As the core component to SAP's Enterprise Services Architecture (ESA), NetWeaver comprises a set of service-oriented architecture (SOA) technologies, including a portal, business warehouse and other infrastructure applications. It's meant to enable customers to create integrated workflows over various applications. Not surprisingly, at this week's Sapphire 2006 user conference in Orlando, SAP made a number of NetWeaver-related announcements.

Among its other initiatives, the company announced a US$125 million fund to invest in NetWeaver technologies developed by software companies, as well as a planned rollout of business intelligence (BI) applications and its next-generation product, mySAP ERP 2005, which is heavily reliant on NetWeaver.

The technology is a fact of life for customers, said Matthew Rickard, a director of groups and chapters at the Americas SAP Users' Group (ASUG). "All our members at some point in time are going to have go to the ESA. I don't think there is anyone who doesn't believe they aren't going there." Rickard is also special projects manager at the New Brunswick Power Holding Corp., an SAP shop in Fredericton.

That's not a bad thing, he said. "I believe that SAP has got the vision right, and ESA will deliver long-term benefits to their clients through increased flexibility and adaptability, allowing companies to gain competitive advantage through more rapid development and deployment of solutions," said Rickard.

A couple of other ASUG board members concurred that the ESA technology and NetWeaver are good for SAP's installed base. In fact, customers are going to want to move to the mySAP ERP 2005 application to exploit the ESA technology, said Mike Perroni, vice president of IT at Halliburton Co. in Houston. He is also the outgoing president of ASUG.