BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT WITH SAP … adapt their business scenarios and processes to new business strategies and meet the demands of today’s business envi-ronment. With BPM capability,

BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT WITH SAP NetWeaver™PROCESS AUTOMATION, OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE, AND INNOVATION

SAP NetWeaver

03_08721_oo_bpm_us.qxp 02.07.2004 13:07 Seite 1

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Affecting so many areas of activity, business processes often pre-sent numerous challenges: business owners and IT organizationsdo not speak the same language, share the same concepts of busi-ness processes, or use the same tools to describe them. Apart fromthe mere visualization of process models, you need a clearlydefined methodology and tools to close the gap between businessand IT and between business logic and technical implementation.Process configuration needs to be transparent and documented sothat process knowledge can be reused. Integrating processes acrossa whole landscape of applications needs to go beyond pure enter-prise application integration (EAI). An adaptive enterprise needsto be free from hard-coded point-to-point integration of technicalinterfaces and patchworks of different solutions used to cover application-to-application (A2A) and business-to-business (B2B)integration, as well as industry-specific processes: an adaptive enterprise needs to gain full process control across applicationsand enterprise boundaries.

Business process management (BPM) allows companies to con-tinuously adapt their business scenarios and processes to newbusiness strategies and meet the demands of today’s business envi-ronment. With BPM capability, you have a holistic view frommodeling to monitoring, helping you close the gap between busi-ness and IT. SAP AG and IDS Scheer AG have jointly leveragedtheir technological strengths and knowledge to develop a com-prehensive solution for BPM.

In today’s rapidly changing competitive business environment, organizations need solutions that enable business managers andemployees to effectively control the processes they are involved in throughout the entire life cycle including design, modeling,configuration, execution, monitoring, and analysis.

ARIS for SAP NetWeaver

SAP NetWeaver™

PROCESS EXECUTION MODEL

PROCESS CONFIGURATION MODEL

PROCESS ARCHITECTURE MODEL

SAP® SOLUTION MANAGER

Company View

Component View

Business Process

SAP XI

Integration Scenario

Integration Process

Workflow

Powered by SAP NetWeaver

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D

E

SAP SAPNON-SAP SAPxApp™

Figure 1: BPM Solution 2004


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PROCESS ARCHITECTURE AND CONFIGURATION MODEL

ARIS for SAP NetWeaver provides centralized administration of process information in a multilingual system tool. You can use this knowledge for project documentation, global system implementations, end-user training, and optimization projects.The software provides modeling functionality that addresses theprocess architecture models of companies’ business scenarios,business processes, and process steps. A value-chain diagram describes the end-to-end process map of a company. In a business-scoping phase, you continuously improve the business blueprintby selecting all relevant business scenarios and application com-ponents involved.

SAP® Solution Manager, the life-cycle management tool within SAP NetWeaver, provides SAP reference models for business scenar-ios that can be imported into ARIS for SAP NetWeaver. Business scenario models are further completed in ARIS for SAP NetWeaverand synchronized with SAP Solution Manager so that the finalbusiness blueprint is incorporated in a project.

SAP Solution Manager also completes configuration tasks relatedto the component-configuration model in an implementationview. In addition, SAP Solution Manager provides different opera-tional services such as solution monitoring and support of busi-ness scenarios.

PROCESS EXECUTION MODEL

SAP NetWeaver provides the modeling environment that allowsusers to model integration processes for execution within and beyond enterprise boundaries. SAP NetWeaver supports a wide variety of business scenarios and processes, ranging from industry-specific business scenarios (for example, from RosettaNet), to unstructured and flexible collaborative workflows, to highlystructured long-running transactions owned by different businesspartners across multiple systems.

Business process management (BPM) enables flexible, model-driven process design, implementation, execution, and supportwithin and across business applications. BPM allows companies tomodel processes with different users performing different rolesand tasks, optimizing communication between process ownersand IT experts.

