SAP® NetWeaver™ is a complete integration and application platform designed to provide extensibility across heterogeneous IT landscapes. SAP NetWeaver enables organizations to integrate people, information, and business processes across technologies and organizations. Lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is achieved by reducing integration complexity as well as the need for custom and project-specific integration. It also helps leverage existing IT investments today - and is the foundation for future, innovative cross-enterprise processes.

SAP NetWeaver is a comprehensive, integrated, and Web-services enabled technology based on an intimate and longstanding experience in developing mission-critical business solutions in 20 industries for more than 20,000 corporations around the world. It is the "safe-bet" when determining enterprise software choices. SAP has taken the high ground by designing SAP NetWeaver to be fully interoperable with Microsoft .NET and IBM WebSphere (J2EE), providing customers with the flexibility to manage heterogeneous infrastructures, minimizing complexity, and reducing total cost of ownership.

SAP NetWeaver is the solution that will make Web services work for the enterprise.

Business Benefits of SAP NetWeaver

• Business-ready platform. SAP NetWeaver serves as the business-ready, services-oriented platform for all SAP solutions. The platform delivers integration on multiple levels: people (SAP Enterprise Portal, SAP Mobile Infrastructure), information (SAP Business Information Warehouse, SAP Knowledge Management, SAP Master Data Management), and business processes (SAP Exchange Infrastructure). All of these components run on the SAP Web Application Server and were developed using one unified IDE (SAP Developer Studio and SAP Solution Lifecycle Manager) and are managed using a unified console (SAP CCMS).

• Lower TCO, Open, and Flexible. SAP NetWeaver enables complete business integration within open, heterogeneous environments that allow for higher return from existing investments.

  Unlike other middleware platforms, SAP NetWeaver is designed to be completely open to interoperate with other platforms such as Microsoft .Net and IBM WebSphere. It does not require replacement of these platforms, allowing customers to better leverage technical assets and skills in the corporation.

  SAP NetWeaver is the first platform that enables the creation of Enterprise Services Architecture-based solutions. Enterprise Services Architecture is a blueprint for developing all future SAP business solutions.

• Support for SAP xApps™. SAP NetWeaver also enables SAP xApps cross-applications, a new breed of packaged composite applications that snap-on to existing IT environments. SAP xApps lower the cost of integration by delivering integration solutions as software products, reducing the cost of consulting or custom development projects. By leveraging the same application framework as SAP xApps, customers can compose and enhance SAP xApps into customized solutions for their own enterprise, without the need to develop these solutions from scratch every time.

  The platform also captures more than 30 years of SAP's unmatched experience in delivering robust enterprise-class business solutions, resulting in higher scalability, continuous uptime, software manageability, and lifecycle support and extensibility. Put together, all these qualities result in a significant reduction to the total cost of ownership throughout the lifecycle of an enterprise solution.

Comprehensive Platform

SAP NetWeaver is the technical foundation for all SAP R/3 Enterprise, mySAP Business Suite solutions, SAP xApps, as well as partners' products and solutions. SAP not only delivers a technology stack but also pre-configures it with business content coming from thousands of developers in the SAP eco-system. The processes supported cover the whole set of mySAP business applications, industry customized versions, and new cross-enterprise processes delivered under the SAP xApp family.

SAP NetWeaver integrates both structured data, with best-in-class business intelligence capabilities, and unstructured data, with knowledge management (KM) capabilities. In addition, master data management allows the sharing of harmonized master data formerly trapped in multiple systems. It enables the Enterprise Services Architecture with the following capabilities :

• Business Intelligence (BI) capabilities include a robust BI Platform, a complete suite of BI Tools including reporting, analysis, and information delivery, data warehouse management and administration, and Extract, Transformation and loading (ETL).
• Knowledge Management offers user-centric services that provide a single access point to third-party repositories and SAP's own content management systems. It delivers integrated search, taxonomy, classification, content management, and publishing and supports customized workflow processes.
• Master Data Management enables the sharing of harmonized master data, formerly trapped in multiple systems, and ensures cross system data consistency - regardless of physical system location and vendor. It helps to align master data by providing services that recognize identical master data objects, and keep them consistent.

Further, with SAP NetWeaver are two new components: the Composite Application Framework and Collaborative Master Data Management.

• The new composite application framework built into SAP NetWeaver enables SAP and its partners to create new applications targeting cross-functional business processes through tools, frameworks, rules, and methodologies. These include, for instance, an object access layer that allows customers to abstract from the underlying heterogeneity and to create a unified development and deployment environment.
• SAP NetWeaver also includes master data management (MDM) services. MDM is the first standardized offering designed to solve the widespread challenges of data integration from multiple systems, physical locations, and diverse vendors. MDM ensures information integrity across the business network by allowing companies to consolidate, harmonize and centrally master data in heterogeneous IT environments.

Support for Developer Community

In order to drive adoption of SAP NetWeaver and support the development of new SAP xApps, SAP is working to foster and support a developer community that will facilitate the transfer of knowledge and information between developers inside and outside SAP. SAP will support this group in providing technical articles, Web training, code samples, evaluation tools, special interest groups, and developer-specific events, in addition to detailed technical reference materials.

Leverage ABAP Investments

SAP NetWeaver leverages ABAP based investments into the latest Web based architecture, both on the application code level, and on screen design and webification. SAP Web Application Server is the only application server in the industry that enables a combination of Java and ABAP in one design and execution environment, lowering the cost of creation and execution alike.

