"The next version of our Business Suite will have one harmonic view," said Apotheker, who joined customers and analysts at SAP's New York offices Friday for a panel discussion on "Why it makes sense to invest in IT in lean economic times."

SAP has released a version of what Apotheker called its "unified interface," similar to the current interface in the company's CRM (customer relationship management) module, for select customers to test, according to company officials. It will most likely take several quarters to release the interface for general availability, Apotheker acknowledged.

The rollout of the unified interface is part of the company's commitment to bring its enhancement pack strategy to its entire business suite. With the rollout of enhancement packs, SAP is moving away from periodic, large upgrades and instead adding new features on an incremental basis.

Earlier this month, SAP released the fourth enhancement pack for its core ERP (enterprise resource planning) applications. The next releases of other applications in its suite, including supply chain management, product lifecycle management and supplier relationship management, will offer users the new unified interface and the ability to upgrade via enhancement packs, according to company officials.

"Once we get the next version of the business suite out, no more big bang upgrades," Apotheker said.