Programming Jabber

Building an ERP Connection

To some extent, SAP’s R/3, an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, has until recently been a monolithic piece of software, both from an actual and psychological perspective.

The drive to replace disparate and incompatible business system “islands” with an integrated software solution that covered business processes across the board was strong in the 1980s and 1990s. With good reason. For example, SAP delivered the ability for companies to manage their different end-to-end processes coherently, without requiring custom-built interfaces between logistics and financial accounting packages. The flow of information was automatic between the application subsystems that were standard within SAP’s R/2 and R/3 products.

The upside to this was, of course, the seamless integration of data and functions within the SAP universe, a universe vast enough to offer application coverage for pretty much every conceivable business function.

The downside was, ironically, the universe itself. All-encompassing as SAP’s products were, and indeed they were forever changing and expanding to meet business demands, it was never enough, if you wanted to break out of the mould formed by the omnipresent standard proprietary client called SAPGUI. Sure, these days, with a huge installed base of R/2 and R/3 systems in production around the world, there are a multitude of ways to get data in and out of SAP systems, but despite the varied successes of alternative client initiatives, ...