Can Cincom Smalltalk Be Used with SAP?

SAP is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software developed by the German company, SAP SE. SAP ERP incorporates the key business functions of an organization, which helps with business process management.

One of the many benefits of using Cincom Smalltalk for application development is the fact that it works so well with many other development environments.  In fact, we like to say that Cincom Smalltalk “plays well with others” and have even listed several examples on our website, including Raspberry Pi and JavaScript. Another example of this “playing nice” is how Cincom Smalltalk can be used with SAP. Using an application written by a Cincom Smalltalk partner called, SAP NetWeaver Connect, SAP and Cincom Smalltalk work well together for a variety of uses.

For example, existing Cincom Smalltalk customers who have SAP requirements, as well as prospects looking for a solution that can work with SAP, can use Cincom Smalltalk and SAP NetWeaver Connect.

What Is SAP NetWeaver Connect for Cincom Smalltalk?

Let’s take a quick look at SAP NetWeaver Connect. SAP NetWeaver Connect enables SAP to use Smalltalk for explorative modeling while allowing companies with SAP requirements to profit from advantages of Smalltalk with an easy and standard way of integration into SAP projects. Smalltalk’s strengths, such as modeling and rapid prototyping, are easily accessible at SAP. This helps in two ways:

• SAP customers can choose to do their functional enhancements with Cincom® VisualWorks®.
• SAP partners can close white spaces in SAP’s Business Application Map with certifiable applications created with VisualWorks.

SAP NetWeaver Connect makes Cincom VisualWorks a “first-class citizen” in the SAP NetWeaver world.

• More detailed information about SAP NetWeaver Connect can be found here.

How about a Real-World Example?

Recently, Suzanne Fortman, the Program Director and Engineering Manager for Cincom Smalltalk, shared a story about a customer meeting at the Cincom Corporate Headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio.

This existing customer had been using Cincom Smalltalk for years and had five different applications written in Smalltalk. They had recently acquired another company and integrated a new team of Java programmers with their Smalltalk programming team. After the acquisition, their executive team gave both teams a challenge for building out a new solution. The requirement? Both the Smalltalk and Java development teams had to show a proof of concept and it had to connect with SAP.

Since the STAR Team had a great relationship with this customer, they immediately called us to ask what we knew about SAP.  We were able to introduce them to the SAP NetWeaver Connect application we described above.  Since the SAP NetWeaver Connect application was written by one of our Cincom Smalltalk partners, we were able to ease the customer’s mind because we have an existing solution that can meet their SAP needs. The Java team, on the other hand, did not have the same shortcut to deliver the proof of concept to management with the SAP requirement.

• Listen as Suzanne goes into detail telling this story here: