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SAP AG is tackling some national security issues with the launch of a technology platform for homeland security process integration.
The SAP Security Resource Management platform, unveiled late last month, promotes technology interoperability and shared process management among government agencies by integrating “people, processes and technology,” said officials at SAP, of Walldorf, Germany. The platform is geared toward processes in border security, emergency preparedness and response, countermeasures, information analysis, and external coordination.
The Security Resource framework is based on SAPs existing e-government technology that is deployed at many U.S. agencies, including NASA, the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, San Diego Port Authority, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and Los Angeles World Airports.
The framework is based on NetWeaver, a technology stack announced last month that includes SAPs Exchange integration platform, portal framework and Web application server, along with a variety of additional SAP technologies, including its business information warehouse, mobile infrastructure and composite application framework. For homeland security purposes, NetWeaver is combined with customized tools to enable simulation and capacity modeling.
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A border security and global trade services system in Security Resource Management allows agencies to track and manage people, vessels, aircraft, cars and cargo. Business intelligence features flag transactions that include information contained on government-watch or denied-persons lists. Emergency response functionality enables wireless access and incident tracking for first responders managing large-scale disaster recovery projects.
A collaborative master data management function—also part of the NetWeaver stack—provides a central location for agencies to store, change and consolidate data.
Thomas Gulledge, professor of enterprise engineering at George Mason University and president of Enterprise Integrations Inc., works with the Department of Defense on large SAP implementations. Gulledge said NetWeaver is comparable to Oracle Corp.s Application Interconnect software, which combines application integration and message broker technologies.
“From SAPs point of view, its a way to pull it all together,” said Gulledge, in Fairfax, Va. “The only real advantage of NetWeaver is its optimized for SAP.”