SAP AG (ISIN: DE0007164600, FWB:SAP, NYSE:SAP) is a German software corporation
that makes enterprise software to manage business operations and customer
relations. Headquartered in Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg, with regional offices
around the world, SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software.
The company's best known products are its enterprise resource planning
application (SAP ERP), it's enterprise data warehouse solution - SAP
Business Warehouse, SAP Business Objects software, and most recently, Sybase
mobile products and in-memory.
HISTORY:-
SAP was founded in June 1972 as Systemanalyse
und Programmentwicklung ("System Analysis and Program Development") by
five former IBM engineers in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg (Dietmar Hopp, Klaus
Tschira, Hans-Werner Hector, Hasso Plattner, and Claus Wellenreuther). The
acronym was later changed to stand for Systeme, Anwendungen und Produkte in der
Datenverarbeitung ("Systems, Applications and Products in Data
Processing").
- Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) was SAP's first ever customer
in 1972.
- In 1973 the SAP R/1 solution was launched.
- In 1979, SAP launched SAP R/2. In 1981, SAP brought a
re-designed product to market.
- SAP developed and released several versions of SAP R/3 in 1992
through 1995. By the mid-1990s, SAP followed the trend from mainframe computing
to client-server architectures. The development of SAP’s internet strategy with
mySAP.com redesigned the concept of business processes (integration via
Internet).
SAP FOCUSES ON SIX INDUSTRY SECTORS:-
Process industries, discrete industries, consumer industries, service
industries, financial services, and public services. It offers more than 25
industry solution portfolios for large enterprises and more than 550
micro-vertical solutions for midsize companies and small businesses.
ENTERPRISE SERVICE-ORIENTED ARCHITECTURE:-
Service-oriented architecture moves the ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)
landscape toward software-based and web services-based business activities.
This move increases adaptability, flexibility, openness, and efficiency.
"SAP is the only enterprise applications software vendor that is both
building service-orientation directly into its solutions and providing a
technology platform SAP NetWeaver and guidance to support companies in the
development of their own service-oriented architectures spanning both SAP and
non-SAP solutions."
PRODUCTS:-
SAP's products focus on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). The
company's main product is SAP ERP. The current version is SAP
ERP 6.0 and is part of the SAP Business Suite. Its previous name was R/3. The
"R" of SAP R/3 stood for real-time – even though it is not a
real-time solution. The number 3 related to the 3-tier architecture: database,
application server and client (SAPgui). R/2, which ran on a Mainframe
architecture, was the predecessor of R/3. Before R/2 came System RF, later
dubbed R/1.
TECHNICAL SOLUTION:-
·
1973-SAP R/1
·
1979- SAPR/2
·
1992- SAP R/3 (Several version in ABAP/4th generation language) SAP R/3 1.0A
·
1993- SAP R/3 2.0/2.1
·
1995- SAP R/3 3.0/3.1
·
1998- SAP R/3 4.0B
·
1999- SAP R/3 4.5 B, 4.6 A, 4.6 B,
·
2001- SAP R/3 4.6 C
·
2003- SAP R/3 4.70, 4.7 (enterprise edition)
·
2005- SAP R/3 ECC5.0, 6.0 (enterprise central components)
SAP'S BUSINESS SUITE:-
BUSINESS SOLUTIONS:-
INDUSTRY SOLUTIONS:-
- “SAP ERP”-
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM) – helps companies acquire and retain customers, gain marketing and customer insight.
- Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) – helps manufacturers with product-related information.
- Supply Chain Management (SCM) – helps companies with the process of resourcing its manufacturing and service processes.
- Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) – enables companies to procure from suppliers.
