Getting lots of feedback
After posting my blog on SAP product name confusion (idea to blog about it came from Sindhu, thanks for that) I received a lot of feedback from the SCN Community Members for which I'm also thankful.
Those who haven't read it, you can read it here:
SAP product naming confusion
The idea to have a SAP product overview page on idea place:
Product overview page idea
Among the comments and feedback on SCN and Idea Place, a respected SAP mentor Otto Gold whispered me to create a concept page to have a more visual aspect of the idea and put more power behind the idea.
Agreeing with him this could help the cause I started to create a concept page.Writing about what you want to see is always easier than coming up with the actual product. After some sleep (not much because I'm an early bird) I came up with a concept.
The concept page idea
First people checking the page should have a basic understanding of what a SAP product is and what the difference is between a platform and so on, so an important thing is information. My blog can already serve as a basis for placing information online to read about how it all fits together.
Once you get the hang of how SAP build up the products a simple timeline could do the trick to know where a product is situated, what year it came out, on which platform it resides and what alternative names are used by SAP.
Moving on to creating the page I bumped into another issue, I'm not a programmer. Now you don't have to be a great programmer to create a webpage but to create a somewhat "ok" looking concept page you need to have some programming knowledge. Luckily I did graduate as a programmer so I do have some knowledge. I found a nice looking php tutorial to create a timeline and attach it to a database so I went on from there.
Imagine a full-time programmer to spend time on the concept and working out the final product.
The concept page
You can find the concept page on the following location:
SAP Product name history overview page
Keep in mind that it's a concept and that it's only a part of what the final product should be.
The idea is to have a search option and a list of products to get you on the timeline where you want to check the product history, naming and possibly future (along with more information on the platform and so on).
The concept page shows a timeline for one product "SAP ERP". The idea is to have timelines like this for each product (PI, BW, CRM, BO, SBO and so on).
At the moment the timeline only features the time, the products that came out and the technology platforms that came out for that product.
To scroll along the years, drag the scrollbar underneath the timeline to the right (into the future) or to the left (to go back into the past).
When you click on a product or platform (different icon) you get more information on the naming. For each product it is stated on which technology platform it is based and for each technology platform the list of products (which are in the timeline) is listed.
To close the information box, you click outside of the information box.
