SAP AG has announced the availability of the second enhancement package for the SAP ERP application. SAP enhancement packages for SAP ERP simplify the way customers manage and deploy new software functionality, enabling them to take advantage of the latest software innovations while minimizing disruption to ongoing operations. Announced at the end of 2006, SAP's enhancement package strategy provides customers a more economical and less disruptive way of adopting and managing software releases.

Customers can selectively implement software innovations from SAP and activate selected functionalities and enhancements as driven by business demand. This unique delivery and deployment method for enterprise software, enabled by the flexibility of enterprise service-oriented architecture (enterprise SOA), allows customers to get new capabilities while meeting a key customer requirement to leave core ERP functionality stable. As a result, customers can isolate the impact of software updates and quickly bring new functionality online through shortened testing cycles without impeding core business processes.

All innovations in the second enhancement package for SAP ERP are available to customers for rapid deployment and include horizontal and industry-specific functional enhancements, process and user-interface (UI) simplification, and targeted new enterprise services. The second enhancement package for SAP ERP delivers highly targeted business benefits, including:

• Improved flexibility and ability to innovate core processes. The  enterprise service bundles in the second enhancement package offer customers the ability to simplify order-to-cash processes by improving  access to customer and sales order information, streamlining invoices and payments, and improving visibility for accounts-receivable representatives and cash managers.

In addition, each of the core applications within SAP ERP are improved with the second enhancement package:

• SAP ERP Financials streamline planning and  forecasting, financial consolidations, billing, credit, collections and  dispute management. The new SAP Bank Relationship Management  application increases efficiency, lowers costs and streamlines communications processes across multiple banks through integration with  SWIFTNet, the financial messaging network built by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication
• SAP ERP Human Capital Management include the  availability of SAP Enterprise Learning environment. The  environment includes the SAP Learning Solution and virtual classrooms powered by Adobe Connect. SAP Learning Solution received  SCORM2004 (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) 3rd Edition certification on July 17, 2007 from the Advanced Distributed Learning  (ADL) Initiative.  
• SAP ERP Operations include new roles and work centers  for internal sales representatives to access customer information, and  simplification of sales order management processes that allow for easy  searches of sale and billing documents. In addition, manufacturing  companies will receive innovations that support the control and  monitoring of Kanban processes and facilitate smooth production in  repetitive manufacturing steps according to the Heijunka method. 
• SAP ERP Corporate Services 
  --SAP Travel Management offers a new intuitive user interface and  tools to increase the simplicity and flexibility of the solution,  help speed user adoption and implementation time and enable  integration with partner applications leveraging enterprise  services. 
  --SAP Real Estate Management supports additional corporate real  estate scenarios such as simplified management of space, rooms,  moves and service charge settlements, as well as improved support  for global operations through enhanced lease management in multiple  currencies. 
  --SAP Enterprise Asset Management provides end users with  simplified and flexible access to maintenance planning and  scheduling business processes.