SAP ABOUT SAP SAP IS UNIQUE LEARN SAP SAP HISTORY SAP ADVANTAGES SAP FUNCTIONALITY SAP MODULES

MODULES SAP QUES & ANS

WHAT IS SAP?
SAP is the leading Enterprise Information and Management Package worldwide. Use of this package makes it possible to track and manage, in real-time, sales, production, finance accounting and human resources in an enterprise. SAP the compan was founded in !erman in "#$% b fi&e e'-I(M engineers. In case ou)re e&er asked, SAP stands for S steme, Andwendungen, Produkte in der *aten&erarbeitung which - translated to English - means S stems, Applications, Products in *ata Processing. So now ou know+ (eing incorporated in !erman , the full name of the parent compan is SAP A!. It is located in ,alldorf, !erman which is close to the beautiful town of -eidelberg. SAP has subsidiaries in o&er ./ countries around the world from Argentina to 0ene1uela 2and prett much e&er thing in between3. SAP America 2with responsibilit for 4orth America, South America and Australia - go figure+3 is located 5ust outside Philadelphia, PA. 6he original fi&e founders ha&e been so successful that the ha&e multiplied man times o&er such that SAP A! is now the third largest software maker in the world, with o&er "$,.// customers 2including more than half of the world7s .// top companies3. SAP emplo s o&er %$,/// people worldwide toda , and had re&enues of 8$.9: billion and 4et Income of 8.;" million in <=/". SAP is listed in !erman 2where it is one of the 9/ stocks which make up the *A>3 and on the 4=SE 2ticker?SAP3. 6here are now ::,.// installations of SAP, in "%/ countries, with more then "/ million users+ So what made this compan so successful@ (ack in "#$# SAP released SAP AB% 2which runs on mainframes3 into the !erman market. SAP AB% was the first integrated, enterprise wide package and was an immediate success. <or ears SAP sta ed within the !erman borders until it had penetrated practicall e&er large !erman compan . Cooking for more growth, SAP e'panded into the remainder of Europe during the ;/7s. 6owards the end of the ;/7s, client-ser&er architecture became popular and SAP responded with the release of SAP AB9 2in "##%3. 6his turned out to be a killer app for SAP, especiall in the 4orth American region into which SAP e'panded in "#;;. 6he success of SAP AB9 in 4orth America has been nothing short of stunning. ,ithin a . ear period, the 4orth American market went from &irtuall 1ero to ::D of total SAP worldwide sales. SAP America alone emplo s more than 9,/// people and has added the names of man of the <ortune .// to it)s customer list 2; of the top "/ semiconductor companies, $ of the top "/ pharmaceutical companies etc3. SAP toda is a&ailable in :E countr -specific &ersions, incorporating %; languages including Fan5i and other double-b te character languages. SAP also comes in %" industr -specific &ersions.

SAP AB9 is deli&ered to a customer with selected standard process turned on, and man man other optional processes and features turned off. At the heart of SAP AB9 are about "/,/// tables which control the wa the processes are e'ecuted. Gonfiguration is the process of ad5usting the settings of these tables to get SAP to run the wa ou want it to. 6hink of a radio with "/,/// dials to tune and ou)ll get the picture. <unctionalit included is trul enterprise wide including? <inancial Accounting 2e.g. general ledger, accounts recei&able etc3, Management Accounting 2e.g. cost centers, profitabilit anal sis etc3, Sales, *istribution, Manufacturing, Production Planning, Purchasing, -uman Aesources, Pa roll etc etc etc. <or a full description of the modules included in SAP, see the related articles. All of these modules are tightl integrated which H as ou will find out H is a huge blessing ... but brings with it special challenges. SAP are maintaining and increasing their dominance o&er their competitors through a combination of embracing the internet with m SAP.com 2a confusing name we belie&e3 to head off i% etc e'tending their solutions with GAM to head off Siebel adding functionalit to their industr solutions

