In an effort to simplify upgrades, and chiefly the testing processes involved, SAP will break up enhancement packages into smaller, vertically and industry-focused pieces that its customers can implement incrementally.
The updates in smaller pieces will come out every quarter. Customers will have the option to implement them in several ways—a node, a support pack or as an add-on to a support pack. Customers can access the updates through Solution Manager or via the Innovation Roadmap on the SAP Service Marketplace.
“The enhancement pack was a collection of hundreds of innovations bundled into one package. But customers want smaller, digestible pieces,” says Bernd Leukert, EVP and Corporate Officer for SAP Business Suite Applications. “They want to select which pieces to install and which to ignore.”
In turn, SAP extended maintenance and support for ERP 6.0 and Business Suite 7 products for five years, from December 2015 to December 2020. The maintenance and support schedule covers NetWeaver and all current enhancement packages for the Business Suite. Customers still have a choice between Standard Support at 17 percent and Enterprise Support at 22 percent of net licensing fees.
The plan is for enhancement packages to come out every two to three years (Innovation 2011 will be delivered in November), and all previous enhancement packages shipped already to market will remain available. But over time, the importance of the enhancement package will be reduced as SAP delivers more flexible ways of upgrading customers’ existing systems, according to SAP. Enhancement packages will be mostly for customers starting a new implementation, Leukert says.
These smaller enhancements will include, for instance, widgets for end users to design their own user interfaces without IT’s assistance or any modifying of the SAP back-end. Business analytics enhancements are also planned.
“We want to show the difference with Oracle, which is pushing customers to a disruptive strategy with Fusion,” Leukert says. “If they stay on the current release, they are not able to consume innovations.”