BUSINESS SOLUTIONS:-
- SAP Advanced Planner and Optimizer (APO)
- SAP Analytics
- SAP Apparel and Footwear Solution (AFS)
- SAP Business Information Warehouse (BW)
- SAP Business Intelligence (BI)
- SAP Catalog Content Management (CCM)
- SAP Convergent Charging (CC)
- SAP Enterprise Buyer Professional (EBP)
- SAP Enterprise Learning
- SAP Portal (EP)
- SAP Exchange Infrastructure (XI) (From release 7.0 onwards, SAP XI has been renamed as SAP Process Integration (SAP PI))
- Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC)
- Enterprise Central Component (ECC)
- SAP HANA (High-performance Analytics Appliance)
- SAP Human Resource Management Systems (HRMS)
- SAP Internet Transaction Server (ITS)
- SAP Incentive and Commission Management (ICM)
- SAP Knowledge Warehouse (KW)
- SAP Manufacturing
- SAP Master Data Management (MDM)
- SAP Rapid Deployment Solutions (RDS)
- SAP Service and Asset Management
- SAP Solutions for mobile business
- SAP Solution Composer
- SAP Sourcing
- SAP Strategic Enterprise Management (SEM)
- SAP Test Data Migration Server (TDMS)
- SAP Training and Event Management (TEM)
- SAP NetWeaver Application Server (Web AS)
- SAP xApps
- SAP Supply Chain Performance Management (SCPM)
INDUSTRY SOLUTIONS:-
- SAP for Retail (ISR)
- SAP for Utilities (ISU)
- SAP for Public Sector (IS PSCD)
- SAP for Oil & Gas (IS Oil & Gas)
- SAP for Telecommunications (IST)
SOLUTIONS FOR SMALL AND MIDSIZE ENTERPRISES:-
- SAP Business One (6.2, 6.5, 2004, 2005, 2007, 8.8x)
- SAP Business ByDesign
- SAP Business All-in-One
PLATFORMS AND FRAMEWORKS:-
- SAP Enterprise Services Architecture(SOA)
- SAP NetWeaver Platform
- SAP NetWeaver Portal (formerly SAP Enterprise Portal)
- SAP NetWeaver BW (formerly SAP NetWeaver BI- Since SAP purchased Business Objects the term SAP BI refers to the presentation layer (reporting) tools to avoid confusion between existing SAP BI solutions.)
- SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer
- SAP Auto-ID Infrastructure
- SAP Composite Application Framework
- SAP Netweaver Development Infrastructure
- SAP Business Connector (deprecated/removed from product range)
Platforms:-
- SAP R/2
- SAP R/3
The SAP ‘NetWeaver’ platform
allows organizations to build new business solutions rapidly while realizing
more business value from existing IT investments. SAP NetWeaver supports new
cross-functional business processes and helps to lower the Total Cost
of Ownership (TCO) by reducing the need for custom integration. It
offers complete life cycle management for all of your applications. It is also
the foundation for Enterprise Services Architecture (EAS) and
helps align people, information, and business processes across organizational
and technological boundaries.
By providing an open integration and application platform and
permitting the integration of the Enterprise Services Architecture, SAP
NetWeaver helps unify business processes across technological
boundaries, integrating applications for employees as needed, and
accessing/editing simple information easily in a structured manner.
Components include:
· Security
· People
Integration
o Multi-channel
Access
o Portal
o Collaboration
· Information
Integration
o Business
Intelligence
· BI
(Business Intelligence) Content
o Knowledge
Management
o Master
Data Management
· Process
Integration
o Integration
Broker
o Business
Process Management
· Application
Platform
o Java
o ABAP
o Business
Services
o Connectivity
o DB
and OS Abstraction
o SAP
Knowledge Warehouse
o Customizing
o Software
Change Management
o System
Management
‘SAP XAPPS’:-
The ‘SAP xApps’ family of composite applications
enables continuous business innovation—and provides the flexibility necessary
to respond quickly and profitably to business changes. They extend the value of
core business investments and maximize the return on strategic assets:
employees, knowledge, products, business relationships, and IT.
SAP and SAP certified partners deliver these composite
applications that drive specialized business processes, provide comprehensive
business insights, and focus on the needs of a variety of industries.
All these applications combine Web services and data from multiple
systems in an application design made possible by the SAP Composite Application
Framework within the SAP NetWeaver technology platform. This framework includes
the methodology, tools, and run-time environment to develop composite
applications. It provides a consistent object model and a rich user experience,
and gives developers a productive way to create composite applications on top
of a set of heterogeneous applications.
