Recently SAP announced a new buzz word: “Alloy”. So what is Alloy? It is a partnership between SAP and IBM over a new product that ties the SAP back end with the well known Lotus Notes interface. Some critics have already dug deep and think that Alloy will prove stronger than Duet, the equivalent initiative and collaboration between Microsoft and SAP.
As with Duet, Alloy enables users to start end-to-end processes within Lotus Notes, as well as complete normally SAP tasks using Lotus Notes as their front-end application. one example could be the approval of aprocurement transaction using an e-mail to trigger the action. This feature has obvious advantages – what currently needs two different users to complete a process, now can be done by a Lotus Notes user, at a distance of a mouse click, without having to change UI environments. The new product follows Duet, a Microsoft and SAP collaboration that enables SAP to Office products like MS Excel, MS Word and MS Outlook. Alloy is due anytime this month (March).
Duet was released with a great market effort, both from Microsoft and SAP. At the beginning, there was an apparently growing interest but soon it lost it’s early boom. According to some analysts, this was mainly due to both companies have similar objectives, i.e., they sell applications which compete with themselves.
Also according to some specialists in this area, Alloy will potentially have a greater success than Duet because a large part of IBM Lotus’ costumers are also SAP’s clients in the ERP. Most of them are planning or even ongoing in an ERP Upgrade process, which makes it easier to plan or induce improvements and new features. According to specialists, the Alloy partnership is also less “tense” and clearer that the one with Microsoft, since IBM and SAP don’t sell directly competing business applications.
Alloy Landscape
The following components have been highlighted in Alloy:
- SAP Alloy Gateway: the SAP Alloy Gateway is a SAP NetWeaver Application Server Java Stack 7.0. It provides the interface between the SAP (ABAP) and IBM (Notes) world;
- IBM Alloy Gateway: in addition to the Lotus Domino Server a IBM Alloy Gateway is required, which is responsible for the communication with the SAP world;
- Meta Data Repository: the Meta Data Repository contains information about how SAP data should be displayed in the Lotus Notes Client as well as additional information like links to Reports or other sources (like travel rules);
- Sideshelf: the Sideshelf is a part of the Lotus Notes Clients. It displays additional information like reports, links, open points and management summaries.
Alloy Inbox
This figure shows a typical task in HR received by a Manager as an e-mail message: the approval of a Trip Request by an employee. This can be done via SAP Portal and the result goes directly to the Manager’s Inbox in Lotus Notes.
Create a Trip Request
Trip requests load information which is coming directly from SAP in real-time.
The first version of Alloy, which will go into Ramp-up anytime this month (March 2009), will contain the following functionalities and features:
- Create a Leave Request
- Approve a Leave Request
- Create a Travel Request
- Approve a Travel Request
- Workflow Management
- Report Management
Additional links and resources:
Working as an Information Systems Consultant for over 10 years now, I've found that working with SAP brought me added value on how to deal and manage IT and Information Systems Projects. More than a hobby, this blog is aimed to propagate SAP knowledge exchange and help other SAP technology or functional Consultants finding any piece of useful information. Please participate with your comments and opinions, it will help enrich the SAP community. Thanks!
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