SAP and IDS Scheer will leverage the strengths of their technologysolutions to cover the entire business-process life cycle in a closedloop – from design and configuration, to implementation and execution, to the evaluation of overall processes. This closed loopis a prerequisite to enabling continuous improvements in com-panies’ business processes. SAP and IDS Scheer have already takenthe first step toward the envisioned solution, offering the SAPNetWeaver™ platform from SAP together with the newly releasedARIS for SAP NetWeaver from IDS Scheer. This joint solution provides essential elements of a closed-loop BPM solution, includ-ing the procedural model, methodology, technology, and processcontent to enable adaptive business.

A COMPREHENSIVE BPM SOLUTION

Together, SAP and IDS Scheer are providing a comprehensive BPM solution today. SAP NetWeaver and ARIS for SAP NetWeaversupport all the various modeling abstraction types includingprocess-architecture and configuration models as well as a processexecution model that includes cross-component capabilities andworkflow.


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The business process engine embedded in the SAP XI integrationserver controls complex and collaborative business processes andprovides the necessary state management of messages exchangedbetween any involved components. Process logic is implementedin the central process integration layer, rather than in a decoupledbusiness process management system.

Cross-component BPM features in SAP XI include:

• A graphical process editor supporting executable processes

• Flexible state-of-the-art modeling to design process orchestra-tion in accordance with Business Process Execution Language(BPEL)

• Process patterns and business scenario templates within the integration builder

• Wizard-based configuration of processes in the SAP XI integra-tion builder

• Stable and secure process execution by the business process engine embedded in the SAP XI integration server

• Integration and interoperability with human-based workflows,either structured (business workflow) or unstructured (ad hocworkflow)

• Deadline and exception handling

• Process monitoring and alerting to expedite process optimization

SAP Business Workflow, powered by SAP Web AS, is concernedwith structured processes within an application. A business work-flow delivers the tools and functionality to define pockets of flexi-bility within an application’s process flow. You can make use ofbusiness workflows to interrupt a continuous process and transferthe responsibility for further execution to resources outside theapplication whenever necessary.

SAP NetWeaver features the following:

• Business process engine that is responsible for orchestratingmessage flows between business systems and applications

• Business workflow system that triggers predefined actionsbased on linking business objects with organizational structures

• Ad hoc workflow functionality that helps each user organizeand personalize tasks

• Common services provided by SAP Web Application Server(SAP Web AS) and SAP Enterprise Portal (SAP EP) as a commonalerting framework, where alerts can be configured to reflectthe needs of specific processes, and as the universal worklist(UWL) that acts as the central inbox for work items, tasks, notifications, and alerts to directly involve the user with processexecution.

The cross-component functionality of SAP NetWeaver primarilydeals with structured processes running across multiple softwarecomponents. SAP NetWeaver comes with all the necessary func-tionality required to design, execute, and monitor business pro-cesses that involve multiple components and systems. The com-ponents can be both internal and external to the enterprise.

You can design integration scenarios with the integration builderin SAP Exchange Infrastructure (SAP XI). It contains swim lane diagrams that describe the software components involved in theseintegration scenarios. Underneath the actions incorporated,information on interfaces and mapping programs is provided.Each cross-component process is treated as an individual embed-ded swim lane in an integration scenario. This process is modeledwith a graphical process editor. From SAP XI, integration processescan be imported to ARIS for SAP NetWeaver. This allows for a con-sistent overview of high-level business models, process configura-tion, and process execution models.


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Navigation from high-level business blueprints to executable processes using the same unified modeling user interface will enable the alignment of business process owners with IT expertsthroughout the whole process life cycle. The unified modelingenvironment will be based on a common user interface (UI)framework and one process repository, both tightly embedded inSAP NetWeaver. As a part of SAP NetWeaver, the process repositorysupports versioning, change management, and common softwarelogistics features.

One unified architecture for workflows and automated processexecution will streamline the model-driven implementation andconfiguration of processes within and across SAP applications andcomposites. Application processes will be based on reusable busi-ness objects and services.

A central monitoring dashboard for technical process monitoringwill provide central access to technical process performance, pro-cess simulation, component and message monitoring, and processlogs with drill-down features to single process instances. Tight integration with the operational infrastructure of SAP NetWeaver,including SAP Solution Manager, SAP XI runtime workbench,computer center management system (CCMS), and an alertingframework, will be enhanced to provide a unified serviceinfrastructure.

