Open Source - strategic business enabler

Overview

Open source software is an important component of the development strategy of SAP, a market leader in enterprise application software, headquartered in Germany.

It is embraced by SAP as a productivity enabler to help accelerate time to market and fulfill customer demand. In 2001 SAP’s senior management recognized the need for an open source governance policy, including an open source approval process for evaluating licensing issues and software obligations before using any open source software.

For many years, this open source approval process involved complex, time-consuming and partly manual processes. With open source becoming increasingly important as a business enabler for SAP over the last few years, the company recognized the benefits of automating its approval processes. By doing so, it could become more scalable, leading to a reduction in the processing time of open source requests.

SAP takes control of open source software usage by automating its governance process with the Black Duck Suite. Read the case study to find out more.