INTEGRATION PLATFORM

As the new millennium began, organizations found that their disparate "best-of-breed" software solutions often posed a fundamental problem: the spiraling cost and inflexibility of integrating those solutions into end-to-end business processes. To overcome this problem, technology executives struggled to build and maintain links among solutions from their various vendors - a task that required a huge investment of time and money.

In 2003, SAP NetWeaver became the first platform to allow seamless integration among various SAP and non-SAP solutions, reducing the need for customized links and dramatically lowering the total cost of ownership. By combining people, information, and process-level integration in a unique platform, SAP NetWeaver solved the integration issue at the business level rather than a technology issue.

COMPOSITION PLATFORM

By 2003, SAP concluded that the only viable long-term solution to the industry's integration issue is the use of open standards that allow software applications to be accessed as Web services. Adopting this approach, SAP took Web services to the next level, combining their openness and ubiquity with the requirements of enterprise applications. The resulting Enterprise Services Architecture delivers valuable business functions, such as order management, with the flexibility of Web services.

SAP then developed the first packaged composite applications, known as SAP xApps, combining these services into highly flexible and innovative business processes, and demonstrating the power of "service-based integration."

With Enterprise Services Architecture, SAP launched the evolution of its solutions toward a two-tiered structure:

• Specialized components - such as extended order management or stock management - that deliver the base functions of our solution suite as enterprise services
• Flexible composite applications that combine these enterprise services into flexible business scenarios

This structure allows our customers to leverage their existing investments in SAP solutions, while giving them greater flexibility in designing, deploying, and evolving SAP solutions. SAP NetWeaver is further evolving toward a composition platform, with increased investment in the area of business process management and master data management, recognizing that customer processes may involve a wide variety of software solutions.

In 2004, SAP confirmed its Enterprise Services Architecture road map, further demonstrating our commitment and adding credibility to the general trend towards service-oriented architecture for enterprise applications.