Fundamentals of SAP Software SAP is an acrostic for Systems, Application, Products (Systeme, Anwendungen und Produkte in German) in Data Processing. SAP introduced in 1972 by five former IBM employees in Mannheim, Germany, is a methodology to create a soft real time business application; which facilitates a Flexible User Interface. SAP Education an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is acknowledged to be the world’s largest inter-enterprise software company and the world’s fourth largest independent software supplier. The company does not cater to a single major product but various products suffice to meet the discrete requisites of the organization.
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is an amalgamation of varied activities that are used to implement as well as manage prime parts of a business. The most important agenda of implementing ERP is to make data drivendecisions in business by facilitating proper flow of information. As an amateur when we think about different processes required to run a business, we conclude as inventory and order management, human resources, accounting, customer relation management (CRM), supply chain, sales etc. Therefore, at a layman’s level ERP Software for business consolidates these diverse functions into one unmitigated system to streamline processes and information across the organization. Shared Database is the predominant aspect of all ERP Systems that comprises multiple functions utilized by various business units in an organization. This in turn facilitates the employees of different units for instance order management and accounting; can reckon the same information and data for the specified requirement.
Other common ERP features include:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Synchronized reporting and automation Common dashboard enabling employees to recognize business’s performance on vital metrics. Global, and real time view of data Enhanced customer service with one source of billing and relationship tracking Automated process enabling companies to address various affairs proactively
The solutions support the following retailing processes:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Contracting Demand Management/Forecasting Management Marketing Pricing Warehousing Point of Sale Business Analytics.
Evolution of SAP SAP R/1 Financial Accounting system named R/1 was the first edition of SAP's flagship enterprise software. SAP R/2 At the end of the 1970s SAP R/1 was superseded by R/2 that was a mainframe based business application software suite that became a big sellout in the 1980s and early 1990s. European companies that required soft-real-time business applications, working on multi-currency and multi-language platforms became its prominent users.
SAP R/3 SAP R/3 was officially introduced in market on 6 July 1992. With the dawn of distributed client-server computing SAP AG brought out a client-server version of the software called SAP R/3 (The "R" was for "Real-time data processing" and 3 was for 3-tier). The client/server is a three-tier architecture, which is composed of a database, software implementation and a common graphical user interface (GUI). This new architecture is reconcilable with multiple platforms and operating systems, for instance Microsoft Windows or UNIX. The structural engineering of SAP R/3 is based on a three-level client/server model comprising of the following layers: 1.
Presentation Server
2.
Application Server
3.
Database Server
SAP is categorized in two major modules:
1. Functional Module 2. Technical Module These two modules are further divided into following options: 1. 2. 3. 4.
FICO (Financial and Controlling) MM (Material Management) SD (Sales and Distribution) HR (Human Resources) 5. PP(Production Planning)