SAP U4IIUE4ESS
6raditional computer information s stems used b man businesses toda ha&e been de&eloped to accomplish some specific tasks and pro&ide reports and anal sis of e&ents that ha&e alread taken place. E'amples are accounting general ledger s stems. Jccasionall , some s stems operate in a Kreal-timeK mode that is, ha&e up to date information in them and can be used to actuall control e&ents. A t pical compan has man separate s stems to manage different processes like production, sales and accounting. Each of these s stems has its own databases and seldom passes information to other s stems in a timel manner. SAP takes a different approach. 6here is onl one information s stem in an enterprise, SAP. All applications access common data. Aeal e&ents in the business initiate transactions. Accounting is done automaticall b e&ents in sales and production. Sales can see when products can be deli&ered. Production schedules are dri&en b sales. 6he whole s stem is designed to be real-time and not historical. SAP structure embodies what are considered the Kbest business practicesK. A compan implementing SAP adapts it operations to it to achie&e its efficiencies and power. 6he process of adapting procedures to the SAP model in&ol&es K(usiness Process Ae-engineeringK which is a logical anal sis of the e&ents and relationships that e'ist in an enterprise7s operations.

,ant to learn SAP@

If ou are alread a de&eloper the logical mo&e is into A(AP. Unlike man other languages, where technical abilit is all important, in SAP, knowing the programming language is onl about E/D of what ou need to know. A lot of importance is placed on how well ou know how SAP works. <rom the clients perspecti&e, the more ou know about how SAP works, the faster and cheaper ou will be able to do the work the need. Some Cinks for !etting Started with SAP? ".!etting Started %.SAP (asic Skills Self-Stud If our background in from (usiness processes 2Sales, Accounting Manufacturing etc3, ou7re in luck. *epending on our e'perience, ou ma ha&e an ad&antage in knowing the basic business processes. =ou 5ust need to know how SAP does it+ -ow SAP enables ou to create and order deli&er goods. -ow SAP enables ou to in&oice the customer and post pa ments. =our logical mo&e into SAP is as a departmental user or as a customisation e'pert. SAP Industr Sector *ue to its7 popularit , SAP has de&eloped solution for man industr sectors. SAP now ha&e &ersions specificall aimed towards these 2Aetail, Manufacturing and Jil etc3 industries. =ou need to decide which of these industries ou wish to specialise in. 6his decision is particularl important if ou are to be a customisation e'pert or A(AP programmer. ,hat else ou need to know. SAP is also broken into &arious modules, our are not e'pected to be an e'pert in all these modules. -owe&er the more modules ou know the more work opportunities ou will get. A(AP programmers will be e'pected to ha&e at least one module skill. 4ot necessaril as in-depth as a customisation e'pert, but certainl as good as an user. =ou will find that most organisation implement SAP to work differentl . 6he differences are what each compan consider their 7competiti&e edge7. <or this reason ou will not be e'pected to know how a particular compan uses SAP. =ou will be e'pected to know how a 7standard7 SAP s stem works. A standard SAP s stem is often called a 7&anilla7 s stem. <actors to getting a 5ob 6o get work in SAP is &er similar to an other field. !et an understanding of what SAP is and what it can do from a business perspecti&e. 4e't decide which business module ou want to specialise in and start learning how SAP does it. Most people ha&e a fair understanding of what happens in a sales office, so the specialise in S*. Pick a module ou ha&e some e'perience in. If after all this ou still want to ha&e a career in de&eloping SAP learn A(AP or customisation. (elie&e me. Gustomisation will be far easier to learn once ou know how to use SAP. A(AP is eas for an one with a programming background. -owe&er in order to do an thing useful ou need to know where the data is and to do this ou need to know how SAP works.

