Dear BPX community members, Welcome to the first of many blogs to come about composite applications and composite applications development and its applicability to the consumer products (CP) industry. I am looking forward to a lively discussion with you in the future. Please don’t hesitate in contacting me if you have any comments, questions and suggestions about this workspace. What we would like to introduce in this (and the following) blogs is a collaborative platform, where we share the latest news on composite applications for the CP industry (available at service.sap.com), status on ongoing developments in the area of xAPPs for the CP industry, as well as potential white spaces, where we look for partners to engage jointly with us for suitable xAPPs that might help address current solution shortcomings. We also value feedback from our customers on importance and priorities of proposed development plans. The consumer products (CP) industry is an important industry for SAP. To help our customers adapting SAP’s enterprise service-oriented architecture (enterprise SOA) vision, the CP Industry Business Unit is currently addressing all enterprise SOA-related challenges in different work streams, with consumer products-specific xAPP development being one of the major focus areas. In doing so, this will enable our CP customers to propel ahead of their competition while transforming their business towards the new SAP enterprise SOA vision. One option for our customers of getting there today whilst keeping existing IT projects (and timelines) on track is to venture into SAP’s next generation of solution development by using SAP’s capabilities around xAPP development: SAP CAF. SAP’s composite application framework (SAP CAF) provides a methodology as well as a comprehensive set of tools to manage and develop composite applications efficiently. Composite applications sit on top of existing applications and reuse existing functionality by service calls, performed through enterprise services/web services. Using composite applications for new development requests help our customers to leverage their existing IT investment, whilst driving the development of new and/or simplified business processes. Further information on SAP’s CAF can be found on SDN or here. In this first blog edition we would like to share our already existing xAPPs with you and provide you with more details around their availability. We have developed the following analytical composite application specifically for the CP industry (including Apparel & Footwear Segment): - AFS Analytics for Resellers - Channel Performance YTD - Trade Marketing Analytics - Brand Analytics - Category Promotion Analysis - Category Sales Analysis - Category Cockpit Those applications are available for our customers and ready for download immediately. If you need more information on analytical composite applications for other industries and how to download the above and other SAP’s analytical composite applications from the service market place please have a look at SDN, i. e. by following this link. With our latest CP-specific development in the area of analytical composite applications, we also would like to introduce xAPP Account Analytics to you. This xAPP provides advanced functionality around in-depth account analytics and best-practice drill-down capabilities. 
Screenshot xAPP Account Analytics This exciting analytical application is now ready for implementation. If you are interested in joining the pilot program please contact myself or your respective SAP account executive. Thanks for reading this post and I'll see you in a few weeks. I always welcome your comments and suggestions about this blog. Stay tuned for more updates. Until then. Best Gudrun Fischer
Screenshot xAPP Account Analytics This exciting analytical application is now ready for implementation. If you are interested in joining the pilot program please contact myself or your respective SAP account executive. Thanks for reading this post and I'll see you in a few weeks. I always welcome your comments and suggestions about this blog. Stay tuned for more updates. Until then. Best Gudrun Fischer