Most large companies running on SAP are increasingly deploying SharePoint as an enterprise-wide business productivity and collaboration platform. With a growing number of business users feeling comfortable in the SharePoint environment, there is an opportunity to leverage SharePoint as a platform for accelerating SAP transactions. But exactly which business processes does it make sense to automate with an SAP/SharePoint integrated approach? When qualifying these scenarios, ask at least the questions below. The more questions with the answer yes, the more suitable the business process is for an SAP/SharePoint solution.

Are non-SAP users participating in the process?
If users are not entering data directly into the SAP GUI, then they need another interface. SharePoint is a great platform for reaching new users without deploying new UI technologies in front of the users.

Are SAP users the bottleneck in the process?
There are many scenarios where SAP users are simply entering data into or retrieving data from SAP on behalf of other users. By providing a more direct interface for the end users, significant time and resources can be saved.

Does the process include collaborative activities?
SAP was never designed to be a collaboration tool. If the business process involves collaborative activities, then SharePoint probably has some functionality that can benefit the solution.

Is unstructured data manipulated somewhere along the process?
If the business process involves editing or reviewing documents then the process often branches way out of the normal range of the SAP system. SharePoint and its tight integration with Office can help managing this unstructured part of the process.

Does the process require role-specific interfaces?
SAP is a generic application designed to suit the needs of a wide range of industries. Hence, there are many specific business processes where the standard generic interface does not fit particularly well. Customised role-specific interfaces in SharePoint can help address this.

Is business data also sourced from systems other than SAP?
Because SharePoint is agnostic of backend systems, it makes sense to make it the mashup platform for user interfaces that pull information not only from SAP but also from other applications.

Is part of the process conducted offline?
Standard SAP technologies do not provide many options for capturing data while offline. Through SharePoint's integration with Office applications such as Outlook, Excel and SharePoint Workspace, there are numerous options for building offline capabilities into a solution.

For a more in-depth discussion of these qualification questions, please refer to this article.