HISTORY OF SAP R/3

6he first &ersion of SAP)s flagship enterprise software was a financial Accounting s stem named AB". 26he LAM was for LAeal-time data processingM3. 6he pronunciation is often mistakenl referred to as LsapM, as in tree sap. 6he correct naming is the indi&idual letters S-A-P. 6his was replaced b AB% at the end of the "#$/s. SAP AB% was a mainframe based business application software suite that was &er successful in the "#;/s and earl "##/s. It was particularl popular with large multinational European companies who reNuired soft-real-time business applications, with multicurrenc and multi-language capabilities built in. ,ith the ad&ent of distributed client-ser&er computing SAP A! brought out a client-ser&er &ersion of the software called SAP AB9 that was manageable on multiple platforms and operating s stems, such as Microsoft ,indows or U4I> since "###, which opened up SAP to a whole new customer base. SAP AB9 was officiall launched on E Oul "##%. SAP came to dominate the large business applications market o&er the ne't "/ ears. SAP AB9 is arranged into distinct functional modules, co&ering the t pical functions in place in an organi1ation. 6he most widel used modules are <inancials and Gontrolling 2<IGJ3, -uman Aesources 2-A3, Materials Management 2MM3, Sales P *istribution 2S*3, and Production Planning 2PP3. 6hose modules, as well as the additional components of SAP AB9, are detailed in the ne't section.Each module handles specific business tasks on its own, but is linked to the others where applicable. <or instance, an in&oice from the (illing transaction of Sales P *istribution will pass through to accounting, where it will appear in accounts recei&able and cost of goods sold.SAP has t picall focused on best practice methodologies for dri&ing its software processes, but has more recentl e'panded into &ertical markets. In these situations, SAP produces speciali1ed modules 2referred to as IS or Industr Specific3 geared toward a particular market segment, such as utilities or retail.Using SAP often reNuires the pa ment of heft license fees, as the customers ha&e effecti&el outsourced &arious business software de&elopment tasks to SAP. ( speciali1ing in software de&elopment, SAP hopes to pro&ide a better &alue to corporations than the could if the attempted to de&elop and maintain their own applications.

6echnolog SAP AB9 is a clientBser&er based application, utili1ing a 9-tiered model. A presentation la er, or client, interfaces with the user. 6he application la er houses all the business-specific logic, and the database la er records and stores all the information about the s stem, including transactional and configuration data.SAP AB9 functionalit is structured using its own proprietar language called A(AP 2Ad&anced (usiness Application Programming3. A(AP, or A(APB: is a fourth generation language 2:!C3, geared towards the creation of simple, et powerful programs. AB9 also offers a complete de&elopment en&ironment where de&elopers can either modif e'isting SAP code to modif e'isting functionalit or de&elop their own functions, whether reports or complete transactional s stems within the SAP framework.A(AP)s main interaction with the database s stem is &ia Jpen SIC statements. 6hese statements allow a de&eloper to Nuer , update, or delete information from the database. Ad&anced topics include !UI de&elopment and ad&anced integration with other s stems. ,ith the introduction of A(AP Jb5ects, A(AP pro&ides the opportunit to de&elop applications with ob5ect-oriented programming.6he most difficult part of SAP AB9 is its implementation, since SAP AB9 is ne&er used the same wa in an two places. <or instance, Atlas Gopco can ha&e a different implementation of SAP AB9 from Procter P !amble. 6wo primar issues are the root of the comple'it and of the differences?Gustomi1ation configuration - ,ithin AB9, there are tens of thousands of database tables that ma be used to control how the application beha&es. <or instance, each compan will ha&e its own accounting LGhart of AccountsM which reflects how its transactions flow together to represent its acti&it . 6hat will be specific to a gi&en compan . In general, the beha&ior 2and appearance3 of &irtuall e&er screen and transaction is controlled b configuration tables. 6his gi&es the implementor great power to make the application beha&e differentl for different en&ironments. ,ith that power comes considerable comple'it .E'tensions, (olt-Jns - In an compan , there will be a need to de&elop interface programs to communicate with other corporate information s stems. 6his generall in&ol&es de&eloping A(APB: code, and considerable Ls stems integrationM effort to either determine what data is to be drawn out of AB9 or to interface into AB9 to load data into the s stem.*ue to the comple'it of implementation, these companies recruit highl skilled SAP consultants to do the 5ob. 6he implementation must consider the compan )s needs and resources. Some companies implement onl a few modules of SAP while others ma want numerous modules.SAP has se&eral la ers. 6he (asis S stem 2(G3 includes the A(AP programming language, and is the heart 2i.e. the base3 of operations and should not be &isible to higher le&el or managerial users. Jther customi1ing and implementation tools e'ist also. 6he heart of the s stem 2from a manager)s &iewpoint3 are the application modules.

