In the very same month that SAP announced the general availability (GA) of their cloud platform, an agreement of several major banks was made to support SAP developing a new connectivity solution on top of this cloud platform.
This surely is a sign of confidence, especially in a business area where new products usually are mistrusted (citation of a bank representative: "Our security teams are always nervous about putting data services in the cloud").
The cloud platform of SAP, SAP HANA Cloud, is built on open-standards and its purpose is to enable partners and customers of all sizes to build loosely coupled cloud-based applications that integrate with and extend the value of existing on-demand and on-premise solutions. GA was announced in October, 2012. (See 1)
Ok, well done. But what does it really mean?
There are a lot of competitors, too numerous to mention them all here, doing basically similar things or even the same - with more or less success. One might ask: “Has the world waited for another cloud platform?” or “Why is this one so special compared to all the others existing?”
Where do things go from here?
A new solution of SAP, SAP Financial Services Network (SAP FSN), is a cloud-based network that offers a single connection point across multiple services, businesses, and financial institutions. SAP FSN is being built on SAP HANA Cloud and is able to satisfy the tough requirements regarding security, scalability, and availability that are necessary in this branch of business.
SAP FSN is available to customers since March 21, 2013, and several major international banks have been involved in the development of this solution. With SAP FSN banks and their corporate customers can exchange payment documents in a reliable and secure way.
SAP FSN aims to facilitate multi-bank routing, multi-format payments, on-boarding and many other services. As part of the development of the network, banks and corporations are contributing their expertise and resources to create a real-world road map that helps deliver full financial integration, connectivity and service among all participants.
The FSN which is based on a public cloud hosted by SAP is meant to simplify managing multi-bank relationships, while supporting financial control, risk management and supply chain financing, remittance, factoring, FX transactions, etc. The time to set up connectivity, along with the corresponding costs, is expected to be reduced significantly by using the FSN.
Sources:
- SAP Community Network:SAP NetWeaver Cloud - All Good Things Come in Three's (Part 1/3)
- ComputerWeekly:CIOs say move to cloud applications inevitable as public sector leads the way
- Finextra: Banks announce support for SAP corporate cloud messaging network
- SAP Newsroom: SAP and Leading Banks Collaborate on Future of Corporate Services
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