mySAP Toolbag for Performance Tuning and Stress Testing

2.2. The Challenge—Getting “Real” Return on Information

SAP AG penned the term return on information (a play on the more traditional return on investment acronym, or ROI) years ago, and I like that phrase, because it holds true today as much as ever. ROI implies that a fundamental financial equation exists at the heart of each SAP implementation or upgrade, that the SAP solution more than pays for itself over time, and that the real value provided by SAP lies in how the system's data may be manipulated and accessed to create useful information. Thus, the characteristics that are useful in describing the system—its performance, availability, scalability, cost, and so on—play central roles in exactly how well the system provides “ROI.” I'll be ...