SAP A*0A46A!ES

<unctionalit ? 6he AB9 S stem offers ou a software solution that co&ers all commercial processes and transactions commonl occurring in a compan or group of companies. Integration? All work processes within a compan or group of companies are linked through data and functions using the AB9 S stem. User <riendliness? 6he AB9 S stem has a uniform graphical user interface for all application areas.

Indi&idual Solutions? S stem-controlled customi1ing procedures allow ou to create solutions from a wide &ariet of prepared application &ariants to satisf indi&idual reNuirements.

<le'ible Structure? ,hether in a departmental organi1ation or on the warehouse or factor floor, change is the onl facet of our business that will not &ar . Adaptabilit must be uni&ersal, and the AB9 S stem)s fle'ible structure and e'tensi&e integration helps make that easier.

Enterprise-,ide Integration? SAP)s enterprise-wide AB9 S stem solutions meet the needs of constantl changing, continuall e&ol&ing businesses. 6he AB9 S stem)s application components are full integrated. 6ransaction-related process chains trigger the ne't acti&it as needed from engineering to materials management, to production planning, to sales and distribution. 6he AB9 S stem)s full integration pulls our enterprise together, promoting data access, fle'ibilit , and producti&it . 4o other product or suite of products pro&ides the AB9 S stem)s functional links between processes that multipl the power of each person)s work.

Aeal-6ime Information? 6he AB9 S stem)s abilit to Ldrill downM to whate&er le&el of detail ou need is legendar . More than an other product, the AB9 S stem pro&ides up-to-the-minute, real-time information where&er and whene&er ou need it.

Mission-Gritical (usiness Processes? SAP has more than %/ ears of e'perience designing sophisticated application software for backbone and mission critical business processes. 4ine of the top ten <ortune .// companies use SAP software. SAP de&eloped most of the AB9 S stem)s functionalit in close cooperation with these customers. GonseNuentl , it has integrated the best business practices of the world)s most successful companies into the AB9 S stem. 6he AB9 S stem)s business processes are fle'ible, pragmatic and well documented. 6oda the form a widel acknowledged standard for (usiness Process Aeengineering 2(PA3.

(est of (reed? Users want standard software as well as standard business processes and guidance on how to implement them successfull . ,ith the AB9 S stem ou get the Lbest of breedM for all common business processes. =ou do not need to compromise on fle'ibilit . If ou need or want to fine tune or tailor our AB9 S stem, the capabilit is there.

Enterprise-wide three-tiered architecture? 6he AB9 S stem remains the onl enterprise-wide, three-tiered architecture. 6he AB9 S stem)s three-tiered clientBser&er architecture separates the s stem into areas de&oted to database, application functionalit , and desktop presentation. 6his structure promotes ma'imum fle'ibilit , freedom of application component choice and the abilit to change and add to the s stem as our organi1ation grows. 6he de&elopment of the Internet, including the ,orld-,ide ,eb, promises to make dramatic changes in communications

between businesses and customers. SAP is working with se&eral partners to de&elop enhanced Internet e'tensions for the AB9 S stem. <or additional information, see SAP)s ,eb pages at? http?BBwww.e't.sap.com

Goncurrent engineering? Goncurrent engineering cuts time-to-market b stacking up business processes whene&er functions can take place concurrentl rather than consecuti&el . 6he AB9 S stem)s fle'ibilit and integration help ou form the real-time workflow application links reNuired for concurrent engineering.

Cean Implementation? 6he AB9 S stem promotes lean implementation through its modular structure. ( selecting ke portions of the AB9 S stem for first-time implementation, and minimi1ing customi1ation, new users bring the full power of the AB9 S stem to address their business issues with great speed, at a reasonable cost. Jnce running, the AB9 S stem makes it eas to add more functional pieces. 6ools on &arious s stem le&els allow ou to fine tune all AB9 S stem functional modules. !raduall adding functionalit makes core solutions a&ailable sooner without sacrificing long-term application muscle.