Key Functional Areas of SAP NetWeaver

• Portal (Infrastructure)
  SAP NetWeaver combines industry-leading portal technology with an unequalled depth and breadth of business content. It drives efficiencies into business processes that span customers, suppliers, partners and employees. An open, standards-based portal, SAP NetWeaver brings collaboration, and role-based access to existing IT systems and Web services. Through its support of Web-based, mobile, and wireless interfaces, the SAP NetWeaver provides an immediate enhanced return on existing IT investments.
• Collaboration
  Collaboration room and real time collaboration capabilities promote dynamic communication within permanent and ad hoc teams or communities. Shared email, calendars, threaded discussion and document stores are managed by local administrators who can independently update memberships and access rights.
• Multichannel access
  Multichannel access provides access to your enterprise systems via mobile devices, voice or RFID. This allows enterprises to extend their business processes to where business occurs, thus leveraging their existing investment and enabling new user communities. Through SAP Mobile Engine, companies can extend mission-critical mobile business applications to their users in either a connected or disconnected environment either utilizing SAP's ready-made applications or developing their own via a standardized development framework.
• Knowledge management
  Open KM platform with user-centric services provide a single access point to third-party repositories and SAP's own content management systems that delivers integrated search, taxonomy, classification, content management, and publishing and the respective workflow processes.
• Business Intelligence Platform
  SAP's Business Intelligence platform is a scalable architecture and open-standards-based technology that enables organizations to integrate, analyze, and disseminate relevant and timely information. It integrates data from various sources providing consistent information for analysis quickly, in the right context, and at the appropriate level of detail. It also provides a robust suite of BI tools to easily create and deploy customized, interactive reports and applications, supporting decisions at every level throughout and beyond the enterprise walls.
• Master Data Management
  SAP NetWeaver enables information integrity across the business network, in a heterogeneous IT landscape. It helps to define the business network environment based on generic and industry specific business elements and related attributes - called master data. Master data, for example, cover business partner information, product masters, product structures, or technical asset information. SAP NetWeaver enables the sharing of harmonized master data, formerly trapped in multiple systems, and ensures cross system data consistency - regardless of physical system location and vendor. It helps to align master data by providing services that recognize identical master data objects, and keep them consistent. In addition, it enables the federation of business processes, by providing consistent distribution mechanisms of master data objects into other systems, within the company, and across company boundaries.
• Integration Broker
  In addition to enabling XML/SOAP-based communication between application components from various sources and vendors, the SAP NetWeaver includes the capabilities to define software components, interfaces, mappings, and content-based routing rules. This so called shared collaboration knowledge represents meta knowledge or business semantics describing integration relevant facts based on open standards.
• Business Process Management (BPM)
  Business Process Management addresses the needs of modelling and driving processes in a dynamic landscape. It allows combining underlying applications into adaptive end-to-end processes spanning the entire value chain. It also enables ad-hoc creation and execution of workflows by end users.
• Application Platform (J2EE and ABAP)
  Provides full support for platform-independent Web services, business Web applications, and open standards-based development built on key technologies such as Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) and ABAP. As a result, customers can leverage existing technology assets and skills while building and deploying the dynamic business applications and Web-service oriented solutions that drive today's collaborative business.
• Software Lifecycle Management
  This centralized technology allows for all stages of the software life cycle, from design, development, deployment, implementation, versioning, and testing through ongoing operations like administration and change management. It provides tools for developing, testing, and deploying Web applications through the entire software life cycle.
• Composite Application Framework
  Composite Application Framework is the factory in which business processes that add functionality to existing systems are built, many times, quickly and easily. It contains the tools, methodology, rules, and patterns that allow SAP and its partners to efficiently develop xApps while leveraging all integration layers.
• Application UI Development (Web Dynpro)
  Web Dynpro supports a model-driven development methodology for building professional Web user interfaces. It provides a standards-based development and runtime environment, device independence, and declarative design principles that guarantee UI development in a highly productive fashion.
• Security and User management
  Delivers leading security technologies for e-business solutions, including single sign-on (SSO), role-based authorization, central user administration, secure information exchange with encryption, public key infrastructure support, secure document exchange, and digital signatures.
• Platform Abstraction (DB and OS)
  SAP solutions are open and flexible, supporting databases, applications, operating systems, and hardware platforms from most major vendors. They also uphold the highest quality standards and deliver unparalleled levels of performance and scalability. And they're appropriate for virtually any organization, from global enterprise to small and midsize business.
• Globalization
  Supports global e-business in multiple languages, currencies, time zones. Includes powerful and professional translation tools. It also provides country-specific features such as address-management functionality and transcription facilities for the automatic creation of business documents.

Packaging

SAP NetWeaver is an application and integration platform delivered as one package. To meet current demand, its technologies are available in the following packages :

• SAP Enterprise Portal (SAP EP) powered by SAP NetWeaver
• Capabilities: Portal, Collaboration, Knowledge Management
• SAP Business Intelligence (SAP BI) powered by SAP NetWeaver
• Includes the following technical components
• Capabilities: Business Information Warehouse, Portal, Collaboration, Knowledge Management
• SAP Master Data Management (SAP MDM)
• Capabilities: Content Consolidation, Master Data Harmonization, Central Master Data Management
• SAP Exchange Infrastructure (SAP XI)
• Capabilities: Integration Broker, Business Process Management
• SAP Mobile Engine /Infrastructure (SAP ME/I)
• Mobile Infrastructure
• SAP Web Application Server (SAP Web AS)
• DB & OS abstraction

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SAP, the SAP logo, SAP Business Suite, SAP and all other SAP products and services mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries.
Other product or service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.

For more information, press only :

Jeff Chang, +1 (650) 320-3197, jeff.chang@sap.com, PST
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Hilmar Schepp, +49 (6227) 7-46799, hilmar.schepp@sap.com, CET
Scott Smith, +1 (415) 591-4113, scott_smith@sfo.bm.com, PST
SAP Press Office, +1 (610) 661-3200, press@sap.com, EST