Do SAP Plan to Productise the PIC Internal Process for Customers & ISV’s? | SAP Community

Recently SAP has released information on the internal process they have adopted for Enterprise SOA based Service definition and development.

It has the name PIC (Process Integration Content) and seems to be “governed” by an internla SAP “Council”.

Here is a description gleaned from a recent SAP presentation at the SAUG Summit:

PIC (Process Integration Content Council)

What is it?

• PIC is the process by which SAP defines and aligns enterprise services

Why do we need the PIC process?

• Reuse of services

o Service cut – done in PIC0

• Reuse of data types

o GDT-PIC

• Unified and readable naming of objects, services, and data types

• Unified design with defined modeling rules

o Outside-in approach

• Harmonization of business objects and service interfaces

• Unified behavior of services

• Overall documentation

• Intellectual property rights (IPR)

The PIC process involves using a BPM Modelling tool (IDS-Scheer’s ARIS). The description from SAP is described as:

ARIS supports the entire enterprise service definition process

• PIC 0: service definition and cut

• PIC 1: raw design of interfaces based on business object model

• GDT-PIC: harmonized definition of relevant data types

• PIC 3: final interface definition including element structure with all details

It is understood that definition of all “Enhancement Package” content for ERP6.0 for example now follows this process.

This raises many important questions for SAP Customers going forward. Such as:

1. To what SAP Software and Versions does this process apply?

2. Does SAP intend to “Productise” the PIC process so that Customers can plug into and adopt it in a seemless way?

3. If so, when?

4. If so, what are the implications for customers for custom development within their own SAP systems?

5. If so, what are the education, training, skill set and licensing implications of integrated use of the ARIS product suite?

For example, is SAP planning to fully OEM the ARIS solution for SAP, in a similar way that Oracle has with its “Oracle BPA Suite”?

It would be good to get EAC access to the right SAP knowledge so these questions can be answered. Perhaps this is a good topic for future EAC gatherings?

I would be interested in your thoughts.

Cheers, Phil Gleadhill.

BHP Billiton.