*esktop Integration? *esktop integration in the AB9 S stem means that whene&er ou want data mo&ed into a desktop PG application, it is a mouse-click awa . *ownload or e'port a file to our PG)s hard dri&e and then open it in our fa&orite spreadsheet or word processor. 4o awkward or failure-prone communications between hardware or to hinder hinders our producti&it

Jnline Integrated !raphics? Jnline integrated graphics in the AB9 S stem sa&e ou time and effort, while making our information more meaningful. <rom most locations in the AB9 S stem, ou can instantl create full-color %-* or 9-* graphics from our data. If ou change an data, ou can instantl see it affect the graphics ou ha&e selected. =ou can also use our mouse to change graphics manuall .

<unctionalit ? 6he AB9 S stem offers ou a software solution that co&ers all commercial processes and transactions commonl occurring in a compan or group of companies.

Integration? All work processes within a compan or group of companies are linked through data and functions using the AB9 S stem.

User <riendl ness? 6he AB9 S stem has a uniform graphical user interface for all application areas.

Indi&idual Solutions? S stem-controlled customi1ing procedures allow ou to create solutions from a wide &ariet of prepared application &ariants to satisf indi&idual reNuirements.

<le'ible Structure? ,hether in a departmental organi1ation or on the warehouse or factor floor, change is the onl facet of our business that will not &ar . Adaptabilit must be uni&ersal, and the AB9 S stem)s fle'ible structure and e'tensi&e integration helps make that easier.

Enterprise-,ide Integration? SAP)s enterprise-wide AB9 S stem solutions meet the needs of constantl changing, continuall e&ol&ing businesses. 6he AB9 S stem)s application components are full integrated. 6ransaction-related process chains trigger the ne't acti&it as needed from engineering to materials management, to production planning, to sales and distribution. 6he AB9 S stem)s full integration pulls our enterprise together, promoting data access, fle'ibilit , and producti&it . 4o other product or suite of products pro&ides the AB9 S stem)s functional links between processes that multipl the power of each person)s work.

Aeal-6ime Information? 6he AB9 S stem)s abilit to Ldrill downM to whate&er le&el of detail ou need is legendar . More than an other product, the AB9 S stem pro&ides up-to-the-minute, real-time information where&er and whene&er ou need it.

Mission-Gritical (usiness Processes? SAP has more than %/ ears of e'perience designing sophisticated application software for backbone and mission critical business processes. 4ine of the top ten <ortune .// companies use SAP software. SAP de&eloped most of the AB9 S stem)s functionalit in close cooperation with these customers. GonseNuentl , it has integrated the best business practices of the world)s most successful companies into the AB9 S stem. 6he AB9 S stem)s business processes are fle'ible, pragmatic and well documented. 6oda the form a widel acknowledged standard for (usiness Process Aeengineering 2(PA3.

(est of (reed? Users want standard software as well as standard business processes and guidance on how to implement them successfull . ,ith the AB9 S stem ou get the Lbest of breedM for all common business processes. =ou do not need to compromise on fle'ibilit . If ou need or want to fine tune or tailor our AB9 S stem, the capabilit is there.

Enterprise-wide three-tiered architecture? 6he AB9 S stem remains the onl enterprise-wide, three-tiered architecture. 6he AB9 S stem)s three-tiered clientBser&er architecture separates the s stem into areas de&oted to database, application functionalit , and desktop presentation. 6his structure promotes ma'imum fle'ibilit , freedom of application component choice and the abilit to change and add to the s stem as our organi1ation grows. 6he de&elopment of the Internet, including the ,orld-,ide ,eb, promises to make dramatic changes in communications between businesses and customers. SAP is working with se&eral partners to de&elop enhanced Internet e'tensions for the AB9 S stem. <or additional information, see SAP)s ,eb pages at? http?BBwww.e't.sap.com

Goncurrent engineering? Goncurrent engineering cuts time-to-market b stacking up business processes whene&er functions can take place concurrentl rather than consecuti&el . 6he AB9 S stem)s fle'ibilit and integration help ou form the realtime workflow application links reNuired for concurrent engineering.