Business activity monitoring will provide event resolution andprocess efficiency monitoring in a dashboard. With business activ-ity monitoring, business users will be enabled to act on businessevents and activities, leveraging rule-based significance determi-nation capabilities, and dashboard monitoring of process effi-ciency, metrics, and reporting on key performance indicators.

SAP EP provides ad hoc workflow capability that supports infor-mal or one-time processes, typically handled in an unstructuredfashion using traditional productivity tools. With ad hoc work-flow, SAP EP leverages the strengths of both workflow and pro-ductivity tools to incorporate flexibility and structure within the same environment. It provides you with control over work-flow creation, tracking, participation, and completion. In addi-tion, you are able to collaborate more effectively with your coun-terparts, using workflow structure to manage person-to-personinteractions.

MODELING TO MONITORING: ROAD MAP FOR THE NEXT

GENERATION OF BPM

With SAP NetWeaver, SAP will continue to offer the evolution ofthe next generation of BPM, covering the entire life cycle of busi-ness processes: modeling, design, configuration, execution, pro-cess monitoring, and business activity monitoring.

In a strategic codevelopment of SAP and IDS Scheer, a unifiedmodeling environment, based on ARIS modeling methodology,with different role-based modeling views, will enable users towork on process models covering all requirements from an earlyproject stage to implementation by a consultant or IT expert.

BPM

Modeling Design

BusinessActivity

Monitoring

ProcessMonitoring

ProcessConfiguration

ProcessExecution

Figure 2: Next Generation of Business Process Management


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For more information about SAP NetWeaver and its businessprocess management capability, see www.sap.com

POWERED BY SAP NetWeaver

Business Process Management is powered by the SAP NetWeaverplatform, the open integration and application platform thatenables change. SAP NetWeaver helps companies align IT withtheir business. It allows companies to obtain more business valuefrom existing IT investments and to deploy a services-orientedarchitecture. SAP NetWeaver reduces total cost of ownership(TCO) and complexity across the entire IT landscape.

SAP NetWeaver powers mySAP™ Business Suite, SAP xApps™ pack-aged composite applications, and partner solutions. It providesthe best way to integrate all systems running SAP or non-SAPsoftware. SAP NetWeaver unifies integration technologies into asingle platform and is preintegrated with business applications,reducing the need for custom integration.

SUMMARY

SAP AG and IDS Scheer AG are leveraging the strength of theirtechnologies together to cover the whole business process life cycle. Today, SAP NetWeaver includes a comprehensive BPM solu-tion that will be enhanced in future releases to provide a unifiedmodeling environment and a powerful combination of BPM andbusiness activity monitoring.

Business BenefitsReducing costs, achieving faster return on investment by runningsolutions that adapt to changes, and turning process innovationinto profits are major agenda points on a company’s wish list today. In an ever-changing business environment, companies arelooking for continuous improvement and operational excellencein process optimization. This includes improving the operationalefficiency of end-to-end processes through better practices thatcan be easily described in a model, implemented, operated, andanalyzed thereafter.

SAP NetWeaver enables change and powers business process inno-vation. Process management is a key factor in controlling end-to-end processes across systems and organizations. SAP NetWeaverwith BPM has the enabling technology, methodology, and processinnovation capability to add flexibility to business strategies.

FOR MOREINFORMATION


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50 069 117 (04/06) Printed in USA.© 2004 by SAP AG. All rights reserved. SAP, R/3, mySAP, mySAP.com, xApps, xApp, SAP NetWeaver, and other SAP products and servicesmentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countriesall over the world. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. Data contained in this docu-ment serves informational purposes only. National product specifications may vary. Printed on environmentally friendly paper.These materials are subject to change without notice. These materials are provided by SAP AG and its affiliated companies (“SAP Group”) forinformational purposes only, without representation or warranty of any kind, and SAP Group shall not be liable for errors or omissions withrespect to the materials. The only warranties for SAP Group products and services are those that are set forth in the express warranty state-ments accompanying such products and services, if any. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty.

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BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT WITH SAP … adapt their business scenarios and processes to new business strategies and meet the demands of today’s business envi-ronment. With BPM capability,