Page 186 - DCAP302_ENTERPRISE_RESOURCE_PLANNING

Enterprise Resource Planning

notes Oracle is also a tool vendor and uses Oracle Forms, Developer 2000 and Designer 2000 to develop
its Oracle Application.
The emerging trends in the enterprise packaged applications are its integration with latest
cutting – edge technology like sales force automation (SFA), customer relationship management
(CRAM). As the internet based services like E–commerce are available, the new applications get
diverted from Back-office and Front-office functioned items.
As with every other software market, ERP vendors are being forced to move from a client/server
to browser/server architecture to Web-enable their software and thus, deliver self-service and
electronic commerce capabilities.
BAAN is working to deliver a Java-based Web interface to all its products. The company is also
focusing on the automation of supply-chain relationships via the Internet, on e-commerce via the
Microsoft Merchant Server (now known as Site Server), and on using Hyperion Software Corp.’s
Spider-Man technology for report and alert distribution across the Web.
PeopleSoft is set to deliver its Universal Applications—Java-based self-service applets—with its
PeopleSoft 7. JD Edwards is also using Java to allow its OneWorld functionality to be available
either through a Windows client or a Web browser. While Oracle has used Java to deliver its
Oracle Web Employees, Oracle Web Customers, and Oracle Web Suppliers modules.
In 1997, SAP released 25 Web applications for version 3.1 of the R/3 and recently previewed
links to online catalogs for Web-based procurement. Unlike the Microsoft-centric middle market
applications, the ERP vendors are all using Java, rather than Microsoft’s ActiveX, for their first
generation of Web-enabled applications.
The move by the ERP vendors to embrace Java as a means to deliver and deploy their Web
functionality is the first move away from proprietary technologies to more open tools.
One reason why implementing solutions from SAP and PeopleSoft can be expensive is because the
tools for customizing their products—ABAP4 and People-Tools—are proprietary. Whereas many
lower-tier software vendors have built their application front ends using popular commercial
tools—such as PowerBuilder, Visual Basic, or MicrosoftAccess—the ERP vendors have not taken
this route.
As a result, the customer will have to pay a premium for ABAP4 and PeopleTools programmers,
instead of leveraging the PowerScript or Visual Basic expertise that they may already have in-
house. Because Oracle is already a tool vendor, the company uses Oracle Forms, Developer 2000,
and Designer 2000 to develop its Oracle Applications.

Did u know? ERP vendors offer central platform management tools along with
comprehensive suites of application modules.

10.8 Business models and Business application programming
interfaces (Bapis)

SAP has attacked the notion that the R/3 system is not open by releasing the specifications
for some 170 business application programming interfaces (BAPIs), which help third-party
applications interact with R/3 directly.

BAPIs are simply, sets of methods that allow external applications to collaborate with specific
R/3 business objects, such as customers, accounts, or employees.
The fact that the R/3 data is addressable through these callable methods, (BAPIs) gives the
third party application vendors a lot of flexibility to build supporting applications for the R/3
system.

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