Telstra, SAP unite for portal

By Paul Montgomery

The corporate portal concept is the centre of a formidable deal to provide support for business-to-business e-commerce between SAP and Telstra, two giants of their respective fields.

The companies have announced a strategic alliance to build infrastructure to host a localised version of the mySAP.com Marketplace, which acts as an application service provider for users of SAP's R/3 enterprise resource planning software suite.

Telstra will provide the infrastructure and connectivity for hosting the Marketplace, while SAP will contribute the inter-enterprise applications which could make it a favoured place for businesses to enter into e-commerce and supply chain relationships.

The two companies will also collaborate to set up a Collaborative Solutions Factory, or C-Factory, which combine mySAP.com solutions with Telstra's own services and third party technologies.

The Marketplace is one part of mySAP.com, which the vendor unveiled last year as a complete update to the R/3 suite. The other major interface component, the mySAP.com Workplace, is used by employees as an enterprise information portal not just to data within SAP applications, but also other internal corporate content.

"As enterprises evolve to become e-businesses the mySAP.com Marketplace, powered by Telstra's regional communications, IT and hosting infrastructure, provides a powerful integration and collaboration platform for business in the region," said Ted Pretty, group MD of Telstra's convergent business division.