and never having achieved their goal. The problem is that the companies start out with a goal that is too poorly defined. And when the solution is being developed, it is swamped by trying to solve all the ills the company has let fester for years (or decades).

Continue reading " One size does not fit all: Deliver more shareholder value by embedding "customer value" into your solution design for front-office transformations " »

Posted by Brandon Bichler at 2:48 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Continue reading " CIS Modernization and the Need for an Integrated Customer Care & Billing System: Part I " »

Posted by Parmarth Naswa at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Continually changing turbulent economic environment is forcing organizations to adopt innovative business strategies to stay competitive, efficient in order to achieve highest level of benefits to the stakeholders. Procurement function is playing an ever increasing role in this transformation journey and its importance is becoming increasingly visible.

Continue reading " Centralized Procurement through SAP SRM - the next great wave of savings - Part 1 " »

Posted by Atul Chorbele at 11:49 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 1 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )