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SAP Release Strategy
Document Version: 2014 Edition, Version 02 - 2014-10-14
SAP Release Strategy
Table of Contents
1
SAP Release Strategy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2
SAP Release and Maintenance Strategy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.1
Release and Maintenance Strategy for On-Premise Software. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2
2.1.1
Availability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.1.2
Shipment Phases. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.1.3
Maintenance Strategy Rules. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
2.1.4
Maintenance Strategy Exceptions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.1.5
Maintenance Phases. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.1.6
Upgrade. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.1.7
Integration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.1.8
Product Availability Matrix. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Release and Maintenance Strategy for Cloud Solutions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.2.1
Cloud Solution Offerings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.2.2
Release Cycle and Support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.2.3
Release Communication. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.3
Release and Maintenance Strategy for Mobile Apps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3
SAP Portfolio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27
3.1
Our Vision. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.2
SAP Solutions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3.3
3.2.1
Solutions for Industries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.2.2
Solutions for Lines of Business. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.2.3
Prepackaged Best Practices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.2.4
Influencing and Adopting SAP's Products and Solutions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
SAP Software Products. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.3.1
Simplified User Experience. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.3.2
Applications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.3.3
Analytics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
3.3.4
Technology Platform. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.4
Services and Support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.5
Ecosystem and Channels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
4
Availability and Maintenance Details for SAP Releases. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
5
Glossary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
2
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SAP Release Strategy
Table of Contents
1
SAP Release Strategy
Our release strategy is designed to
●
Support the planning of SAP software implementation and upgrade projects
●
Provide insight into our product strategy and product portfolio
●
Describe how SAP standard software is made available to customers
●
Show which maintenance strategy rules are applied to SAP software products
●
Explain how integration between different software product versions is assured
___________________________________________________________________
Release and Maintenance Strategy
Find information about how we make SAP standard software available, which maintenance strategy rules are
applied to SAP software products, and how integration is assured between different software product versions.
Find out more: SAP Release and Maintenance Strategy
Last major update: June 26, 2014
About the SAP Portfolio
Find information about our solutions, software products, and services, as well as our ecosystem and partners.
Find out more: SAP Portfolio
Last major update: June 26, 2014
Availability and Maintenance Details for SAP Software Releases
Find information about the availability and maintenance details for SAP software releases, upgrade paths, and
technical information.
Find out more: Availability and Mainenance Details for SAP Releases
Last major update: October 14, 2014
SAP Release Strategy
SAP Release Strategy
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Disclaimer
The SAP Release Strategy pages reflect the status of SAP's release planning as of the date of publication of the
respective chapter. It contains only intended strategies, developments, and/or functionalities of SAP solutions,
applications, and technologies and is not intended to be binding upon SAP to any particular course of business,
product strategy, and/or development; its content is subject to change without notice.
These pages are not subject to your license agreement or any other service or subscription agreement with SAP.
SAP assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions in this material. SAP does not warrant the accuracy or
completeness of the information, text, graphics, links, or other items contained within this material. These pages
are provided without a warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied
warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or noninfringement.
SAP shall have no liability for damages of any kind including without limitation direct, special, indirect, or
consequential damages that may result from the use of these materials. This limitation shall not apply in cases of
intent or gross negligence. The statutory liability for personal injury and defective products is not affected. SAP
has no control over the information that you may access through the use of hot links contained in these materials
and does not endorse your use of third-party Web pages nor provide any warranty whatsoever relating to thirdparty Web pages or their content.
All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to
differ materially from expectations. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking
statements, which speak only as of the publication date, and they should not be relied upon in making purchasing
decisions.
Related Information
SAP Solution Explorer
SAP Improvements & Innovations
Product Availability Matrix
SAP Maintenance Strategy
SAP Licensing Guide
SAP Road Maps
Influencing and Adopting SAP's Products and Solutions
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2
SAP Release and Maintenance Strategy
Overview
On-Premise Software
Cloud Solutions
Our strategy for on-premise soft­
ware determines the availability of
new software releases, the length
and conditions of their mainte­
nance, and the rules that apply in
cases of dependencies between in­
dividual software releases.
Our strategy for making on-demand Our strategy for making mobile
solutions available to customers,
apps available to customers.
which includes maintenance, func­
tional extensions, and integration of
the software.
●
Availability
●
Cloud Solution Offerings
●
Availability
●
Shipment Phases
●
Release Cycle and Support
●
●
Release Communication
Functional enhancements and
maintenance
●
Maintenance strategy rules
●
Maintenance strategy exception
●
Maintenance phases
●
Upgrade
●
Integration
●
Product Availability Matrix
Mobile Apps
Related Information
SAP Maintenance Strategy
Exceptions to Maintenance Strategy Rules
SAP Ramp-Up
SAP Support Package Stacks
Product Availability Matrix
2.1 Release and Maintenance Strategy for On-Premise
Software
SAP Release Strategy
SAP Release and Maintenance Strategy
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The Release and Maintenance Strategy 1 determines the availability of new SAP software releases, the length and
conditions of their maintenance, and the rules that apply where dependencies exist between individual software
releases.2
●
Availability
●
Shipment Phases
●
Maintenance Strategy Rules
●
Maintenance Strategy Exceptions
●
Maintenance Phases
●
Upgrade
●
Integration
●
Product Availability Matrix
2.1.1
Availability
The objective of the SAP Release Strategy is to align the availability of SAP software products. Usually, software
releases are shipped in a defined sequence:
●
Enhancements to SAP Business Suite software may be delivered as follows:
○
Enhancement packages for the SAP Business Suite core applications and the SAP NetWeaver technology
platform
○
Releases of add-ons and stand-alone applications for lines of businesses (LoBs), industries, and
enablement for new technologies
○
Continuous improvements using the SAP Note service and feature and support packages
●
Enhancements to SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence (BI) platform may be delivered in major or
minor releases. Major releases contain major new functionality, and architectural platform changes are
possible; minor releases include new and improved business functions that can be implemented and adopted
quickly. The interfaces remain stable between major and minor releases. A major SAP BusinessObjects BI
platform release and the minor releases that follow it are referred to as an “SAP BusinessObjects BI platform
release family” (see Figure 2 in “Maintenance Strategy Rules”). After the availability of a new major SAP
BusinessObjects BI platform release, stand-alone or add-on software products that work with, or are based
on, that release will be adapted to it over time.
●
Enhancements to the SAP Business One application may be delivered in major or minor releases.
○
●
Updates to the SAP HANA platform are called "revisions" and may be delivered several times a year. A
revision may contain corrections and new technical features. These updates are downward-compatible.
1
2
6
Major releases contain major new functionality or architectural platform changes or both. Minor releases
include new and improved business functions or corrections or both that can be implemented and
adopted quickly. The interfaces remain stable between major and minor releases. A major SAP Business
One release and the minor releases that follow it are referred to as an “SAP Business One release family”
(see Figure 4 in “Maintenance Strategy Rules”)
The strategy described in this section applies to standard releases. “Pilot releases,” “standard-related custom development
project releases,” and “custom development project releases” follow a different release and maintenance strategy.
This guidance focuses on Business Objects (and SAP BusinessObjects) software releases from March 2008 onward and their
corresponding release and maintenance strategy. If you are interested in former Business Objects software releases shipped
prior to March 2008 and their release and maintenance strategy, see SAP Maintenance Strategy. This guidance also focuses on
software releases from late 2010 onward from Sybase, an SAP company.
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We may deliver several add-on releases (a sequence of releases as shown in Figure 3 in “Maintenance Strategy
Rules”) that might build on a specific SAP software release (for example, the SAP Global Trade Services
application offers several releases for the same SAP NetWeaver main release).
We may support a specific software release with various content shipments. The release cycle of a content
shipment from SAP typically follows the release cycle of the release it supports. Some content shipments deliver a
sequence of releases supporting a certain release.
2.1.2
Shipment Phases
SAP software releases (except content releases) and corresponding enhancement packages are generally
introduced into the market in two shipment phases: restricted and unrestricted (see the figure below).
In some cases, we may offer a beta shipment (for example, for customer validation activities) prior to the
restricted shipment phase (before the release-to-customer date). Beta shipments may be used for testing
purposes only. They are not available for productive use. The content and the planned release-to-customer date
of software releases made available under a beta shipment might be subject to change. Therefore, customers
should not place undue reliance on a beta shipment and the features or functionalities presented therein and
should not rely upon them in making purchasing decisions.
Initially, most new releases become available in a restricted shipment phase. This begins with the release-tocustomer date. During this time, the SAP Ramp-Up program supports productive use of the software with a
limited number of customers, while performing a knowledge transfer to consultants and partners globally and
gathering feedback from customers, especially on new features. For more information, see SAP Ramp-Up section
on SAP Service Marketplace.
Beginning with the release-to-customer date:
●
Customers participating in the SAP Ramp-Up program can use the new release in their production operation.
●
SAP provides minor corrections for this new release.
●
SAP communicates the planned maintenance duration for this release.
With the successful conclusion of the program, the unrestricted shipment phase of an SAP software release
begins on the general availability date (see Figure 1 below). During the unrestricted shipment phase, the release
is available to all customers.
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Figure 1: Shipment Phases
The most recent release in the unrestricted shipment phase is declared the default release. When ordering an SAP
software product, customers receive the default release unless a different release in mainstream maintenance is
explicitly specified.
During the maintenance period of a release, we may offer support releases that contain all previously available
support packages to facilitate and expedite implementation and upgrade projects.
2.1.3
Maintenance Strategy Rules
Maintenance Strategy Rules
Maintenance strategy rules for different types of applications:
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SAP Business Suite core
applications
At least seven years of mainstream maintenance are provided for core application
releases. 4
(SAP ERP, SAP PLM3, SAP
CRM, SAP SCM, and SAP
SRM)
SAP NetWeaver technol­
ogy platform
Maintenance dates for SAP NetWeaver releases are aligned with the maintenance
dates for the core application releases.
Enhancement packages
Maintenance dates for enhancement packages follow each underlying release.
SAP BusinessObjects
Business Intelligence
(BI) platform release
family
The following maintenance durations apply for every release family of the SAP Busi­
nessObjects BI platform:
●
Seven (7) years of mainstream maintenance
●
Two (2) years of priority-one support
Mainstream maintenance begins with the release-to-customer date for the major
release and covers any subsequent minor releases in the release family that might
be shipped (see Figure 2).
Each release in a release family has a mainstream maintenance period of at least
two (2) years after the start of restricted shipment for that release.
As soon as a new release enters unrestricted shipment, the previous release is
maintained for at least one (1) more year.
At the end of the seven (7) years of mainstream maintenance, priority-one support
begins for the last shipped release within a release family. The last release closes
the nine-year maintenance cycle for this release family.
Figure 2: Nine-Year Maintenance Cycle for an SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform
Release Family
3
4
SAP PLM is part of, and shipped with, SAP ERP or corresponding enhancement packages, and follows the maintenance dura­
tions of the relevant SAP ERP software releases and enhancement packages.
For core application releases shipped between 2004 and November 2008, maintenance phases have the following durations:
five (5) years of mainstream maintenance, one (1) year of extended maintenance at an additional 2% fee, and two (2) years of
extended maintenance at an additional 4% fee.
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Add-on software prod­
ucts
Maintenance dates for add-on software product versions are aligned with the main­
tenance dates for the release they are based on.
(based on, for example,
core applications, SAP
NetWeaver, or an SAP
BusinessObjects BI plat­
form release)
For some add-on software products, we plan to provide several subsequent re­
leases for the same underlying release. In this case, the maintenance period of the
release sequence covers the entire maintenance period of the underlying release
(see example in Figure 3), specifically:
●
Maintenance dates for the last release of the sequence are aligned with the
maintenance dates for the underlying release.
●
All other releases within the sequence may have shorter mainstream mainte­
nance than the underlying release (but at least two [2] years) and do not offer
extended maintenance or priority-one support.
Figure 3: Sample Release Sequence with Maintenance Durations for an Add-On
Release If Extended Maintenance is Offered for the Underlying Release
Other stand-alone soft­
ware products
Other stand-alone software product versions offer at least two (2) years of main­
stream maintenance.
(including stand-alone
software products from
Sybase)
Content shipments
We may support a specific release with one or more content shipments.
Maintenance dates for those content shipments are aligned with the maintenance
dates of the supported SAP software release.
A content shipment may deliver a sequence of releases supporting a specific SAP
software release. When it does, the maintenance period for the release sequence
covers the entire maintenance period of the release that the content shipment sup­
ports and the following rules apply:
10
●
Maintenance end dates for the last release in the sequence are aligned with the
maintenance end dates of the supported SAP software release.
●
All other releases within the sequence may have shorter maintenance periods,
and there is no extended maintenance or priority-one support.
●
All releases within a sequence have maintenance durations of at least one year.
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SAP Business One appli­
cation
We provide at least five (5) years of mainstream maintenance for an SAP Business
One release family and related add-on software products.
stand-alone and add-on
software products
For the SAP Business One release family, the five-year mainstream maintenance
period begins with the general availability date of the major release (for example, x.
0) and covers any subsequent minor releases (for example, x.1 and x.2) of the re­
lease family in question (see Figure 4). The following conditions apply:
●
As soon as a new release within an SAP Business One release family has passed
the general availability date, the maintenance of the preceding release is dis­
continued.
●
Extended maintenance is not offered for SAP Business One releases and appli­
cations.
The maintenance duration per remote support platform release will be limited to at
least one (1) year, starting with the general availability date. As soon as a new re­
mote support platform for an SAP Business One release has passed the general
availability date, the maintenance of the preceding release is discontinued.
Figure 4: Five-Year Maintenance Cycle for an SAP Business One Release Family
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SAP HANA Platform
Within the SAP HANA release and maintenance strategy we differentiate between
the SAP HANA Platform, SAP HANA Editions and SAP software products powered
by SAP HANA:
●
The SAP HANA platform is an SAP product that integrates a number of compo­
nents, including the SAP HANA database, the SAP HANA studio, and SAP
HANA clients.
●
SAP products powered by SAP HANA follow the common release and mainte­
nance rules of SAP software products.
●
SAP HANA editions are license bundles, consisting of the SAP HANA Platform
as foundation but also adding additional SAP products to support certain sce­
narios.
Maintenance Strategy for the SAP HANA Platform:
The maintenance strategy for the SAP HANA platform is as follows:
●
The SAP HANA Platform will stay in mainstream maintenance as long as SAP
application releases that are built on top are in mainstream maintenance, ex­
tended maintenance, or priority-one support.
●
SAP ships updates with support package stacks, which are delivered from
within one delivery stream and without additional ramp-up. We plan to release
these twice a year.
●
Some software components of the SAP HANA platform provide new capabili­
ties as part of support packages called “revisions” - for example the SAP HANA
database, SAP HANA clients, the SAP HANA studio, application foundation li­
brary, SAP liveCache technology, and a hardware configuration check.
●
These updates are strictly downward compatible. We may consider incompati­
ble changes due to legal or security reasons, but we follow a strict exception ap­
proval process.
●
Downward-compatible software component versions can be replaced by a
higher version in the course of the life of the software product version they are
built into - similar to SAP kernel (SAP Note 787302) and SAP GUI (SAP Note
147519)
Figure 5: Support Package Stack Structure for the SAP HANA Platform
Revision Strategy
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To address the needs of a growing number of our customers running mission criti­
cal applications on top of SAP HANA, we introduced an additional maintenance
stream for SAP HANA with temporary availability, a clear focus on stabilization, and
an additional validation.
The revision strategy (see Figure 6) comprises:
●
Support package revisions (bug fixes, performance improvements, and new ca­
pabilities)
●
Maintenance revisions (only major bug fixes)
Customers may now choose to:
●
Maintain their SAP HANA system with the latest support package revision
●
Stay temporarily on certain maintenance revisions (based on the last revision
before a new support package stack for the SAP HANA platform is re­
leased) and receive only a subset of fixes
Provisioning of maintenance revisions for SAP HANA ends with the release of the
SAP production system verified revision, approximately three (3) months after re­
lease of a successor support package stack.
Figure 6: Revision Strategy for the SAP HANA Platform
Support Package Revisions for SAP HANA
Support package revisions (see Figure 6):
●
Contain bug fixes, performance improvements, or new capabilities (as part of
the support package stack for the SAP HANA platform) as well as all fixes that
were delivered through maintenance revisions
●
Should serve any customer and scenario (production or non-production), tar­
geting customers looking for the latest capabilities in the SAP HANA platform
Maintenance Revisions for SAP HANA
Maintenance revisions:
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●
Contain only fixes of major bugs found in key scenarios supported by SAP
HANA
●
Are based on the last revision before a new support package stack for the SAP
HANA platform is released, targeting customers with a clear focus on stabiliza­
tion
●
Are released on demand and focus on production and business-critical scenar­
ios supported by SAP HANA
Provisioning of new maintenance revisions ends with the release of the SAP produc­
tion system verified revision, approximately three (3) months after release of a suc­
cessor support package stack. From this date, customers must adopt the regu­
lar support package revisions to receive further fixes.
Possible update paths from maintenance revisions to support package revisions are
described in SAP Note 1948334.
Update Strategy for the SAP HANA Platform
Building on the availability of maintenance revisions for SAP HANA, customers can
opt either to keep a previous SAP HANA support package stack running for approxi­
mately three (3) months after the release of a new support package stack, or to im­
mediately adopt the new stack upon release. This depends on the individual and
unique customer needs for adopting new features and capabilities of SAP HANA.
Figure 7: Update Strategies for the SAP HANA Platform
Customers can plan their SAP maintenance stack using SAP HANA Data Center
Service Points valid between the SAP HANA support packages at the end of March
and at the end of September.
SAP provides SAP HANA customers with guidance as to when, and depending on
the specific revision, as to when they should schedule their SAP HANA mainte­
nance. The basis is always the revision available for more than three months. In ad­
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dition, the SAP HANA Platform support package stacks run at least one week in
production enterprise applications at an SAP location before they are officially re­
leased to establish predictability in terms of performance and reliability.
Figure 8: Update Strategy Using SAP HANA Data Center Service Points
Downward-compatible
software components
Downward-compatible software component versions can be replaced by a higher
version in the course of the life of the software product version into which they are
built. Therefore, such software component versions are usually not maintained for
the entire maintenance period of the software product version into which they are
built.
Examples include:
2.1.4
●
SAP kernel - see 787302
●
SAP GUI - see 147519
Maintenance Strategy Exceptions
In exceptional cases, specific software releases can be exempted from the maintenance strategy. For exceptions
to the maintenance strategy, mainstream maintenance is defined individually and there is no extended
maintenance or priority-one support. The exceptions list is available in the Maintenance ⇒ Exceptions to
Maintenance Strategy Rules section, and may be amended from time to time without notice. Note that these
exceptions never apply to core application releases and their enhancement packages or to the main releases of
the SAP NetWeaver technology platform and releases of the SAP Composition Environment (formerly SAP
NetWeaver Composition Environment) offering.
We cannot support third-party software after the suppliers’ support has expired. In such cases, customers may
have to upgrade to more recent releases of the respective third-party software, provided those releases are
supported by the release of the SAP software in question.
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2.1.5
Maintenance Phases
There are four distinct maintenance phases: mainstream maintenance, priority-one support, extended
maintenance, and customer-specific maintenance.
Mainstream Maintenance
Mainstream maintenance is offered for all SAP software releases. Mainstream maintenance begins with the
release-to-customer date and continues throughout the unrestricted shipment phase. We generally provide
corrections for the entire mainstream maintenance period, such as:
●
SAP Notes service — Instructions on how to remove known errors from SAP software. This includes a
description of the symptoms and the cause of the error as well as the release in which the error occurs and
support package level in which the error is corrected.
●
SAP security notes — Expert advice from SAP regarding important action items and patches to improve the
security of SAP customers' systems. Security patches are made available each month on "SAP Security
Patch Day". For more information as well as the SAP Security Patch Day schedule, see SAP Security Notes ->
SAP Security Patch Day.
●
Support packages* — Bundle of software corrections available for all SAP software development
environments (for example, ABAP and Java programming languages). Support packages may include legal
changes.
●
Support package stacks — Sets of support packages and patches for the respective software release that
must be used in the given combination. Support package stacks should be seen as an entity in themselves;
customers must heed the minimum requirements and dependencies between individual components and
apply the support packages and patches specified in the support package stack together. Maintenance
shipments for SAP Business One application releases include patches, which deliver corrections, and "hot
fixes," which are urgent single corrections. Additional information, a list of supported releases, and the
current support package stacks are available in the SAP Support Package Stacks section on SAP Support
Portal.
●
Feature packages and feature package stacks — Deliver nondisruptive innovation for generally available
product versions, as well as bundling software corrections and legal changes. A feature package delivery
comes as a feature package stack. Like a support package stack, it must be used in the given combination. A
feature package stack should be seen as an entity in itself - customers must heed the minimum requirements
and dependencies between individual components and apply the feature packages and patches specified in
the feature package stack together.
For releases for which we provide enhancement packages, technology updates will be provided for the latest three
enhancement packages and support packages will be provided at least for the last enhancement package that is
in the unrestricted shipment phase.
We strongly recommend regular application of support package stacks at least once a year.
If enhancement packages are offered for a software product, we recommend that customers apply the most
recent support package stacks regularly, including the latest enhancement package in the unrestricted shipment
phase (see Figure 9). The advantage is that you receive the most recent corrections and legal changes within one
project and are able to activate new functionality flexibly.
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Figure 9: Possible Update Paths for Enhancement Packages
* Including service packs for SAP BusinessObjects business intelligence solutions releases.
Priority-One Support
After the end of mainstream maintenance for releases that are not based on SAP NetWeaver, we offer priority-one
support for selected releases of the former SAP BusinessObjects portfolio. During priority-one support, the scope
of support is limited to the handling of priority-one messages only — for example, there will be no message
handling for messages with medium priority. Priority-one support is an optional offering that gives our customers
more flexibility in deciding on the right time for an upgrade. Priority-one support does not require an additional
payment or a specific maintenance addendum. Depending on the type of the customer’s support contract, the
switch to priority-one support will occur during the renewal period or the customer will receive priority-one
support by default if continuing to run a release during its priority-one support period.
Extended Maintenance
Extended maintenance is offered for selected SAP software releases. The scope of support for the extended
maintenance period is usually similar to the scope of support provided during mainstream maintenance. We
publish information on the availability and scope of extended maintenance in advance. Customers can request a
quotation for extended maintenance by completing a user-friendly form in the Maintenance section.
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Customer-Specific Maintenance
Customer-specific maintenance is offered for all SAP releases except for SAP Business One and some releases
from the former SAP BusinessObjects portfolio. Software deployed at the customer’s site can enter into the
customer-specific maintenance phase in one of three ways:
●
The customer’s extended maintenance contract term ends.
●
The mainstream maintenance period ends and extended maintenance is not offered.
●
The mainstream maintenance period ends and extended maintenance is offered, but the customer does not
choose to take advantage of the offer.
A release enters into customer-specific maintenance automatically. There is no need to apply for an additional
contract. During this phase, customers receive support services similar to those offered in the mainstream
maintenance phase, with some restrictions. For example, we do not deliver new support packages or updates to
cover legal changes, and technology updates are limited. Problem resolution is customer specific, which means
customers are charged for solving problems not yet known to SAP. For more information, see SAP Note 52505 or
the Maintenance section.
2.1.6
Upgrade
We provide upgrade paths for SAP software releases and the corresponding content releases and access to
upgrade procedures to the current release. Usually, customers can upgrade directly from one release to any other
subsequent release as long as the releases are in the mainstream maintenance phase. Depending on
technological constraints, an upgrade to a release that is several releases removed from a customer’s current
release may have to be performed in more than one step.
To facilitate smooth upgrades, we provide a sufficient overlap of two successive releases to make sure that the
time in which customers can upgrade from one release to the next is at least one year for SAP software releases 5.
For content releases, the overlap is at least six (6) months. In this way, customers have a sufficient window of
opportunity to upgrade from one release to the next.
2.1.7
Integration
Our release strategy supports integration between SAP software releases. Integration is the prerequisite for
stable cross-application functionality and offers maximum flexibility for continuous improvement.
The first release of an SAP software product can be integrated with a defined set of releases of other software
products. A follow-up release usually supports at least the same set as its predecessor as long as the releases
within this set are in mainstream maintenance, extended maintenance, or priority-one support:
●
Functionality supporting the customer’s current business scenarios will remain available after an upgrade of
an SAP software product. Details and exceptions are indicated within the master guides available from SAP
Service Marketplace extranet, the migration guide, or the release notes.
5
18
An exception applies to SAP Business One application releases. For more information, see the “Maintenance Strategy Rules”
section: Maintenance Strategy Rules
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●
To take full advantage of new or enhanced functionality that extends support for the customer’s business
scenarios and broadens their scope, customers may be required to upgrade more than one software product
within their application landscape. Typically, they need to upgrade only the software products that deliver the
new or enhanced functionality.
In terms of compatibility, the following rules apply for content shipments from SAP:
●
An upgrade of a software release usually requires an upgrade of the corresponding content release.
●
After an upgrade of the underlying SAP NetWeaver technology platform or SAP Solution Manager application
management solution, all functionality supporting customers’ business scenarios that was available and
supported by a specific content release will still be running – and previously activated objects or custom
objects will continue to work as before.
2.1.8
Product Availability Matrix
Through the product availability matrix on SAP Service Marketplace extranet, we regularly publish the following
information about SAP software releases:
●
Release type (for example, standard release, early adoption release, or custom development project release)
●
Planned availability
●
Maintenance durations
●
Upgrade paths
●
Platform availability, including database platforms and operating systems
For more information, see the Product Availability Matrix.
2.2
Release and Maintenance Strategy for Cloud Solutions
Our strategy for making on-demand solutions available to customers, which includes maintenance, functional
extensions, and integration of the software, is detailed in the following sections.
●
Cloud Solution Offerings
●
Release Cycle and Support
●
Release Communication
Delivering cloud solutions, also known as on-demand solutions, is one of the key pillars in our product strategy.
Our cloud offerings currently include on-demand solutions such as SAP Cloud for Travel and Expense or SAP
Business ByDesign as well as cloud solutions from acquired companies, including SuccessFactors Employee
Central and SuccessFactors Workforce Planning and Ariba Supplier Performance Management or Ariba Network.
The customer gets a combined offering for various industries consisting of various cloud solutions. Overall, all
cloud solutions follow similar quality and integration standards. However, there are minor differences – for
example, in the way customers are informed about new features or the frequency of new feature offerings, which
will now be explained.
Compared to on-premise software products, delivered cloud solutions are not installed in the customer's system
landscape and not operated by the customer itself, but by SAP cloud infrastructure instead and made available to
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19
end users over the Internet. This means that SAP takes care of the ongoing operations, maintenance, and
installation of updates (corrections and new or enhanced business functionality), so customers can focus on their
business and consume new features promptly and more frequently.
In addition to cloud services that provide business functionality, we also offer infrastructure cloud services.
Infrastructure cloud services such as SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud or SAP HANA Cloud Platform are not covered
within the SAP Release and Maintenance section. These offerings give customers the full power of the SAP HANA
platform in a managed cloud environment so that they don’t have to technically implement it on-site themselves.
2.2.1
Cloud Solution Offerings
The key element of a cloud solution is the centrally managed service to provide business functionality without the
need to install software, or to maintain and operate it at the customer side (see Table 1).
Note: We intend to rebrand cloud solutions from SAP companies Ariba and SuccessFactors as SAP offerings over
a designated migration period. Names of existing cloud solutions from SAP may also be affected by rebranding.
However, none of the current cloud solutions available has been renamed at the date of publication.
SAP
Cloud solutions from SAP include
SAP Cloud for Travel and Expense,
SAP Cloud for Customer, and SAP
Business ByDesign solutions.
20
Ariba
SuccessFactors
Cloud solutions from Ariba include
purchasing, invoicing, sourcing,
contract management, catalogs,
spend visibility, and supplier man­
agement. Procurement content is
available to SAP customers as a cat­
alog solution.
Cloud solutions from SuccessFac­
tors focus on HR and talent man­
agement and include core HR and
payroll, workforce analytics and
planning, collaboration, recruiting,
and learning management.
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SAP
Ariba
SuccessFactors
On-premise integration:
On-premise integration:
On-premise integration:
●
SAP Cloud for Travel and Ex­
pense – Specific integration
product versions available, for
example, network application
integration add-ons for backend integration into the SAP
ERP Financials and SAP ERP
Human Capital Management
solutions
For selected use cases, Ariba offers
back-end integration options, for
example, for Ariba Procurement
Content, Ariba Sourcing, or Ariba
Contract Management.
Back-end integration possible for
selected use cases, such as for Suc­
cessFactors Employee Central to
the on-premise payroll of the SAP
ERP application.
●
SAP Cloud for Customer –
Specific integration version
available, for example, network
application integration add-ons
for back-end integration into
the SAP ERP application
●
SAP Business ByDesign for
subsidiaries – Add-on for local
back-end connection available
Table 1: Cloud Solution Offerings
With cloud solutions, customers do not to worry about installing updates and upgrades. All aspects of technical
and functional infrastructure are part of the service provided and centrally managed. Cloud services are provided
on a subscription basis, and customers receive the right for usage and support for the duration of the subscription
period.
Cloud solutions provide integration capabilities to the customer’s local back-end systems. The degree of back-end
integration depends on the respective subscription to the cloud service. From a release and maintenance
perspective, it is important to differentiate whether this is local (whereby the installation of the integration
software is part of the subscription contract) or handled separately as an individual on-premise product.
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Figure 10: Cloud Services with and Without Back-End Integration Capabilities
Legally, Ariba offers integration software as part of the subscription. Customers have the right to use it as long as
he has subscribed the respective Ariba service. SAP also offers integration software. These add-ons are classic
on-premise products and must be licensed separately (perpetual license, on-premise maintenance).
Depending on the specific cloud service, an option exists for access via mobile devices. If mobile apps are used,
they follow the release and maintenance policy for mobile solutions . Some examples of existing SuccessFactors
mobile apps are available for SuccessFactors Mobile Touchbase and SuccessFactors Mobile Org Chart, as well as
for SuccessFactors Recruiting, SuccessFactors Learning, and the SAP Jam social software platform. Mobile
enhancements are also offered for SAP Cloud for Travel and Expense, SAP Cloud for Customer, and SAP
Business ByDesign solutions.
2.2.2
Release Cycle and Support
As the subscriber of a cloud solution, customers consume functional enhancements and fixes without local
implementation effort. Similar to on-premise software products, functional enhancements are provided on a
regular basis and called releases. The key difference is that these solutions are implemented centrally.
For all of the cloud solutions customers have subscribed, we share detailed information about the planned
timeline, envisioned new functionality, and impact beforehand, so customers are able to plan accordingly.
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In some cases, a test period is provided beforehand to allow customers to evaluate what is coming up. The
number of customers that can participate in this approach at any time is usually limited. This phase takes place
before the general availability of the new functionality for all customers (See Table 2).
SAP
Ariba
SuccessFactors
Quarterly release
Monthly release*
Quarterly release
Cloud solutions from SAP follow a
predefined quarterly release win­
dow in February, May, August, and
November.
Cloud solutions from Ariba include
applications and the Ariba Network
deliver innovation to customers on a
monthly basis.
Cloud solutions from SuccessFac­
tors follow a fixed quarterly release
window in February, May, August,
and November.
●
SAP Cloud for Travel and Ex­
pense and SAP Cloud for Cus­
tomer - Quarterly releases,
both for new customers and up­
grades of existing customers
Each release communication details
whether the planned release con­
tains major new features, enhance­
ments, or fixed defects.
●
SAP Business ByDesign - Up­
grades every six (6) months
*Planned to be moved to monthly
release cycles in 2014
Table 2: Release Cycle for Cloud Solutions
During the test period, customers can explore the new functionality in their individual configuration in a
nonproductive environment. For cloud solutions that integrate with an on-premise software product which require
integration-specific on-premise software for this integration, programs such as SAP Ramp-Up provide guidance
during the restricted use phase. For more information on the SAP Ramp-Up program, see the SAP Ramp-Up
section on SAP Service Marketplace.
After the restricted use phase, the unrestricted use phase begins on the general availability date communicated to
customers beforehand (see “Release Communication” ). The general availability date marks the point in time
when the cloud solution is available for productive use for the first time.
SAP, Ariba, and SuccessFactors continuously update their cloud solutions for all productive customers as part of
their subscription to the cloud solution. These releases may contain new business functionality as well as error
corrections. In-between releases contain corrections for issues are continuously provided through fixes and
patches (see Table 3).
SAP
Ariba
SuccessFactors
One service for all customers.
One service for all customers.
One service for all customers.
All customers are on same version.
All customers are on same version.
All customers are on same version.
●
Critical issues are re­
solved through hot fixes.
●
Critical issues are resolved with
hot fixes.
●
Critical issues are resolved with
emergency fixes.
●
Other important issues are ad­ ●
dressed through a biweekly col­
lection of hot fixes.
Other important issues are ad­
dressed with defect fixes de­
ployed in the monthly releases.
●
Other important issues are
fixed through weekly patches.
Table 3: Support for Cloud Solutions
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Integration-specific, on-premise components from SAP, ARIBA and SuccessFactors are maintained as long as the
corresponding cloud solution is offered. If new software interfaces connecting the cloud solution with an onpremise software product are required in order to use new or enhanced functionality provided by the cloud
solution, the appropriate integration-specific, on-premise component is enhanced accordingly.
A cloud solution may be integrated with a defined set of on-premise SAP product releases. After an update of the
cloud solution, the updated cloud solution usually supports at least the same set as before as long as the onpremise software releases within this set are in mainstream maintenance, extended maintenance, or priority-one
support.
If you want to take full advantage of new or enhanced functionality, the customer may be required to update
integration-specific on-premise components or the corresponding on-premise SAP software product that the
cloud solution integrates with. If a customer only wants to use already existing functionality, no upgrade or update
is enforced as long as the corresponding on-premise software releases are in mainstream maintenance.
2.2.3
Release Communication
SAP, Ariba, and SuccessFactors have defined release communication processes to inform customers prior to the
general availability of a new release of the cloud solutions; these communications include the planned timeline,
date of availability, new functionality, and impact on existing functionality. The release communication processes
of SAP, Ariba, and SuccessFactors vary somewhat (see Table 4).
The release communication process as described may change over time.
SAP
ARIBA
SuccessFactors
Six (6) to eight (8) weeks prior to
go-to-market date:
Approximately 100 days prior to
go-to-market date:
Three (3) weeks prior to go-tomarket date:
Upgrade Notification Mail 1
Initial Release Notice
Release Summary Document
●
Planned timeline of the upcom­
ing release
●
Description of planned fea­
tures with change impact
●
●
Link to business center describ­ ●
ing planned functionalities
Two-month release window
communicated
Summary of planned new fea­
tures and enhancements (infor­
mation about timeline not re­
quired due to fixed release
schedule)
Three (3) weeks prior to go-tomarket date:
Four (4) weeks prior to go-to-mar­ Two (2) weeks prior go-to-market
ket date:
date:
Upgrade Notification Mail 2
Advance Release Notice
Release Readiness Document
●
"What´s new" document
●
●
●
Applicable master guides and
implementation guides (also
●
available on SAP Service Mar­
ketplace, SAP Help Portal, and
“Business Center for Cloud Sol­
utions from SAP”)
24
Planned general availability
date communicated
Description of planned features
with change impact
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Detailed information about new
planned feature and enhance­
ments provided for customer
administrators
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SAP
ARIBA
SuccessFactors
Two (2) weeks prior to go-to-mar­
ket date:
After successful go-to-market
date:
One (1) week prior to go-to-market
date:
Upgrade Notification Mail 3
Deployment Complete
“One Voice” Webinars
●
●
●
Option for testing using a test
tenant (if customer is part of
dry-run testing)
Deployment complete notifica­
tion
Target group – customer ad­
ministrators
Online community
Online community:
Online community:
Business Center:
http://connect.ariba.com
http://community.successfac­
tors.com/
https://
www.sme.sap.com/irj/sme/
Table 4: Release Communication of Cloud Solutions
SAP and Ariba provide new cloud solution releases in a defined frequency – monthly for Ariba cloud solutions and
about every three or six months for cloud solutions from SAP. The exact date is narrowed down in advance
notifications that start with a planned release window and later on give details of a precise date. Part of these
customer notifications is a description of the planned new functionality and impact on existing functionality. This
also becomes more detailed over time as the general availability date approaches.
SuccessFactors provides new releases according to a published release plan that details in advance when the next
upcoming releases will be available. Similar to Ariba and SAP, SuccessFactors also communicates the planned
functional scope of the upcoming release beforehand.
2.3
Release and Maintenance Strategy for Mobile Apps
Our strategy for making mobile apps available to customers is detailed in the following sections.
For integrated business scenarios, a separate on-premise software product is also needed in addition to a mobile
app to enable back-end connectivity to one or multiple SAP software systems. Typically, these integration
products are add-on software product versions and follow the common on-premise release and maintenance
rules for SAP on-premise software products.
Availability
Mobile apps are available to customers on SAP Service Marketplace, SAP Store , or external third-party mobile
app stores, such as Apple’s App Store , Google Play store, or BlackBerry App World . Usually, new mobile app
releases are available directly to all customers. In specific cases, they may be introduced using the SAP Ramp-Up
program.
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Functional Enhancements and Maintenance
In the event that functional enhancements and corrections are provided by SAP, they are delivered as new
versions of the mobile app.
The scope of the maintenance services for mobile app releases that may be offered by us in our sole discretion
would only encompass mainstream maintenance (for example, no extended maintenance for an additional fee or
customer-specific maintenance).
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3
SAP Portfolio
●
Our Vision
●
SAP Solutions
●
SAP Software Products
●
Services and Support
●
Ecosystem and Channels
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Related Information
Glossary
Availability and Maintenance Details for SAP Releases
3.1
Our Vision
SAP is at the very epicenter of todays technology-driven revolution.
Our Vision: Help the World Run Better and Improve People’s Lives
Our vision is to help the world run better. We believe that we can play a major role in optimizing business to run
better and more sustainably in the future. Furthermore, we have an extraordinary opportunity to apply technology
to make the world run better while simultaneously improving people’s lives.
Our Mission: Help Organizations Become Best-Run Businesses
Our mission is to help organizations become best-run businesses. SAP’s core competence is to use innovative
technologies that help companies become best-run businesses. Designing elegant solutions that can work on
many devices and can delight consumers will be at the heart of our product development strategy. As technology
becomes more pervasive in every aspect of business, we are uniquely positioned to help companies simplify their
IT stack and accelerate innovation (see Figure 11).
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Our Passions: Teamwork, Integrity, Accountability, Professionalism, and Trust
Our culture of success is based on our corporate passions of teamwork, integrity, accountability, professionalism,
and trust. We are motivated to be an amazing company to our customers, employees, partners and ecosystem,
and influencers through our passion for winning and for our commitment to developing true partnerships with our
customers and our peers.
Learn more: http://www.sap.com/corporate-en/our-company/index.epx
Figure 11: Aligning Our Portfolio for Business Outcome
3.2
SAP Solutions
●
Solutions for Industries
●
Solutions for Lines of Business
●
Prepackaged Best Practices
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●
How to influence SAP's Products and Solutions
As the scale of our business converges with the increasing scope of our solutions, our customers rely on our
solutions to run their businesses better than ever before. As commerce continues its increasingly global, realtime, and complex trajectory, our solutions for solving business challenges has become more relevant than ever.
With this in mind, we continue to pursue our vision to help the world run better and improve peoples’ lives. With
vast experience in enterprise resource management and the latest technology innovations, we continue to
provide innovations for our industry and line-of-business solutions that are reshaping the IT industry,
transforming business networks, and providing high value to businesses and governments around the world.
Our portfolio today goes way beyond enterprise resource planning and the more traditional view of our core
solutions for supply chain, order to cash, or manufacturing. With new technologies, such as the SAP HANA
platform, companies can investigate business issues with analytics and predictive capabilities and ultimately the
speed to investigate and address their business challenges in new ways. With the increasing use of mobile devices
and social networking services, new products and technologies are continuing to change the way companies
engage with their customers and business partners and are opening up new opportunities to excel as a best-run
business.
As part of our strategy, companies get the greatest business value from our product and technology innovations
when they are wisely integrated into value-creation processes. By combining products and technologies into more
easily consumable, packaged solutions that are tailored for 12 lines of business across 25 industries, we are
continuing on the path to solving specific business problems at the lowest total cost of ownership and creating
customer value while delivering on our promise of innovation without disruption (see Figure 14).
Figure 12: Aligning Our Portfolio for Business Outcome
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Related Information
SAP Solution Explorer
SAP Improvements and Innovations
3.2.1
Solutions for Industries
Strategy
Our industry solution portfolios are based on a deep understanding of best practices in industry processes, which
is a result of years of constant co-innovation with industry-leading customers and partners. As companies move
to adjust their business models to respond quickly to changing market requirements or new strategies, they are
looking for technology solutions that provide three things – speed , business value, and low total cost of
ownership (TCO) .
We provide speed in two ways. First, we draw upon 42 years of working with industries, identify best-practice
business processes, and create preconfigured solutions that support these processes. This is often realized
though rapid-deployment solutions or other methods that allow customers to get up and running quickly to
achieve their business needs and realize value. Second, we bring speed with the SAP HANA platform, which now
gives you the capability to run your business processes, reporting, and analysis in real time – no batch jobs, no
separate databases for analysis, no delay in response. It is the end of “I'll get back to you.”
We provide business value by delivering solutions that support comprehensive business processes across your
enterprise, combining horizontal and industry-specific solutions that help you:
●
Collaborate better – Attract and engage customers on any channel and any device
●
Decide better – Achieve faster time to market through insight into what the customer wants
●
Adapt better – Identify and seize opportunities that reflect changing customer needs
●
Operate better – Unify and accelerate fulfillment for improved margins
We also provide IT value through orchestration across on-premise and cloud solutions and on any device –
providing flexibility, security, and scalability for 25 industries. Together with the power of in-memory computing
provided by SAP HANA, our proven analytics functionality, and the comprehensive SAP ecosystem and partners,
our IT technology creates a model for real-time business – not only simplifying complex and expensive IT
architectures but also enabling our customers to imagine new ways of doing business.
As companies need to keep pace with changing customer needs and market dynamics, another aspect, in
addition to immediate business value and low TCO, has become vitally important: the capability to build multiindustry value chains to drive profitable growth. Through the powerful combination of solutions for 25 industries
and 12 lines of business, our portfolio allows companies to take advantage of best practices from a large variety of
industries. Many companies rely on SAP software as the platform on which to grow and operate their businesses
across multiple industries – both to manage diverse business units like consumer electronics and heavy
equipment and to integrate the value chain to create value for customers.
Further, we continue to keep pace with industry needs and one reason we recently acquired hybris. For example,
retailers and consumer products companies need to address multichannel commerce and related order
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management. Retailers and automotive OEMs offer banking and insurance services to their customers. Banks
look at supply chain processes to optimize cash supply and stock outages for their automatic teller machines.
Industrial machinery firms and components manufacturers borrow service processes invented and optimized in
the services industries. SAP has this breadth of experience and industry-tailored solutions to address the diverse
needs of our customers.
Solutions
Our end-to-end solutions address industry business processes with a combination of products and services. For
more information on our industry solution portfolios, see www.sap.com .
You can also use the interactive SAP Solution Explorer tool to discover our industry solutions at www.sap.com/
solutionexplorer .
Roadmaps
SAP road maps help you find out how to generate significant benefits with our current portfolio of solutions and
products as well as how we intend to help create new value with future innovations. For more information, see
www.service.sap.com/roadmap .
Related Information
Why SAP for Industries?
SAP Solution Explorer
Solution Road Maps for Industries
SAP Improvements and Innovations
3.2.2
Solutions for Lines of Business
Strategy
SAP not only provides solutions and software products for specific industries, it also offers the same for lines of
business. Every software user identifies with their job function, whether customer service, finance, supply chain,
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maintenance, or IT. As a result, we deliver solutions for business processes in all key functional areas. The value
from our LoB solutions is found in the speed and reach of adoption. We also know business users are not bound to
desktop or even laptop solutions. They demand a hybrid solution of cloud and on-premise applications with
mobile access. This demand has changed how our customers deploy and use technology to become best-run
businesses.
Our LoB solutions have their origins in the best practices developed in individual industries to support businesses
in the areas of finance, human resources, sales, service, manufacturing, supply chain, procurement, and the like.
The portfolio includes SAP Business Suite software; cloud, analytics, and mobile solutions; and technology
innovation, such as in-memory computing. Further, we use various technical components, for example, from the
SAP NetWeaver technology platform, applications powered by the SAP HANA platform, and mobile technology –
to build the technologies that power our solutions.
The need for continuous improvement across the business to better serve customers, reduce operational risk and
costs, or collaborate with suppliers challenges all lines of business. Employees need to work together in unified
processes and rapidly invent, adopt, and deploy new business practices that seamlessly integrate into these
processes.
Solutions
Our end-to-end solutions address line-of-business processes with a combination of products and services. For
more information on our line-of-business solutions, see www.sap.com .
You can also use the interactive SAP Solution Explorer tool to discover our line-of-business solutions at
www.sap.com/solutionexplorer .
Roadmaps
SAP road maps help you find out how to generate significant benefits with our current portfolio of solutions and
products as well as how we intend to help create new value with future innovations. For more information, see
www.service.sap.com/roadmap .
Related Information
Why SAP for Lines of Business?
SAP Solution Explorer
Solution Road Maps for Lines of Business
SAP Improvements and Innovations
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3.2.3
Prepackaged Best Practices
SAP Rapid Deployment Solutions
The market is demanding more agile, rapid deployments of modular software and is looking for alternatives to
traditional, on-site business solutions. In response, we have introduced a new, integrated delivery approach
designed to fix the scope, contain costs, and streamline schedules for implementation. Defined by this
revolutionary model, SAP Rapid Deployment solutions enable customers to quickly and affordably deploy SAP
solutions for specific business requirements at a low service-to-software ratio.
For more information about our rapid deployment solutions, see SAP Service Marketplace at https://
service.sap.com/rds .
SAP Business All-in-One
SAP Business All-in-One solutions are powerful, industry-specific enterprise resource planning solutions available
to midsize companies or fast-growing small businesses. They support integrated processes that cover the
complete business lifecycle. With SAP Business All-in-One solutions, companies are enabled to drive better
business growth, build, and maintain operational excellence, and optimize financial performance.
The solutions are:
●
Highly scalable and based on proven technology
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Designed to deliver an intuitive, integrated, and efficient user experience
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Affordable, with predictable time to value
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Comprehensive
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Industry specific
For more information on SAP Business All-in-One, see www.sap.com.
Content Packages
Content packages are shipments that consist of a collection of objects, templates, or data that deliver predefined
configuration settings, process models, and support for best practices for all elements of our product portfolio.
They help companies integrate applications, including third-party software, and implement functionality in their IT
landscapes. In general, the shipment schedule and maintenance durations coincide with those of the application
shipment for which they are designed. The following types of content shipments are defined:
●
SAP Best Practices packages
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●
SAP HANA Live offerings – real-time operational reporting
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Content for the SAP Solution Manager application management solution
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Enterprise Services Repository content
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SAP Enterprise Portal content
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SAP Business Warehouse content
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SAP Rapid Marts packages
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SAP Data Quality Management content
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Starter kits for the SAP Business Planning and Consolidation, SAP Financial Consolidation, and SAP Process
Control applications
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SAP Knowledge Acceleration content
●
Content as a service with two solutions supporting global environment, health, and safety regulatory
compliance for all industries that use, manufacture, or sell products containing hazardous substances,
including:
○
SAP EHS Regulatory Content packages
○
Content for SAP EHS Regulatory Documentation, cloud edition6
Related Information
SAP Rapid Deployment Solutions
SAP Business All-in-One
3.2.4
Influencing and Adopting SAP's Products and Solutions
Influencing SAP Products and Solutions
We will continue to create and evolve our products and solutions to help you run your business better. Direct input
and feedback from our customers and user groups is essential for us to validate market trends and product
spaces, specify and test new versions of our software, and improve solutions in productive use. To structure the
input and feedback, we run three major programs – Customer Connection and Customer Engagement Initiative
(available as part of the Customer Influence program) and Executive Advisory Councils (see Figure 13).
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Formerly known as SAP EHS Regulatory Documentation OnDemand
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Figure 13: Influencing SAP Solutions
For more information on opportunities to influence our solutions and software products, see SAP Service
Marketplace at service.sap.com/influence .
Adopting Products and Solutions
Our intention with customer validation is to validate our software before the release-to-customer date in
customer environments, on customer processes, and with customer data and executed by end users. The benefit
to customers that participate in customer-validationprojects is that they get the software before the release-tocustomer date in order to build a proof of concept. Furthermore, customers work in close cooperation directly
with our product organization and benefit from several free-of-charge services to run the customervalidationproject (productive usage is not permitted; functionalities are subject to change).
For more information about customer validation, see SAP Service Marketplace service.sap.com .
At the release-to-customer date, we deliver the latest software innovations to selected customers in a ramp-up
phase. This is done in a restricted shipment phase guided by the SAP Ramp-Up process. SAP Ramp-Up serves as
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the standard process for introducing the latest software innovations into the market through selected customers
with the involvement of field, support, and development personnel. By participating in SAP Ramp-Up, customers
have the possibility to work closely with us when implementing the latest new SAP solutions in the early phase of
the release cycle.
Once a solution reaches general availability, we offer customers the opportunity to join a general availability care
program. This may be offered directly at the release-to-customer date or at the end of a ramp-up phase. We
designed the program to help ensure that your project is a success.
Customers that volunteer to join this program will receive support by a dedicated team that will stay in contact
with the project lead throughout the project time frame. Customer messages are directly managed; this is an
enhancement to the SAP Standard Support service.
The program is not a substitute for consulting or implementation services. We reach out to all participating
customers to collect feedback from projects to be used to address corrections in the current release and as a
basis for future solutions. The general availability care program is open to all customers that wish to provide
feedback and engage with SAP in their project.
For more information about SAP Ramp-Up and the general availability care program, see SAP Service
Marketplace at service.sap.com.
A beta program gives customers the opportunity to examine new SAP software products. They can “test-drive” a
new product to see whether it fits the needs of their business before it is released. We use the feedback from beta
customers to improve product the functionality, usability, and quality of a new release before it is officially
released.
A beta program may be offered before the release-to-customer date. Beta shipments may be used for testing
purposes only. They are not available for productive use. The content and the planned release-to-customer date
of software releases made available under a beta shipment might be subject to change. Therefore, customers
should not place undue reliance on a beta shipment and the features or functionalities presented therein and
should not rely upon them in making purchasing decisions.
For more information about beta programs, see SAP Service Marketplace at service.sap.com.
Related Information
SAP Influence Programs
Customer Validation
SAP Ramp-Up
Beta Programs
3.3
SAP Software Products
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Simplified User Experience
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Applications
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Analytics
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Technology Platform
Our Strategy: Accelerate Business Innovation Through Radical Simplification
After striving for decades to standardize processes and improve efficiency, organizations around the world are
now entering a new era of business model transformation, made possible by the convergence of exponential
advances in cloud, mobile, social media, and technologies to manage Big Data.
However, we know that many businesses still contend with layers of IT complexity that have been built up over the
decades. This complexity is the result of several factors, including the proliferation of hardware and custom
applications. These factors have driven up costs for managing the underpinning infrastructure – at the expense of
investments in innovation. In addition, they have made it difficult for enterprises to adopt and consume new
innovations. In addition, they have greatly limited a company’s ability to empower people through consumergrade user experiences.
By simultaneously simplifying across three axes – technology stack, consumption of software, and end-user
experience – we can help customers dramatically reduce their expenditures on hardware and services, shift the
savings to business transformation and innovation, and empower their people to drive the future transformation
of their businesses.
We believe we are well positioned to drive this simplification by making the most of our investments of the last
four years, particularly in three areas with the biggest game-changing market shifts:
●
Simplify the IT environment by establishing the SAP HANA platform as the common platform – Inmemory computing with SAP HANA radically simplifies the IT stack by collapsing layers and reducing
hardware costs. By standardizing every SAP software product on the common SAP HANA platform, we can
deliver easier integration across our portfolio, offering a unified and simplified suite experience for our
customers and partners. Our partners and ecosystem can either extend our solutions or build complete
applications based on SAP HANA. With SAP HANA as the common foundation, we can provide the benefits of
both choice processes (“best of breed”) and integrated processes (“best of suite”).
●
Simplify software consumption by moving our entire portfolio to the cloud – As software delivery
continues to evolve to the cloud, customers are experiencing the simplicity, speed, and economics of the
cloud delivery model. In order to deliver the broadest cloud experience to our customers and enable the full
range of decision-making processes, we plan to make our entire software product portfolio available in the
cloud (managed and public). This includes a clear road map to transition our core solutions to the cloud – with
tight integration between on-premise and cloud solutions and with a time frame based on each customer’s
requirements. In addition to offering cloud hosting and managed services to our customers, we can
proactively manage their upgrade cycles, help them adopt innovations faster, and take ownership of their
landscape simplification to create business value. By executing on this strategy, we can deliver on our vision
of a unified cloud. To help our customers benefit from simplification, we plan to shift our business models to
focus primarily on business outcomes and business value (see Figure 14), delivering end-to-end solutions for
25 industries and 12 lines of business. By combining our applications into simplified solutions enhanced by
analytics, and coupling that with best practices and a design thinking approach, we are positioned to enable a
trusted outcome for every customer. This means going well beyond providing software products and services
and delivering industry-specific packaged services that include comprehensive and aligned operations
management, delivery, and support.
●
Simplify the end-user experience – To deliver a simplified and unified user experience for our business
users, we plan to offer every application and analytic solution with a “mobile first” approach based on SAP
Fiori, which we are extending beyond apps to a new user experience paradigm. We plan to continue focusing
on building our mobile apps for people who fulfill specific functional roles in a company, such as sales,
procurement, HR, and finance.
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Figure 14: Aligning Our Portfolio for Business Outcome
We also plan to continue to use an open ecosystem and our partners and ecosystem to offer hardware and data
center services in our cloud infrastructure while we focus on delivering managed services and customer value in a
complete manner. Using our expertise in handling Big Data, SAP HANA, social media, and a deep understanding
of the marketing line of business, we seek to provide a comprehensive suite of solutions for our customers’
customers, particularly aimed at Millennials, a demographic group that demand sophisticated and seamless
experiences in their professional relationships.
The outcome of this strategy not only provides our customers a significant competitive advantage in our
everchanging world, but it also helps them operate more sustainably.
Related Information
Licensing Model
Product Availability Matrix
Renaming Section in Product Availability Matrix
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3.3.1
Simplified User Experience
Strategy
An Enhanced and Simplified User Experience
SAP today is investing aggressively in two major areas to dramatically enhance user experience:
●
Extending and scaling a complete refresh of the user experience for our core applications
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Initiating a specific focus on our cloud solutions to develop a best-in-class user experience for new
applications
The ultimate goal is to connect our many different touch points into an amazing, new, and distinct SAP experience
for prospects, customers, developers, and partners. We believe that entirely new ways of doing business – and
new ways of working – are emerging, and we aim to ensure that the next generation of SAP solutions reflects this
approach.
Moving ahead, SAP Fiori remains, and is planned to be extended, as the next overarching user experience for SAP.
Specifically, in 2014, we intend to focus on two key areas:
●
Suite renewal – With its launch as a product last year, SAP Fiori addressed generalist end-user scenarios. We
intentionally targeted scenarios that would have maximum impact with the most frequently used scenarios
that touch the broadest number of users. In 2014, as SAP Fiori evolves into a UX for SAP software and is
extended to more products, we will also update the user interface for specialist roles with a more advanced
interaction model.
●
New cloud UX – The cloud now represents an additional focus area in our UX efforts. Driven by the continuing
“consumerization” of software, enterprise end users associate the cloud with simplicity, great UX, quick time
to value, and flexibility. To meet these expectations and to take full advantage of our unique position in the
market, we intend to create the industry’s most appealing, intuitive, and powerful end-to-end experience.
Products
SAP Fiori began as a collection of apps and has evolved to represent the new UX at SAP. It offers various business
roles a simpler, user-friendly experience for SAP software functions and works on a desktop, tablet, or
smartphone. As a result, SAP customers using SAP Business Suite software on any database and SAP Business
Suite powered by SAP HANA can get started with SAP Fiori immediately and bring instant value to their
employees. Over time, we plan to have all SAP solutions move in this direction.
SAP Screen Personas software allows companies to improve user productivity through personalization of their
SAP ERP application screens. By providing the right information to the right users in the right context, they can
get more done in less time and with greater accuracy. With more intuitive screens, organizations can enhance
user satisfaction, minimize training time, and spend less money on screen modifications. Companies will benefit
from increased user productivity and value from SAP software investments – and IT departments will have more
satisfied users.
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SAP Fiori and SAP Screen Personas were launched in 2013 as the first major steps in our new UX journey, and the
success with customers surpassed all expectations. In simplifying the technology stack and delivering a new look
and feel, they provided a glimpse of an entirely new experience with SAP software.
For more information about SAP Fiori, see SAP HANA Marketplace .
For more information about SAP Screen Personas, see www.sapscreenpersonas.com .
3.3.2
Applications
Strategy
With increasing frequency, companies are demanding more flexible and agile computing models that use inmemory computing technology, enterprise mobility, and the cloud. We have the right assets to deliver this. With
SAP software, customers get the flexibility to consume the cloud when and how they want it – with one of the
industry’s most comprehensive portfolio of public, private, and hybrid cloud offerings.
We also offer a flexible policy to reallocate on-premise licenses to cloud subscriptions so customers can protect
their current investments and adapt and invest in cloud solutions at the right pace for their business needs.
With rapid innovation cycles, we intend to deliver new functionality several times a year that is immediately
available to every customer – with no lengthy upgrade cycles. We provide customers with the necessary agility to
configure new business processes without costly IT or consulting engagements.
Simply put: You can have your cloud your way in real time, with a beautiful user experience, from the trusted
leader in enterprise business solutions.
Our innovation strategy for applications is based on simple imperatives. We deliver business innovations and
renew and simplify our legacy to create customer value in a nondisruptive mode based on the SAP HANA
platform.
The road map for SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA combines two tracks:
●
Evolution of existing functionality and use of new technology (SAP HANA, mobile, and cloud) for
breakthrough innovation and superior user experience (SAP Fiori)
●
SAP Business Suite software on SAP HANA allows you to run your businesses simpler, faster, and smarter
Evolutionary innovation takes place in the following areas:
●
User experience – We are improving the user experience of our applications to engage more people with
innovative business processes and intuitive user interfaces. SAP Fiori is at the center of these efforts, and we
plan to continue the delivery of a broad range of new SAP Fiori apps in addition to the apps we have already
shipped to our customers in May and November 2013 as well as in February 2014. For more information,
see our SAP User Experience Community at https://experience.sap.com.
●
Accelerating innovation on SAP HANA – SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA enables new real-time
business practices across all lines of business and industries. We continue to drive the renewal and
simplification of the suite along core processes to generate new business values for our customers, and we
plan to provide cloud readiness in addition to the current offerings. In August 2013, we released the SAP
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Business Suite 7 innovations 2013 edition on SAP HANA. Overall, we offer our customers 23 industry solution
portfolios, a multitude of add-ons, and many high-performance applications. For more information about SAP
Business Suite powered by SAP HANA and high-performance applications (such as the SAP Fraud
Management analytic application or SAP Customer Engagement Intelligence solutions).
●
Business processes – We offer enhanced functionality based on customer-driven innovation and
breakthrough optimization of industry-specific processes. For more information, see SAP Service
Marketplace at http://service.sap.com/findinnovation.
●
Reduced complexity – You get full flexibility with our cloud services, which reduce total cost of ownership
(TCO) – for example, by providing a choice of deployment options or rapid-deployment solutions for
implementation projects. Maximize cloud capabilities with existing and new measures using SAP Cloud
powered by SAP HANA or landscape optimization. A holistic end-to-end overview on how to implement SAP
Business Suite powered by SAP HANA is available as part of the SAP HANA Cookbook.
We plan to continuously improve and massively simplify our SAP Business Suite core applications by evolving into
leaner architecture, superior usability, lower TCO, more functionality, and faster adoption, thus delivering
innovation without disruption. SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA will enable our customers to reinvent
their business processes or even reinvent complete businesses. They will be able to transform and expand with
confidence by continuing to innovate without disruption on an open platform. For more information, see
www.saphana.com .
New technologies like in-memory computing, mobile, and HTML5 are opening new avenues to completely reshape
industries by helping you run your business in real time. With the SAP HANA platform, we provide a suite of
application that unifies analytics and transactions onto a single in-memory computing platform, providing full
flexibility. It is much more than a database – combining application services with a business function library and
services to manage Big Data.
With SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA , you can run your business in real time with smarter business
innovations, faster business processes, and simpler business interactions – for unprecedented business value, as
follows.
●
Smarter business innovations SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA can help your organization
become an innovation-driven enterprise, as it allows you to rethink business processes as and when needed
and invent new business models smarter than ever before. As an example, the suite can help unlock new
growth opportunities and boost competitiveness by allowing you to make smarter decisions with predictive
analysis and simulation on Big Data (for example, social media) to amplify top-line growth. In addition, you
can help ensure continuous innovation by taking advantage of new applications powered by SAP HANA from
SAP partners (for example, mobile apps and cloud applications).
●
Faster business processes SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA can help your organization become a
data-driven enterprise by allowing you to collect, consolidate, and consume real-time data faster. As another
example, the suite can help you do business at the speed of the market and boost responsiveness by
dramatically accelerating your core business processes (for example, financial close, material
requirements planning, customer segmentation) – for reduced operational costs.
●
Simpler business interactions SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA can help your organization
become a people-driven enterprise by providing your business users with actionable insights to decide and
act in a simpler way. As an example, the suite can help boost productivity by allowing real-time interactions
through user-driven experiences. It can also simultaneously simplify IT by bringing together analytics and
transactions into one platform (for example, simplified operational reporting) – for increased user adoption
and reduced total cost of investment.
Additionally, we are working with customers in a co-innovation approach to enable breakthrough optimizations in
the areas of “Industry 4.0” and machine-to-machine technologies, predictive analytics, and social media. We are
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looking at innovative ways to overcome any limitations in today’s IT and are primed to reinvent business
processes and support new business models.
We intend to deliver innovation and improvements for SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA in the least
disruptive way possible. This will allow for flexible adoption by keeping IT systems agile and scalable to meet the
changing business requirements of a company. Businesses need to address today’s fast-changing market
demands to not only stay profitable but also to stay well ahead of their competition. Therefore, we provide
quarterly innovation to customers for generally available product versions that are delivered in feature packages:
●
Continuous innovation for existing releases is delivered in feature packages in regular and fast cycles.
Additionally, highly integrated functionality is delivered in enhancement packages, allowing nondisruptive
delivery of new as well as accumulated functionality delivered in feature and support packages and addons (in-advance shipments) for SAP Business Suite core applications.7
●
Incremental improvements to current software products resulting from the Customer Connection program
(see the “Influencing SAP Products and Solutions” section Influencing and Adopting SAP's Products and
Solutions ) are delivered with SAP Notes. Functional improvements provided in SAP Notes are immediately
available after development and can be implemented quickly. The notes are consolidated into feature and
support packages, enhancement packages, and new product versions. All consolidated functional
enhancements are delivered inactively to avoid unintentional activation of functionality.
●
Larger functional enhancements or significant new functionality for core processes are delivered
through side-by-side shipments or add-ons (including in-advance shipments). Separate deployment allows
selective updates for the evolution of existing functionality. The benefit is that core processes are kept stable,
meaning that there are only minimal requirements for regression testing. These short-term improvements for
SAP Business Suite core applications are delivered between SAP enhancement packages.
To better address customer needs in growth markets, we continuously invest in the localization of our
applications.
For more information on how SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA improves your business, see
www.saphana.com .
For the SAP Business One application , we intend to continue enhancing our existing offering while delivering
new innovations and value:
●
Planned enhancements cover aspects such as simplifying implementation and user experience,
lifecycle management and extensibility enhancement, enhancement of business logic functionalities, and
localizations.
●
With SAP Business One powered by SAP HANA, customers benefit from unified real-time
transactions processing and analytics, exploiting the value of real-time insights to gain competitive
advantages. SAP Business One powered by SAP HANA also offers better technical scalability and transaction
throughput, so customers can grow their business. Using the SAP HANA platform will further enhance
application extensibility. Partners will be able to develop more sophisticated extension scenarios, with a
simplified user experience, higher performance, and powerful analytical and predictive capabilities.
●
We plan to continuously enhance the functionality of the SAP Business One mobile app for both iOS and
Android operating systems and offer further integration with native-device capabilities.
●
For the SAP Business One Cloud solution, we plan to continuously simplify and further optimize cloud
operations and application lifecycle management, enabling the SAP Business One Cloud solution running on
either SAP HANA or Microsoft SQL Server in large cloud landscapes.
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The version interoperability range is planned to be moved upwards for SAP Business Suite 7 innovations 2013 onwards. For more
information, see the Version Interoperability Strategy section on SAP Community Network.
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Products
Cloud Computing
SAP – together with SAP companies SuccessFactors, Ariba, and hybris – offer the most comprehensive cloud
computing portfolios on the market, giving customers the flexibility, choice, and control they need to drive
innovation and agility into their business. Our cloud applications are built to support your end-to-end business
processes and manage your most important assets. We offer a comprehensive portfolio, covering the core and all
lines of business – from customer to supplier and everything in between. We build our cloud applications from
the ground up, capitalizing on our innovation, industry expertise, and global reach to enable you to execute your
business strategies at scale and adapt your processes quickly and more easily.
Companies can improve results with better business execution. The obstacles that limit strategy occur at the
point where people execute it. Improved performance monitoring, better communication and collaboration,
clearly defined actions, and transparent accountability are required. To close any execution gap, people across
your organization need the systems, processes, and tools that can improve business execution and get results.
SuccessFactors offers cloud-based business solutions designed specifically to meet that need in large
enterprises as well as small businesses and midsize companies. For more information on SuccessFactors cloud
solutions, see www.sap.com or www.successfactors.com.
More than 1.4 million companies are now connected to the Ariba Network, using it to drive unprecedented levels
of productivity in their sales, procurement, invoice, and payment processes. With the introduction of innovations
in social media, mobile, cloud, and the in-memory computing technology of the SAP HANA platform, companies
of all sizes across industries will be able to drive interenterprise collaboration and even higher levels of efficiency
and insights. Buyers and suppliers can participate in the largest global business network to achieve these goals
while extending business applications and processes to their partners. For more information on business
networks, see www.sap.com or www.ariba.com.
Physical and digital commerce are converging at an incredible pace, driven by highly connected customers who
demand experiences that adapt to their mode of purchasing and shopping. This opens the door for a new
imperative known as omnicommerce, which favors a customer-centric approach over channel-specific processes.
With commerce solutions from hybris, you can reach customers across any channel or touch point by delivering
seamless and relevant buying experience for consumers or businesses. The omnichannel commerce software can
help you satisfy the demands of “always-on” consumers as well as increasingly complex business requirements.
For more information on hybris Commerce Suite, see www.hybris.com.
With the SAP Business ByDesign solution, you can run your entire business on a single, cloud-based software
solution. This complete, integrated solution can run the entire whole enterprise – financials, human resources,
sales, procurement, customer service, and supply chain – all in the cloud. For more information on SAP Business
ByDesign, see www.sap.com.
For an overview of our entire cloud solution portfolio, see www.sap.com .
SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA helps enterprises in all industries execute and optimize business
and IT strategies by providing modular applications that improve the ability to perform end-to-end business
processes across and beyond the enterprise. SAP Business Suite consists of a set of core applications, industry
applications, and supplementary applications built on the SAP HANA platform. These applications are designed to
support a large set of end-to-end processes for lines of business in their respective industries. The open
architecture of SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA supports the extension of end-to-end business
processes beyond the walls of the enterprise to connect to partners, suppliers, service providers, and customers
– and to support process visibility, monitoring, and analytics.
Core applications within the suite:
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●
SAP ERP supports mission-critical business processes for finance, human capital management, asset
management, sales, procurement, and other essential corporate functions as well as industry-specific
processes. The financials add-on for SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA is an alternative product that
offers accounting capabilities specifically designed for in-memory databases such as SAP HANA. Our
simplified accounting and cash management software enable better harmonization between financial and
managerial accounting as well as more flexibility in financial reporting. It is nevertheless compatible with other
functional components of SAP ERP.
●
SAP CRM provides a comprehensive set of functionality for marketing, sales, and service to obtain the
customer intelligence needed to effectively manage customers and customer-related processes.
●
SAP PLM 8 helps companies manage, track, and control all product-related information over the complete
product and asset lifecycle as well as throughout the extended supply chain.
●
SAP SRM provides a set of procurement functionalities that helps organizations in all industries improve their
centralized sourcing and contract management in addition to interacting with suppliers through multiple
channels.
●
SAP SCM allows companies to adapt their supply chain processes in an ever-changing competitive
environment.
We complement the support for basic business processes common to all large enterprises with support for
industry-specific processes. This support is delivered as part of SAP ERP or as separate industry applications
(for example, SAP Dealer Business Management, SAP Reinsurance Management, SAP Transportation
Management, SAP Extended Warehouse Management, and others). Industry applications integrate with the core
applications of SAP Business Suite to safeguard process and data integrity. The architecture and business
functionality of the industry applications are a result of our in-depth understanding of industry-specific business
requirements and the resulting business processes.
Supplementary applications are applications that support specialized business processes common to a large
number of industries. They deliver a short time to value, appeal to specialized business users, and offer a high
degree of process flexibility. Supplementary applications include, for example, the SAP Portfolio and Project
Management application and SAP Contact Center (formerly SAP Business Communications Management)
software. In addition, enterprise services are also included as supplementary applications.
SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA is also the foundation for a significant number of partner offerings
that use the suite as their foundation to create specialized process extensions and functions that complement our
platform. Open interfaces and process management tools provided by the SAP NetWeaver technology platform
support process integrity and allow partners to focus on their specialized domain expertise.
Currently, a version of SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA and SAP ERP and SAP CRM applications
powered by SAP HANA are available in the cloud. For more information, see www.saphana.com .
SAP Fiori is a collection of SAPUI5 applications9 that represent a new SAP user experience (UX) paradigm. These
apps speak a consistent design language and make use of a common technical infrastructure. SAP Fiori uses
SAPUI5 and SAP Gateway technology to provide an end-to-end extensibility and easier to manage solution
architecture. By using interactive and attractive UI elements, they help provide a consistent end-to-end user
experience and can be used across all device types without creating additional implementation effort. SAP Fiori
apps focus on the most critical and common activities and are designed around how people work:
●
Role-based: SAP Fiori apps decompose complex applications into a task-based experience with one central
entry point for each user
8
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SAP PLM is part of, and shipped with, SAP ERP or its corresponding enhancement packages
SAPUI5 is a client-side HTML5 and JavaScript-based rendering library and programming model optimized for consumption of
data from SAP software. SAP Fiori apps are installed on premise and can be accessed from mobile and desktop devices through a
consistent user experience.
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Responsive: SAP Fiori apps adapt to all sizes, devices, versions, and channels to provide a common user
experience across all channels
●
Simple: SAP Fiori apps follow the 1-1-3 experience (1 user, 1 scenario, 3 screens), providing the right context
and meaningful data integration.
●
Coherent: User experience with apps that speak the same design language, implying coherence for common
activities
●
Instant value: Low barrier to adoption enables customers to adapt and users to personalize
For more information about SAP Fiori, see www.sap.com.
Designed for small businesses that want to compete effectively and accelerate growth, the SAP Business One
application provides a single solution to manage your most critical business processes – from sales and
customer relationships to financials and operations. Sold, implemented, and supported by our partner network it
is the entry-level and most affordable ERP application within our portfolio of solutions and has proven success for
small businesses and subsidiaries of large organizations.
Companies can easily tailor and extend SAP Business One to meet specific business processes and changing
needs. A software development kit contains programming interfaces and development tools to support
customers and SAP partners in easily extending the solution and integrating external systems with SAP Business
One to fit the unique needs of their customers.
Companies can easily connect SAP Business One with applications across an extended business network – for
example, headquarters, subsidiaries, trading partners, and distributors. Preconfigured integration scenarios for
SAP Business One are available to quickly and affordably integrate the application with both SAP and third-party
applications.
With SAP Business One, we make the latest innovations available to all customers of the application:
●
SAP Business One analytics powered by SAP HANA is available for companies using SAP Business One
with Microsoft SQL Server but that also want to benefit from the real-time analytics for business visibility and
insights made possible by SAP HANA.
●
SAP Business One powered by SAP HANA provides real-time transaction processing and business analytics
in a single application powered by SAP HANA, enabling companies to execute sophisticated
business processes, planning, and forecasting with unmatched insights and speed.
●
SAP Business One Cloud provides all the benefits of SAP Business One in a cloud environment that is
managed by a certified hosting partner, eliminating the need to involve your IT department.
●
SAP Business One mobile app for iOS and Android provides immediate access to the most relevant
business information and business processes from any location at any time.
For more information, see www.sap.com.
For an overview of all solutions and software products, see www.sap.com.
The innovation discovery service for SAP software products is a new online tool that helps you finding all of our
new innovations relevant for your business context based on your industry or area of responsibility. For each
innovation, the corresponding product features are described. You get a comprehensive overview how to
configure, benefit from, and use the new functionalities. Furthermore, you clearly see how you can get the
innovation and if additional licenses are needed. To try out the tool, see http://service.sap.com/innovationdiscovery.
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3.3.3
Analytics
Strategy
We plan to significantly improve our existing robust analytics solutions by embedding in-memory computing
technology and content into all analytics offerings. We intend to introduce state-of-the-art visualization for our
business intelligence solutions using SAP Lumira software. For more information, see www.saplumira.com. In
addition, mobile analytics are integrated in SAP Mobile Platform.
The SAP HANA platform opens new opportunities for real-time analytics . We plan on introducing embedded
predictive analytics, sentiment analytics, and other analytical tools to complement analytics solutions from SAP.
Solutions to analyze Big Data can be significantly improved by the integration of Hadoop, providing instant insight
and infinite storage. For more information, see www.sap.com.
We also plan to have SAP HANA enable our next generation of enterprise performance management (EPM)
and governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) solutions. In-memory computing is planned to boost our
integrated financial planning capabilities. We intend to build out real-time GRC scenarios and develop industryspecific risk analytics applications.
Business process analytics are built for industries and line-of-business processes and are enriched with
content.
Products
We live in a connected world in which Big Data, people, machines, and processes are interlinked in the Internet of
Things. The ability to manage and consume all data and obtain a single version of the truth is even more
challenging. Immense value can be unleashed by connecting this information to the work that businesses do every
day, enabling them to quickly discover what is happening and then act with the power of collective insight. IT can
drive value from all data, big or small, for collective insight and reduce costs from IT landscapes.
SAP unleashes the power of collective insight by delivering an enterprise business intelligence solution that allows
you to engage with all your data, on any device and across any platform. Agile visualizations let you intuitively
explore and present data – and, through advanced predictive analytics applied throughout the enterprise, you can
confidently anticipate what comes next.
To learn more about analytics solutions from SAP, see www.sapanalyticsstory.com/ .
Analytics applications powered by SAP HANA include:
●
SAP Lumira 10 software – Ability to gather, analyze, and present the facts to solve the most pressing business
questions
●
SAP Sales and Operations Planning application – Integrated business planning to align your business to
profitability meet future demand
●
SAP BusinessObjects Explorer software – Analytics and business intelligence at high speed.
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Formerly known as SAP Visual Intelligence
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●
SAP Predictive Analysis software – Real-time, in-memory, predictive, and next-generation visualization and
modeling
●
SAP Business Planning and Consolidation application, version for SAP NetWeaver – Unified business
planning and financial consolidations with exceptional integration into the SAP Business Warehouse
application
For more information on our analytics solutions, see www.sap.com.
3.3.4
Technology Platform
Strategy
We will continue to extend the technology lead that we have established with the SAP HANA platform for business
applications and analytics in the market. Our applications running on the SAP HANA platform are built to seize
new opportunities for networked enterprises by using technologies such as cloud, in-memory computing, and
mobile computing. Our investments in these areas are made with leadership in mind.
We have continuously developed significant innovations in every single component of the technology and
database stack, and SAP HANA is a breakthrough innovation in this field: an in-memory database that natively
takes advantage of hardware evolution in processors, memory, storage, and networks (see Figure 15).
Figure 15: SAP HANA Innovations Overview
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Our vision for a consolidated information management solution is a real-time data platform that brings together
SAP HANA, products resulting from the acquisition of Sybase, an SAP company, common modeling, centralized
monitoring, data movement, and information management services, which helps ensure addressing all data
problems customers face today.
Products
We invest in our technology portfolio to provide a comprehensive approach to the orchestration of business
applications that close the gap between insight and action, no matter if these applications are deployed and
consumed on premise, in the cloud, or on a mobile device. On the one hand, orchestration addresses consistent
application architecture, consistently applied product and technology standards, and process, information, and
interface integrity. On the other hand, it supports key practices, such as business process management,
application lifecycle management, and data management. The SAP NetWeaver technology platform delivers key
functions to orchestrate business applications, form the application infrastructure for SAP and third-party
business applications, and support solutions that enhance team productivity, business processes, and application
integration.
Business information exists in multiple applications, data stores, and other internal or external sources. The
business requirement is to protect critical enterprise data, content, and applications residing on multiple device
platforms (smartphones, tablets, and laptops) and running different operating systems, such as Android,
BlackBerry, iOS, and Windows. Making this information available in a mobile environment is complex and
introduces security risks and high costs. Securely managing this complexity requires an enterprise mobility
management solution that includes secure mobile device and application management as well as mobile content
management. Therefore, we offer, for example, the SAP Afaria mobile device management solution and the
SAP Mobile Documents solution for mobile content and document management.
With the acquisitions of Sybase and Syclo, we now offer a comprehensive infrastructure for enterprise mobility.
This complete approach helps SAP customers unwire their enterprises by breaking down IT barriers and
delivering critical information and capabilities to employees, partners, and customers. Our unification efforts has
resulted in the development of SAP Mobile Platform, which combines Sybase Unwired Platform, the former
Sybase 365 Mobiliser Platform (for business-to-consumer applications). SAP Mobile Platform also includes
software development kits and supports industry-standard interfaces. This allows organizations to use the
integrated development environment of their choice and develop compelling native and hybrid applications that
run on iOS, Android, Windows, and BlackBerry operating systems.
SAP and partner solutions powered by SAP HANA can help you dramatically accelerate analytics, business
processes, sentiment data processing, and predictive capabilities. For more information, see www.sap.com.
For moving data in and out of the SAP HANA platform, we have a well-recognized set of enterprise information
management software products. These range from SAP Data Services software (a tool for mass data movement
with complex transformation) to SAP Replication Server 11 (a tool for real-time replication from relational
databases into SAP HANA) to SAP Information Steward software , which acts as a business-user front end for
data profiling and quality control.
The SAP HANA One service provides a small-scale cloud-based instance of SAP HANA hosted by Amazon Web
Services (AWS). It is the simplest entry point for SAP HANA and perfect for department scale projects, system
11
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Formerly known as SAP Sybase Replication Server
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integrators, independent software vendors, and innovative startups. For more information, see
www.saphana.com.
SAP HANA Cloud Platform is the overarching term for SAP HANA Infrastructure Services, SAP HANA
DBServices, and SAP HANA AppServices technology.
●
SAP HANA Infrastructure Services is a medium-scale cloud-based instance of SAP HANA hosted by SAP or
through AWS. Customers may quickly deploy and manage their prelicensed instances of SAP HANA (bringyour-own-license model) without hardware investments and setup time by purchasing an infrastructure
subscription. With available configurations currently ranging from 128 GB to 1.22 TB, an infrastructure
subscription is a scalable, affordable way to support licenses for SAP HANA.
●
SAP HANA DBServices is a similar offering in configurations from 128 GB to 1 TB, with an additional
subscription model for SAP HANA. There are two editions – base and platform – that contain either core
database services, development services, and libraries or advanced features such as predictive, search graph,
text, and geospatial analysis.
●
SAP HANA AppServices is built on top of infrastructure and database services hosted by SAP. It is a
platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offering that enables developers to build, extend, and run applications in the
cloud. It provides them with a set of comprehensive application and database services. It features native SAP
HANA, integrated, and open (Java) developer experiences. Built on SAP HANA, this full-featured,
open standards–based platform enables the real-time applications you need to succeed in today’s always-on,
mobile, social, and data-driven world.
For more information on all three services above, see www.saphana.com.
The SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud service is an offering that lets you run your business-critical applications in a
cloud environment that is powered by SAP HANA. We deliver managed services for your infrastructure and your
applications in a private cloud environment, satisfying the most demanding service levels and security standards.
These managed services help today’s IT departments to manage complex IT landscapes and allow them to spend
their time innovating and helping their businesses grow. With experts from SAP or our trusted partners managing
the deployment for you, you get the benefits of unparalleled expertise and the freedom to refocus existing IT
resources on core competencies. For example, SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud allows you to jump-start your
projects by cutting out system and hardware acquisition lead times and using preconfigured packages for the
business scenarios.
Perhaps you want to move your business into the cloud, but are not ready to move everything right now. With SAP
HANA Enterprise Cloud, you are able to pick and choose what you move and when. As a first step, you can get
started with analytics by just moving the SAP Business Warehouse (SAP BW) application into the cloud, migrating
it onto SAP HANA. You can also start with SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA, taking advantage of the
consolidation effects. Learn more about SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud at www.saphana.com .
For more information on on-premise and cloud-based deployment options with SAP HANA, see
www.saphana.com .
SAP HANA Live offerings enable real-time operational reporting using standard SAP HANA technology and
infrastructure. They can be deployed embedded in an SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA implementation
or side by side.
We also deliver ready-to-use, HTML5-based applications. The SAP Smart Business cockpit is one of the newgeneration applications available through SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA, combining new working
models with a consumer-grade, multichannel user experience and making use of the design paradigm of SAP Fiori
apps. In addition to HTML5 user interfaces, you can use SAP BusinessObjects business intelligence solutions to
access data exposed through SAP HANA Live.
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SAP HANA Live complements but does not replace SAP BW powered by SAP HANA. You can choose from mixed
scenarios whereby SAP HANA Live is implemented for SAP BW on the SAP HANA database. These scenarios
cover the vast majority of all analytical use cases, including real-time decision making and enterprise data
warehousing, on one platform. For more information, see www.sap.com.
For more information on SAP HANA, see www.saphana.com.
For a complete overview of our technology offerings, see www.sap.com.
3.4
Services and Support
SAP Services
The SAP Services portfolio is designed to enhance, enrich, and facilitate the implementation, adoption, and usage
of our solutions throughout their lifecycles. In order to facilitate their delivery and consumption, services are made
available to customers by a large ecosystem comprising SAP Services and partners.
For more than 40 years, the SAP Services organization has been helping to define and address business
challenges, implement software solutions, empower workforces, and optimize processes. Its size, scope, and
expertise allow SAP Services to deliver the following value to our customers:
●
Drive improved business outcomes through business insight and better software usage
●
Facilitate the adoption of innovation
●
Address unique business challenges
●
Help simplify the software landscape to reduce costs and improve flexibility
●
Provide greater predictability and defined outcomes in order to reduce risk
In addition, to help you adopt solutions more quickly, realize higher value and higher efficiency, and minimize risk
when implementing our solutions, SAP Services offers a portfolio of services for newer offerings while working
with our ecosystem and partners to help ensure ample coverage for mature and traditional solutions, with wide
expertise that can be provided with scale and minimum risk (see Figure 16).
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Figure 16: Aligning Our Portfolio for Business Outcome
In sum, SAP Services drives greater business value throughout the entire software lifecycle and an essential part
of organizational success.
For more information on all SAP Services offerings, see www.sap.com .
SAP Support
To successfully develop, implement, and operate IT, organizations often focus on developing and outlining
processes for managing complexity, mitigating risks, and controlling costs. To address these business challenges,
we offer a comprehensive and tiered portfolio of support offerings. Customers can select their support level based
on their individual business needs and considerations, including landscape complexity and desired depth of SAP
support. We provide a complete portfolio of support offerings: SAP Enterprise Support services (the universal
support offering for all customers) and basic SAP Standard Support services. In addition, supplemental support
offerings are available, such as SAP ActiveEmbedded services and SAP MaxAttention services, as well as secure
support services, which can be tailored to individual requirements. Advanced secure support services can help to
satisfy internal and industry-specific security needs and regulations.
For more information on our support offerings, see www.sapsupport.info/support-offerings/.
Our support offerings are delivered by the SAP Active Global Support (SAP AGS) organization. With more than
6,900 support engineers and developers on a global scale, SAP AGS focuses on helping you to manage the
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application lifecycle, optimize solution performance, implement innovation, and realize the value of your
investment in SAP software. The group facilitates the customer’s ability to manage complexity, mitigate risks, and
control costs. These offerings are available through seven strategically located global support centers and more
than 30 local support centers.
For more information about SAP AGS and our support offerings, see www.sapsupport.info/support-offerings/.
For information related to SAP Business One support, see http://sappartneredge.com/b1/maintenance.
Support for Upgrade and Enhancement Package Projects
We help customers align their IT strategies with our release and maintenance strategy and identify the best
transition option for their existing SAP applications. We offer tailored services, tools, and information resources to
explain the value proposition and requirements of an upgrade or enhancement package project and facilitate and
safeguard the project execution.
For more information, see www.service.sap.com/upgrade and www.service.sap.com/erp-ehp .
Related Information
SAP Services Offerings
SAP Support Offerings
SAP Business One Support
SAP Upgrade Info Center
SAP Enhancement Packages for SAP ERP
3.5
Ecosystem and Channels
Value of Our Partners for Our Customers
We have developed one of the industry’s strongest partner networks worldwide, providing customers with the
assistance they need to cost effectively discover, evaluate, select, purchase, and implement the right solutions for
their specific needs (see Figure 17). SAP partners are carefully selected, enabled, and continually evaluated to
help ensure best-in-class solutions and, thereby, customer satisfaction.
In addition to having partners who resell, implement, and extend SAP solutions on a project basis, we also foster a
large and growing ecosystem of startups and development partners that are providing packaged applications
based on SAP technologies and that usually integrate into SAP applications. Partner applications provide
additional choices and flexibility for businesses running our applications, enabling them to improve efficiencies
and employee productivity as well as accelerate the delivery of innovative products to market. Listed in SAP
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Store , they complement and add value to our solutions to help customers meet their individual business needs
even more successfully with additional software and functionalities.
Figure 17: Aligning Our Portfolio for Business Outcome
The SAP Startup Focus program is a Board-sponsored initiative to drive development of a new ecosystem
around the SAP HANA platform. Since its inception in June 2012, the program has brought in more than 1,200
startup companies from 57 countries. In this short time, more than 60 have completed development of net-new
solutions on SAP HANA. Dozens of these solutions are already in productive use at customer sites, both on
premise and in the cloud. Each implementation has brought new insights into the use and value of real-time
analytics for the future enterprise and the viability of the SAP HANA platform as a technology choice for
innovative businesses.
For more information about the SAP Startup Focus program, see http://startups.saphana.com.
