NetWeaver is a Web-based integration and application platform that includes portal, data warehouse and other software components. It will be a key technology in most future SAP products, including the new mySAP ERP 2005 software that started shipping last week.

Some SAP users interviewed last week complained that the requirements and costs of upgrading to mySAP ERP 2005 from SAP products that don't use NetWeaver remain unclear.

Stanley Ezzell, vice president of strategic initiatives at Wellborn Cabinet Inc., a furniture maker in Ashland, Ala., said he fears that his company will lose internal changes made to its SAP R/3-based applications if it upgrades to the next-generation tools.

"What NetWeaver really means to the R/3 customer, I don't know," he said. Ezzell was also unclear about just what migration path Wellborn will have to take to if it chooses to upgrade to mySAP ERP 2005.

"For me to go and say to my company, 'We've spent millions on this, and guess what, we'll spend more millions for that,' I might be calling looking for another job," he said. For now, Ezzell plans to hold off making any moves until SAP's plans become clearer.