·
Duet
·
SAP Document Builder
·
SAP xApp Manufacturing Integration and Intelligence
·
SAP xApp Resource and Portfolio Management
·
SAP xApp Product Definition
·
SAP xApp Cost and Quotation Management
·
SAP xApp Integrated Exploration and Production
·
SAP xApp Sales and Operations Planning
A component under SAP xApps, ‘Duet’ is
a first-of-its-kind software solution from SAP and Microsoft that enables users
to easily and quickly interact with SAP business processes and data via their
familiar Microsoft Office environment. The result of a groundbreaking
collaboration between SAP and Microsoft, it is the first joint product created
by these two industry leaders and is designed to revolutionize how IT workers
interact with enterprise applications.
Duet enables:
· Budget
Monitoring: Schedule time-critical alerts and notifications to monitor
cost centers or internal orders, which are delivered directly to Microsoft
Outlook.
· Demand
Planning: Create and use planning sheets, as well as analyze and
manage demand planning data from the SAP System using Microsoft Excel.
· Duet
Reporting: Schedule reports to be delivered regularly to Microsoft
Outlook, receive individual reports on an as-needed basis, and view reports in
Microsoft Excel.
· Leave
Management: Add leave requests as Microsoft Outlook calendar items
that integrate approval guidelines in the SAP System and enterprise-defined
processes.
· Sales
Management: Manage CRM accounts and contacts, create business
activities, and access sales analytics information using Microsoft Outlook.
· Team
Management: Access up-to-date information about yourself and
employees, open positions, and organizational structures that are integrated
from the SAP System into the Microsoft Outlook contacts area.
· Time
Management: Record time in the Microsoft Outlook calendar,
streamlining time entry while ensuring time-reporting compliance in the SAP
System.
· Travel
Management: Create a travel request and a travel expense report in the
SAP System using Microsoft Outlook.
‘SAP DOCUMENT BUILDER.’
‘SAP
Document Builder’ (CA-GTF-DOB) is a content-driven and cross-application
solution for building and authoring complex documents. As a generic tool, it
can be deployed within international organizations and large corporations to
generate contract and bid invitation documents, banking-related documents, auto
insurance policies, real estate contracts, and corporate employment policies.
You can deploy SAP Document Builder as a standalone application or
integrate it with other SAP or non-SAP components. For example, you can
generate business documents required in a procurement system and store them in
an electronic data storage system.
The SAP Document Builder supports you by:
· Automating
and streamlining the document-creation process.
· Enforcing
best practices.
· Building
documents that reflect company-specific styles and formats from one or more
regulation sets.
Determining inclusion or exclusion of clauses based on legal
regulations by means of rules.
‘MYSAP ERP FINANCIAL’:-
‘mySAP ERP Financials’ is built on the NetWeaver platform,
which is the foundation for service-oriented business solutions, for deploying
financial processes at a faster pace. Irrespective of the business type, mySAP
ERP Financials is designed to support financial accounting requirements to
provide a single complete platform to achieve excellence in accounting,
performance management, financial supply chain, and corporate governance. The
features include:
My SAP ERP Financials provides a comprehensive and robust
analytical framework to consolidate and/or dissect business information
generated in industry solutions or core enterprise processes: all managers in
all operations have an improved visibility with a single integrated solution.
· Performance
Management
My SAP ERP Financials provides a single solution for the entire
life cycle of Corporate Performance Management by delivering real-time,
personalized measurements and metrics to improve business insight and
productivity of non-technical users. Executives, managers, and business workers
will now have access to information such as business statistics and Key
Performance Indicators (KPI) presented in the context of
business tasks for better insight and faster decision making. mySAP ERP
Financials encompasses:
o Consolidated
financial and statutory reporting
o Planning,
budgeting, and forecasting
o Strategy
management and scorecards
o Risk
management
o Financial
analytics
· Financial
and Management Accounting
My SAP ERP Financials helps companies comply with global
accounting standards (such as the United States’ Generally Accepted
Accounting Principles (GAAP) and the International
Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). With the ‘New
FI-GL’ functionality (Refer to Q.181 for more details) you will now
have the ability to generate financial statements of any dimension of the
business (unit, profit center, geographical location, etc.). This offers
greater flexibility to extend a chart of accounts and allows an easier method
of reporting by individual management units and segments. This feature helps
companies reduce the complexity and costs associated with parallel accounting
or managing a set of books by region, industry, or regulatory reporting
statute.
·
Corporate Governance
Corporate Governance
With a set of applications and tools, my SAP ERP Financials
assists in meeting the specific requirements of today’s financial regulations
such as the SarbanesOxley Act. You now have an intuitive mechanism
to collect, document, assess, remediate, and attest to internal control
processes and safeguards to ensure transparent business activity. By
configuring controls and defining rules and tolerances for your business, you
can easily customize internal processes for security, reporting, and error
prevention. In addition, you can now document all your internal control
processes and make them visible to corporate executives, auditors, and
regulators.
Provides the tools to help you manage your financial supply chain
and cash-flow cycle more effectively, through end-to-end process support of:
o Credit
Management
o Electronic
Bill Presentment and Payment
o Collections
Management
o Dispute
Management
o In-house
Cash Management
o Cash
and Liquidity Management
o Bank
Relationship
o Treasury
and Risk Management Processes
‘SAP SOLUTION MAP’:-
My SAP ERP, besides supporting your most important business
processes, also provides tools to help you understand how these processes work.
One such tool is the ‘SAP Solution Map,’ a multi-level
blueprint of processes, which helps you visualize, plan, and implement a
coherent, integrated, and comprehensive IT solution. SAP Solution Maps also
show how various processes are covered, including the processes that SAP and
its partners support. With solution maps, you quickly understand business
solutions and the business value they can bring.
‘SAP BUSINESS ONE’:-
‘SAP Business One’ is the low-cost, easy-to-implement business
management solution from SAP for Small and Medium Enterprises (SME). Unlike
regular ERP software from SAP, this solution gives managers on-demand access to
critical real-time information through ‘one single system’ containing
financial, customer relationship management, manufacturing, and management
control capabilities. As a result, the solution enables rapid employee
productivity, while empowering managers to make better business decisions to
stay ahead of the competition. Equipped with a user-friendly interface, SAP
Business One serves as your central ERP hub with standard interfaces to
internal and external data sources, handheld computers, CRM applications, and
other leading analysis tools.
SAP Business One is based on the Microsoft Windows platform making
it easier to comprehend and use. The application comes with a ‘demo company,’
which can be used by the implementing company to become familiar with
functionalities.
The modules of SAP Business One include:
· Administration
· Financials
· Sales—A/R
· Purchasing—A/P
· Business
Partners
· Banking
· Inventory
· Production
· MRP
· Service
· Human
Resources
· Reporting
PARTNERSHIPS:-
SAP partners include Global Services Partners with cross-industry multinational
consulting capabilities,Global Software Partners providing integrated products
that complement SAP Business Suite solutions and Global Technology Partners
providing user companies with a wide range of products to support SAP
technology, including vendors of hardware, database, storage systems, networks,
and mobile computing technology.
Solution extensions partners: this is a small number of
companies which provide functionality that complements SAP solution
capabilities. These enhancements fulfill high quality standards and are
certified, sold and supported by SAP directly. These partner companies include
Adobe, CA Technologies, Hewlett-Packard, IDS Scheer, OpenText, Nakisa, Inc,
ICON-SCM, Prometheus Group and SmartOps.
COMMUNITIES:-
SAP Community Network (SCN) is a community of SAP customers,
partners, employees, and influencers -- SCN (http://scn.sap.com/welcome) is
largely viewed as a best practice in social networking for business.
Conferences:-
SAP has two annual conferences: SAPPHIRE and SAP TechEd. SAPPHIRE
is SAP's customer-facing event. It is generally where SAP has announced major
product changes and strategic direction & Business Process Expert (BPX) community.