What is SAP?
SAP was founded in 1972 by five former IBM engineers in Mannheim, Germany (Dietmar Hopp, Hasso Plattner, Klaus Tschira, Claus Wellenreuther and Hans-Werner Hector) and its headquarters in Walldorf German and since the 2005 annual general meeting the company's official name is just SAP AG.
The acronym of SAP is “Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing" SAP is the largest software company in Europe and the third largest in the world. It ranks after Microsoft and IBM in terms of market capitalization. SAP is also the largest business application and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution and software provider in terms of revenue.
Products
SAP's products focus on Enterprise resource planning (ERP), which it helped to pioneer. The company's main product is mySAP ERP. The name of its predecessor, SAP R/3 gives a clue to its functionality: the "R" stands for realtime data processing and the number 3 relates to a 3-tier architecture: database, application server and client (SAPgui). R/2, which ran on Mainframe architecture, was the first SAP version.
Other major product offerings include Advanced Planner and Optimizer (APO), Business Information Warehouse (BW), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Supply Chain Management (SCM), Supplier Relationship Management (SRM), Human Resource Management Systems (HRMS), Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Exchange Infrastructure (XI), Enterprise Portal (EP) and SAP Knowledge Warehouse (KW).The APO name has been retired and rolled into SCM. The BW name (Business Warehouse) has now been rolled into the SAP NetWeaver BI (Business Intelligence) suite and functions as the reporting module.
The company also offers a new technology platform, named SAP NetWeaver. While its original products are typically used by Fortune 500 companies, SAP is now also actively targeting small and medium sized enterprises (SME) with its SAP Business One and SAP All-in-One.According to SAP AG there are over 100,800 SAP installations serving more than 38,000 companies. SAP products are used by over 12 million people in more than 120 countries.
1. The name SAP is acronym for Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing. SAP is an extremely complicated system where no one individual can understand all of it.
2. SAP runs on a fourth generation programming language language called Advance Business Application Programming (ABAP). It have many of the features of other modern programming languages such as the familiar C, Visual Basic, and Power Builder. Your programs name conventions begins with a letter yxxx or zxxx.
3. SAP graphical user interfaces (SAPGUI) runs on Windows / NT / Unix / AS400.
4. SAP is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software product capable of integrating multiple business applications, with each application representing a specific business area. These applications update and process transactions in real time mode. It has the ability to be configured to meets the needs of the business.
SAP R/3 is a client/server based application, utilizing a 3-tiered model. A presentation layer, or client, interfaces with the user. The application layer houses all the business-specific logic, and the database layer records and stores all the information about the system, including transactional and configuration data.
SAP R/3 functionality is structured using its own proprietary language called ABAP (Advanced Business Application Programming). ABAP, or ABAP/4 is a fourth generation language (4GL), geared towards the creation of simple, yet powerful programs. R/3 also offers a complete development environment where developers can either modify existing SAP code to modify existing functionality or develop their own functions, whether reports or complete transactional systems within the SAP framework.
ABAP's main interaction with the database system is via Open SQL statements. These statements allow a developer to query, update, or delete information from the database. Advanced topics include GUI development and advanced integration with other systems. With the introduction of ABAP Objects, ABAP provides the opportunity to develop applications with object-oriented programming.
The most difficult part of SAP R/3 is its implementation, since SAP R/3 is never used the same way in any two places. For instance, Atlas Copco can have a different implementation of SAP R/3 from Procter & Gamble. Some companies may run multiple productive clients/systems or even multiple instances of SAP R/3. This is seen, for example, when a company running R/3 acquires a new business already running R/3. They may elect to keep both systems separate, migrate one into the other, or migrate both onto a completely new instance.
The system landscape is ultimately the customer's decision. There are definite pros and cons on the continuum from single global instance / productive client (master data, impact of configuration changes on multiple business units) to separate instances per business unit (hardware costs and communication between instances/clients).
Two primary issues are the root of the complexity and of the differences:
Customization configuration - Within R/3, there are tens of thousands of database tables that may be used to control how the application behaves. For instance, each company will have its own accounting "Chart of Accounts" which reflects how its transactions flow together to represent its activity. That will be specific to a given company. In general, the behavior (and appearance) of virtually every screen and transaction is controlled by configuration tables. This gives the implementer great power to make the application behave differently for different environments. With that power comes considerable complexity.
Extensions, Bolt-Ons - In any company, there will be a need to develop interface programs to communicate with other corporate information systems. This generally involves developing ABAP/4 code, and considerable "systems integration" effort to either determine what data is to be drawn out of R/3 or to interface into R/3 to load data into the system.
Due to the complexity of implementation, these companies recruit highly skilled SAP consultants to do the job. The implementation must consider the company's needs and resources. Some companies implement only a few modules of SAP while others may want numerous modules.
SAP has several layers. The Basis System (BC) includes the ABAP programming language, and is the heart (i.e. the base) of operations and should not be visible to higher level or managerial users. Other customizing and implementation tools exist also.
Implementation Tools
There are multiple tools available to assist in the management of ERP implementation projects. SAP R/3, for example, provides an Implementation Roadmap that is broken up into five phases. Each phase includes documentation and planning tools to help the phase move towards completion. The five phases and their respective tasks include:
Project Preparation
1. Building of the project team.
2. Designing the system (This includes network, hardware, and software requirements).
3. Selecting ERP vendors.
4. Defining the project’s scope.
Business Blueprint
1. In this phase project team members decide and document how the business and business processes will function with the implementation of the ERP system. These decisions will guide the configuration of the ERP.
2. Determination of methods to transfer or integrate legacy system information into the ERP system will also occur in this phase.
Realization
1. Configuration of the ERP system occurs in this phase. Configuration guidelines are based on documentation from the Business Blueprint phase.
2. Legacy system connections are developed in this phase.
Final Preparation
1. Testing of the new ERP system.
2. Development of the Help Desk and Help Desk Procedures.
3. Migration of existing data.
4. User training.
5. Schedule a Roll-Out date.
Roll-Out
1. ERP system becomes part of everyday activities.
2. Help Desk fields questions about ERP system.
3. Monitoring of the ERP system starts in this phase.
4.Monitoring of the ERP system starts in this phase.
The time required for each one of these phases differs from project to project based on the size of the implementation, dedication to the project…etc. Oftentimes the finished project’s scope differs from the original scope’s documentation causing projects to go overtime and over budget. When this happens, it is usually testing and training that get cut short which jeopardize the overall success of the project.
Why SAP?
1. SAP is a platform independent; it can support various databases like Oracle, SQL Server.
2. SAP also supports various operating systems.
3. The integrity between its various modules makes SAP more user friendly.
Areas of SAP
There are three areas in SAP.
1.Functional Area
There are more than 25 functional modules in SAP.
Those who work on functional areas are called Functional Consultants.
Ex: - PP – Production planning
MM- material management
SD- Sales and Distribution
FI- Financial Accounting
CO- Controlling
HR- human Resources
PM- Plant Maintenance. Etc
2. Technical Area
Here the technical consultants i.e. ABAPers are working.
Technical Consultants will implant the ideas of functional Consultants.
3. Basis Area
Here the basis people will work.
The following works are generally done here
Creation users
Authorization
Dispatcher
Role Allocation
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