Summary
Front-end devices as well as printers are often overlooked or taken for granted in an IT infrastructure. However, they are essential for executing what a mySAP.com system is built for—day-to-day business. The various SAPGUIs and the mySAP.com Workplace provide the interface to information and business processes that users need to access during their daily work. Printing is still indispensable in business processes. A well-suited and reliably technical front-end and output infrastructure is therefore an essential factor for any successful mySAP.com implementation.
Include a front-end strategy (and budget) from the very beginning into a mySAP.com project.
WinGUI and JavaGUI are installed on the user's workstation. The consequences are relatively high resource demands for the front-end as well as high software maintenance and management effort. On the other hand, the network bandwidth is among the lowest of all business applications.
WebGUI and devices like NCs depend on an additional middleware tier. An installation on the front-end is not required; the resource demands (at least at the front-end devices) are very low. The drawback is much higher bandwidth consumption and the additional expense and maintenance effort for the intermediate server.
The WebGUI does not support features like integration of desktop programs or certain controls. Therefore, not all transactions can be executed. WebGUI also lacks some general features like front-end printing.
The mySAP.com Workplace runs in a web browser. However, some transactions require features from JavaGUI or WinGUI. For users without local SAPGUI, a Microsoft WTS and a Citrix Metaframe client are necessary to execute mySAP.com transactions that need WinGUI functionality.
Any other Windows application can be integrated into the mySAP.com Workplace in just the same way.
Drag&Relate is implemented with the Drag&Relate servlet. One instance of the Drag&Relate servlet is needed for every logical component system.
It does not make sense for every transaction to use the SAPGUI for HTML. Thus SAPGUI for Windows is still essential for mySAP.com. It's still possible to use the SAPGUI for Windows to access the Workplace.
Consider NCs in noise-sensitive as well as production environments where dust can result in a short lifetime for PCs.
Include an output strategy (and budget) from the very beginning into a mySAP.com project.
Consider an electronic forms management system. Forms are still the predominant hard copy output from SAP applications.
Consider an output management system to provide proper document delivery.
Standardize on one type of network-attached printer.