Officeworks has emerged as an early adopter of a new middleware product designed to solve browser compatibility issues with older versions of enterprise packages such as SAP.
The retailer runs an SAP core based on ECC 6.0 and SAP CRM 7.0, which staff, such as call centre agents, previously accessed via an IE11 browser. IE11 was retired on June 15.
“Officeworks’ SAP system was only certified to be accessed through IE11, which meant the retailer needed an alternative browser to effectively continue using its core CRM system, or risk the potential of having its call centre and online customer support unable to assist customers once IE11 retired,” Rimini Street said in a statement.
The retailer has adopted a product that only broke cover last week - effectively middleware that sits between SAP and a browser, “receiving and reinterpreting” HTML messages between the two.
It is part of a suite of tools that Rimini Street only unveiled last week; Officworks is said to have made some “bespoke adaptations” to it, in order to use the tool in its environment.
Officeworks’ COO Michael Howard said in a statement that the retailer is “protected against current and future browser compatibility challenges and able to achieve the same functionality it needed to experience, but through other browsers such as Chrome or Edge.”
The retailer is said to have considered an upgrade of the SAP core, but - like many SAP environments - it is heavily customised, and such a program of work would have been “costly” to pursue.
It’s unclear if the retailer has plans to pursue a SAP overhaul of this nature in future.
Officeworks is under new tech leadership, with Nikala Busse named as its first chief information officer yesterday.
