SAP-Centric Projects

General Points:

Over the years I have compared the capabilities of SAP-Primavera integration vendors from many angles. In the end I came to the conclusion that most of them were nearly irrelevant and that angles are less important than the overall solution design and the big picture. Having said that there are a number of points that clearly set the offerings apart from each other.

1. Technology needs to be Java and Web-standards based.

This is what should be considered a no-brainer as both SAP and Primavera, as the rest of the IT world, are moving into that direction. Strongly ABAP¹-based solutions should be discounted almost as a matter of principle. All my above recommendationos are strongly web-based. This point basically eliminates TRC of the Prometheus Group as a viable option for most situations, as valuable as their services or software solutions otherwise could be in other areas of managing SAP-centric projects.

2. Integration software vendors should not also be platform vendors.

Integrating SAP with Primavera is a niche market, although a big one. By its very nature a vendor needs to make a choice between focusing on being a technological integration company or a solution vendor selling applications to resolve specific business issues. This is why IBM or SAP or BEA are not in the SAP-Primavera integration market - they sell technology platforms. It is also the reason why Pipeline and Primavera excel most by being focused on integration processes instead of the need to support their own platforms (like Impress or also SOALogix).

3. Software vendors should be integratioon experts.

This may sound like self-evident, but too often internal IT departments or external service-focused organizations try to take on the development of solutions. Also, this is where Prometheus Group does not come out too well. They are SAP development experts and to some degree even process experts, but do not seem to have come out with a packaged product yet. The strongest scores here get vendors like Pipeline Software and SOALogix, with Pipeline having focused on SAP integration for many years while SOALogix coming from the Primavera and EAI direction. Impress can also be mentioned here, but their play has never been straightforward, with it somewhat wobbling between being an integration application and an EAI platform.