SAP Fleshes Out mySAP.com, Works With Microsoft On Mobile Devices

Everybody's getting "dot.commed" -- so why not all those millions of users of SAP AG's popular R/3 software? At least that's the strategic thinking from Walldorf, Germany, headquarters of the world's largest enterprise software firm, which wants to have its tens of thousands of corporate customers turn first to R/3 for their e-commerce needs. To that end, SAP this week offered fresh details on the mySAP.com Workplace, which was introduced at the software firm's European customer conference last May in Nice, France. A software portal, mySAP.com comes tailored for each user depending on the employee's role. Once users log on to the portal, they are presented with an organized set of links to the software applications and information resources they need to carry out their roles in the company. "With mySAP.com Workplace, SAP is providing a unified Web-based platform for integrating all the functionality, services, and information users need," says Karl-Heinz Hess, SAP board member. "SAP is empowering people by giving them role-based access to everything they need to be successful, including collaborative business applications, data, and Internet information, without having to hunt for it," adds Ed Markowitz, national director of ERP strategy at ZMAX/Eclipse, an IT research firm. In other SAP-related news this week, Microsoft said it was working with the German software giant to connect Windows CE-based mobile devices to R/3 using the Internet and its BizTalk e-commerce framework. The two companies are working to develop systems that will enable handheld or wearable Internet appliances to interact with mySAP.com.