InformationWeek

Approximately 20% of SAP customers that are large global companies, and an estimated 30% of small and midsize SAP users, will begin upgrading to 4.6B this year, according to a study by AMR Research. Most are migrating from R/3 release 3.x, SAP's core ERP suite. The upgrades are intended mainly to take advantage of new functionality in the individual modules-Human Resources, Financials, Manufacturing, and Sales and Distribution-as well as a new user interface called enjoySAP.

"The old interface reminded me of a mainframe system with a little bit of Windows thrown in," Groves says. "The new interface is completely revamped, and it looks a lot more like an Internet browser." Other benefits Groves expects from the upgrade include an employee self-service toolset and an automated training system.

The self-service function will let employees enter much of their personal information themselves, instead of filling out paper forms that HR staffers then must enter into the system. Groves says he expects self-entry will make it quicker, cheaper, and easier to update employees' personal data and increase the accuracy of the information.

The on-demand training system built into version 4.6 applications makes it much easier for novice users to learn the apps and for veteran users to create company-specific training documentation, Groves says. As a user updates information about an employee's benefits, for example, SAP's HR application documents the specific steps taken to do so. That information is then built into the application's training materials, making it available to other employees.

In previous releases, Groves says, creating and sustaining end-user documentation was a laborious process that HR staffers found slow and cumbersome. "Release 4.6B provides a much-improved ability for users to get data and reports out of the system," he says. "Back at 3.0, SAP was more focused on building functionality to collect data rather than making the application usable for the people who do the work."

Mike Campbell, general manager and senior VP for the HR sector of SAP America, says the easy-to-use features reflect SAP's commitment to building systems with users' needs foremost in mind. HR software, for example, traditionally has been transaction focused, with no tolerance for failure, so SAP concentrated on building systems that got every paycheck out on time and calculated taxes efficiently. Now, says Campbell, "We stopped looking at the systems in terms of doing financials reliably, because we do that well already, and focused on making information easier to access. We started thinking from the customer's perspective."

National Semiconductor's latest SAP upgrade, which took about three months, was one in a series for the company, which first installed release 2.2 of the HR module in 1995. At that time, the Santa Clara, Calif., chipmaker chose SAP over PeopleSoft Inc. because SAP appeared further along in its commitment to developing a global HR system. SAP's applications include very specific information on a country-by-country basis, such as Occupational Safety and Health Administration requirements in the United States and corporate tax rates in France. The applications for different countries are available in different languages. That multinational approach was important to National Semiconductor because the company operates in more than 20 countries.

SAP delivered on its global promise in stages. "As fast as they released products for various countries, we were consuming them. We were chasing upgrades," Groves says. But while Groves had a clear idea of where SAP's product development was going five years ago, he says he's less certain he understands the strategy SAP is pursuing today.

"If there was any one thing I think SAP could do better, it would be keeping people informed about where things are headed, so users would have a better idea of where the product is going to end up," Groves says, referring mainly to mySAP.com. For now, mySAP.com provides an infrastructure for E-business and adds Internet and front-end capabilities to SAP's core ERP applications. But many SAP users are confused about how mySAP.com fits in with SAP's traditional ERP products, analysts say.

In an announcement that is sure to please some customers who have yet to upgrade from older versions of the ERP suite, SAP said last week that its 5,000-employee software development group will be reorganized, with teams of developers assigned full time to add E-business features and functions to aging versions of the software.