InformationWeek

Essentially, SAP is offering its customers three ways to implement its integrated business-to-business architecture: as an application that the customer buys and installs itself; as a dedicated application run and hosted by SAP; and as a shared business-to-business portal co-developed by SAP and any number of partners in a given industry or market niche.

As an example of the last type of engagement, Ajit Nazre, VP of business development of the SAP spin-off SAPMarkets, points to the new chemical-pharmaceutical mySAP.com Marketplace. The site was launched in conjunction with global industry heavyweights such as BASF, Degussa, and Henkel.

"These companies may initiate such a marketplace with SAP as their technology partner, but they really want it to be open," Nazre says. "That's because, as the volume of business through the marketplace increases, it benefits both the buyers and the sellers."

Which is why the mySAP.com architecture makes extensive use of the Extensible Markup Language, seen as an excellent way to share data across the Web among multiple trading partners. However, as Hurwitz Group's Scott McLeod points out, many companies already have successful electronic data interchange implementations in place. That's why he says the most successful ERP and business-to-business providers will be those who offer customers a transition strategy. "You don't want to break something that's working," McLeod says. "So application vendors have to give their customers the option of talking to some of their partners via EDI and some via XML."

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