The SAP PartnerEdge program for Application Development was launched in July 2013 to provide a complete
partner engagement to any IT solution provider that wants to build and market packaged applications based on
SAP technologies. It is relevant for all traditional partner types. It offers a comprehensive set of enablement tools,
support, and other benefits along with unique platform technology licensing models that make it as easier and as
attractive as possible for partners to create, market, and sell packaged applications – for example, in the areas of
Big Data, predictive analytics, mobile, and cloud computing. More than 500 partners signed up within 1.5 years of
its launch testify for the programs attractiveness. These partners have contributed already more than 200 readyto-buy applications to the SAP Store.
For more information, see the Application Development Partner Center at www.sapadpc.com.
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SAP Store is the place to discover, try, and buy more than 1,400 solutions from SAP and SAP partners (as of the
end of 2013). Customers can discover business solutions addressing cloud computing, enterprise mobility, Big
Data, analytics, and much more.
Hundreds of free trials and real-time solution compatibility checks are available for existing SAP customers as well
as the option to buy online with a credit card or approved payment terms.
For more information on SAP Store, watch our video and go to www.sapstore.com.
Two types of partner solutions are aligned with SAP in a special way:
●
Solutions endorsed by SAP are complementary to SAP software offerings, have been specifically
integrated with SAP solutions and tested by SAP, and provide additional choices and flexibility for businesses
running SAP software. SAP-endorsed business solutions are offered by SAP partners.
●
Developed by independent partners, solution extensions integrate easily with SAP software – offering crosssolution and cross-industry functionality that complement SAP solution capabilities. To ensure the highest
quality, SAP tests, validates, approves, and supports partner-developed solutions – assuring you of SAP
quality, commitment, and support, and greater return on investment. For more information about solution
extensions, see scn.sap.com/community/solution-extensions.
Customers evaluating partners are encouraged to consider the following quality assurance factors:
●
As part of their agreement with SAP, partners are required to complete employee technical training and
certification or application certification requirements to build, sell, or implement our SAP solutions or partner
solutions built on SAP platforms. Subsequently, they are knowledgeable about our offerings and are trained to
deliver fast results for SAP customers.
●
Partner solutions that are listed on the SAP Store or that integrate with SAP applications or both fulfill
minimum quality standards by way of application reviews and certifications.
For more information on SAP partners and partner solutions that can help your business, see www.sap.com/
partners.
SAP Community Network is a professional social collaboration network that provides orchestrated online
connections between SAP customers, partners, employees, and experts. The network enables members to share
ideas and engage with real-world experts online to facilitate instant collaboration. Member benefits include:
●
Getting fast answers from a vast network
●
Acquiring knowledge from extensive technical and business content
●
Building a personal network of experts
For more information, see http://scn.sap.com/welcome.
Related Information
Our Partners
SAP Startup Focus Program
Application Development Partner Center
Solution Extensions
SAP Store
SAP Community Network
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4 Availability and Maintenance Details for
SAP Releases
For more information about components in individual SAP software release, see the master guides available on
SAP Service Marketplace at www.service.sap.com/instguides.
As announced on October 14, 2014, SAP decided to extend the mainstream maintenance for SAP Business Suite 7
core application releases SAP ERP 6.0, SAP Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM) 7.0, SAP Supply
Chain Management (SAP SCM) 7.0, and SAP Supplier Relationship Management (SAP SRM) 7.0, as well as SAP
Business Suite powered by SAP HANA 2013, to December 2025. This long-term maintenance and support
perspective demonstrates SAP’s commitment to predictability and protection for customers’ investments, giving
customers additional choice, flexibility, and time to develop their individual approach for innovations and the
cloud. Find more details regarding the announcement, which also includes the continued delivery of innovations
for the on-premise versions of SAP Business Suite 7 and SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA as well as
prolonged commitments related to SAP Enterprise Support pricing, here.
The mainstream maintenance prolongation also applies to enhancement packages. For add-ons to the SAP
Business Suite core application releases, SAP decides on a case-by-case basis whether mainstream maintenance
for existing add-on releases is extended or whether new add-on releases are shipped to cover the time frame to
2025 in a so-called release sequence consisting of several add-on releases to the same underlying release, as
described in chapter maintenance strategy rules.
For a limited number of releases, mainstream maintenance cannot be extended from 2020 to 2025. For all details
and restrictions of the mainstream maintenance extension to 2025, including details and restrictions on SAP
NetWeaver, see SAP Note SAP Note 1648480.
As already announced in July 2012, the lower range of the version interoperability for central SAP NetWeaver
systems (SAP Enterprise Portal, SAP Process Integration, and SAP Business Warehouse) in conjunction with SAP
Business Suite 7 i2013 core applications (as of SAP ERP 6.0 enhancement package 7, SAP CRM 7.0 enhancement
package 3, SAP SCM 7.0 enhancement package 3, SAP SRM 7.0 enhancement package 3) has been shifted
upwards to at least SAP NetWeaver 7.30. For more information, see SAP Note SAP Note 1951805 and SAP
Community Network.
For up-to-date availability and maintenance details as well as upgrade paths and technical release information,
see the Product Availability Matrix on SAP Service Marketplace. For an overview of renamed software products
and versions, see the Renaming section in the Product Availability Matrix.
Access the Product Availability Matrix
Your licensed products in PAM
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Related Information
Access the Product Availability Matrix (PAM)
Your licensed Products in PAM
Master Guides
SAP Release Strategy
Availability and Maintenance Details for SAP Releases
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Renaming Section in PAM
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5
Glossary
A list of terms that are used in the SAP Release Strategy is provided here.
For a longer list of technology-related terms, see SAP Help Portal .
For a list of corporate terms used at SAP, see our glossary .
A
add-on release – SAP application release that is technically dependent on and can be installed only on top of
another SAP application
application – Software unit supporting a specific collection of business processes required to address defined
business needs
B
beta shipment – Release that may be offered prior to the release-to-customer date A beta shipment should be
used for testing purposes only and is not available for productive use. The content and the planned release-tocustomer date of software product versions made available under a beta shipment might be subject to change.
Therefore, customers should not place undue reliance on a beta shipment and the features or functionalities
presented therein and should not rely upon them in making purchasing decisions.
C
cloud solution – A service offered to customers that is hosted by SAP and made available to business users over
the Internet
content shipment – Complementing software for SAP applications that supports the customers’ integration,
implementation, and configuration activities
core applications – Set of SAP Business Suite software applications that include the SAP ERP, SAP Customer
Relationship Management, SAP Product Lifecycle Management, SAP Supply Chain Management, and SAP
Supplier Relationship Management applications
customer-specific maintenance – Maintenance phase after mainstream and extended maintenance have
expired, with reduced scope of support
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D
default release – Most recent release in the unrestricted shipment phase, which begins on the general availability
date. When ordering an SAP application, customers receive the default release unless a different release in
mainstream maintenance is explicitly specified.
E
enhancement package – An optional package that allows customers to take advantage of ongoing business
innovation while keeping the core systems stable
enterprise services – Services that organizations can use to compose or integrate applications to enable new
business processes and business scenarios
enterprise services bundle – Collection of enterprise services delivered as a discrete bundle that can be used to
extend the functionality of SAP ERP or other core applications
extended maintenance – Optional maintenance phase offered for selected releases of SAP software after
mainstream maintenance has expired, with a scope of support similar to mainstream maintenance
F
feature package – Packages that deliver nondisruptive innovation for generally available product versions, also
bundling software corrections and legal changes. A feature package delivery comes as a feature package stack.
Like a support package stack, it must be used in the given combination. Feature package stacks should be seen as
an entity in themselves – customers must heed the minimum requirements and dependencies between individual
components and apply the feature packages and patches specified in the feature package stack together.
G
general availability date – Point in time when a release is generally available to all customers
I
in-advance shipment – An add-on shipped as decoupled from the enhancement packages of the SAP Business
Suite core applications and consolidated in future enhancement packages. Installing an in-advance shipment
raises the version of a software component to the latest available enhancement package. All in-advance shipment
functionality can be activated selectively with business functions.
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Glossary
industry application – Software unit supporting a specific collection of business processes required to address
the needs of a specific industry
industry solution map – Graphical representation of the end-to-end business processes of a typical company
within a specific industry from the customer’s perspective
integration – Interoperability of a defined set of SAP software releases within a customer's system landscape
L
legal change – Correction to SAP software to adapt existing functions in an SAP software release to changed
legal and regulatory requirements
M
mainstream maintenance – Maintenance phase that includes full scope of support It is followed by an extended
maintenance, customer-specific maintenance, or priority-one support phase.
maintenance – Software support comprising – depending on the maintenance phase – support for legal changes
and corrections delivered through the SAP Notes tool, support packages, problem support, and access to
information and online service channels
maintenance strategy – A set of rules that determines the length and conditions of maintenance for SAP
software releases. Detailed rules can differ depending on the type of application.
master guide – Document containing information on how to install SAP software to support business scenarios
and that includes links to all other documents required to complete the task
P
priority-one support – An additional optional maintenance phase offered after the mainstream maintenance
phase expires for specific releases of the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform and SAP
BusinessObjects business intelligence solutions
R
release – SAP software that has a version number, is shipped at a particular time, and has defined maintenance
phases
release road map – Long-term schedule on how and when new releases for SAP software are planned to be
available
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release sequence – A sequence of product versions that are add-on application releases to the same technology
platform or core application release or are stand-alone application or technology platform offering releases
corresponding to a specific SAP NetWeaver release
release-to-customer date – Date that marks the initial availability of a release to customers and the beginning of
the restricted shipment phase
release type – Defines a framework for behavior and characteristics that the software product will comply with
remote function call (RFC) – Call of a function module that runs in a different system (destination) from the
calling program. We distinguish between synchronous, asynchronous, and transactional function calls. The called
system is accessed via the RFC interface.
restricted shipment phase – First phase of a release delivery, which is rolled out within the framework of the SAP
Ramp-Up program. The program determines how many customers receive the release and increases distribution
in a controlled way. This phase is followed by the unrestricted shipment phase.
S
SAP Business Suite – An SAP NetWeaver–based family of integrated core applications, industry applications,
and supplementary applications
SAP HANA maintenance revision – Contains only major bug fixes found in key scenarios supported by the SAP
HANA platform. The provisioning of new maintenance revisions ends with availability of an SAP HANA production
system verified revision, approximately three months after the release of a successor support package stack.
From this date, customers must adopt the regular support package revisions to receive further fixes. SAP HANA
production system verified revision outlines certain revisions that have been running in production enterprise
applications at SAP before they are released to customers. Those revisions are planned approximately three
months after release of the latest support package stack and are intended to allow better planning of maintenance
windows for production environments running on SAP HANA.
SAP HANA support package revisions – Individual software corrections and updates available for SAP HANA.
Revisions are cumulative and strictly downward compatible.
SAP HANA support package stack (support package stack) – Set of support packages and revisions for all
components included in the respective SAP HANA software release. Customers must heed the minimum
requirements and dependencies between individual components and apply the support packages specified in the
support package stack together. Typically, new usage scenarios and features for SAP HANA are introduced with a
support package stack.
SAP Ramp-Up – The program we use to introduce new application releases to the market to selected customers
during the restricted shipment phase
service pack – A bundle of software corrections intended for wide distribution that contains fixes for issues of
priority one, two, and three. These were adopted from the former Business Objects support policy. Service packs
also contain platform updates and are released on a predefined schedule.
software component version – Indicates the release of a software component. It is a technically distinguishable
unit of software and is installed and patched as a whole. A software component version is the smallest unit that
can be delivered, maintained, and deployed.
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SAP Release Strategy
Glossary
software product version – Indicates the release of a product. It is defined mainly from a delivery point of view.
There are two types of product versions: stand alone and add-on. A product version consists of one or more
software component versions.
stand-alone release – SAP application release that can be deployed independently of other application releases
support package – Bundle of software corrections available as a support package for the ABAP programming
language or a Java support package
support package stack – Sets of support packages and patches for the respective software product version that
shall be used in the given combination. Support package stacks should be seen as an entity in themselves –
customers must heed the minimum requirements and dependencies between individual components and apply
the support packages and patches specified in the support package stack together.
support release – Release offered after the beginning of the unrestricted shipment phase, if required, and that
contains a collection of all previously available support packages
switch framework – SAP technology to activate industry business function sets and generic business functions
within SAP ERP
T
technology update – Update to SAP software to support new or changed technologies – for example, to enable
compatibility with new database versions, operating system versions, or browser versions or to integrate a release
in new releases of other applications to support new scenarios
U
unrestricted shipment phase – Phase of release delivery during which all customers can obtain the release. The
phase follows the restricted shipment phase.
update – Process during a maintenance phase by which corrections are applied to software. This is generally
performed by importing support packages into the customer’s system. In contrast to an upgrade, updates do not
change software component versions.
upgrade – Replacement of an existing application component with a newer software component version of that
same application
SAP Release Strategy
Glossary
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