Cean Implementation? 6he AB9 S stem promotes lean implementation through its modular structure. ( selecting ke portions of the AB9 S stem for first-time implementation, and minimi1ing customi1ation, new users bring the full power of the AB9 S stem to address their business issues with great speed, at a reasonable cost. Jnce running, the AB9 S stem makes it eas to add more functional pieces. 6ools on &arious s stem le&els allow ou to fine tune all AB9 S stem functional modules. !raduall adding functionalit makes core solutions a&ailable sooner without sacrificing long-term application muscle.

*esktop Integration? *esktop integration in the AB9 S stem means that whene&er ou want data mo&ed into a desktop PG application, it is a mouse-click awa . *ownload or e'port a file to our PG)s hard dri&e and then open it in our fa&orite spreadsheet or word processor. 4o awkward or failure-prone communications between hardware or to hinder hinders our producti&it

Jnline Integrated !raphics? Jnline integrated graphics in the AB9 S stem sa&e ou time and effort, while making our information more meaningful. <rom most locations in the AB9 S stem, ou can instantl create full-color %-* or 9-* graphics from our data. If ou change an data, ou can instantl see it affect the graphics ou ha&e selected. =ou can also use our mouse to change graphics manuall

SAP <U4G6IJ4ACI6=
In order to understand a s stem like SAP a thorough understanding of the e&ents and relationships that take place in a business is reNuired. It is not enough to 5ust reali1e the Sales, Production, <inance and Accounting ha&e 5obs to do in a business. 6he e'act details of each action, the timing of that action and its interrelationships with e&er other process must be understood. In man large operations there ma be no person that has a complete grasp of the situation. (efore an operation can be automated or computeri1ed a thorough stud of the business must be undertaken. 6his task is called (usiness Process Engineering. SeNuential ,alk 6hrough Sales

o Pre-sales acti&it --planning and a&ailabilit support for the sales personnel o Sales Jrder--6he actual entr of the sales order into the s stem done b the salesperson at the point of sales perhaps using a PGand Internet connections.

o *etermining where the most efficient source of the ordered product is in in&entor and shipping it. o *eli&er o Gustomer (illing o Gustomer Pa ment

Production

o Sales and Jperations Planning SJP where the sales forecasts are used in a production planning model to check feasibilit . o Master Production Scheduling MPS--6he actual plan for the whole production process o Material AeNuirements Planning MAP--,here the production plan is actuall con&erted into raw materials input reNuirements.

into a

o Planned Jrder--,hen materials are a&ailable and capacit e'ists this plan is created and then con&erted

goods.

o Production Jrder. o Shop <loor Gontrol where the actual production takes place and is registered into the s stem as finished

Purchasing

o AeNuisition--Jnce the Production manager plans to manufacture something a reNuisition for the raw materials reNuired but not on hand must be prepared.

o 0endor Selection--made b the purchasing department o Purchase order sent o goods receipt increasing in&entor o In&oice &erification as it is recei&ed from &endor o Pa ment to &endor

<inance and Accounting

o Sales e&ents must be captured at the proper time into the ledger s stem o In&entor must be ad5usted to match goods shipped o In&entor must be ad5usted to match raw materials recei&ed o In&entor must be ad5usted to mo&e &alue from raw materials to work in process o In&entor must be ad5usted to increase finished goods when the are produced o Accounts Pa able must be set up for purchases o Accounts Aecei&able must reflect goods billed but not et paid for

(usiness Process Engineering must not onl identif all these steps but must also find the most efficient wa to minimi1e redundant actions. <or e'ample, when sales are made, in&entor and manufacturing plans should be automaticall updated. ,hen manufacturing plans are updated raw materials should be automaticall ordered from &endors. ,hen finished goods are shipped customers should be automaticall billed at the same instant. Aeal situations are far more comple' than the simple e'planation abo&e

SAP MJ*UCES
SAP has se&eral la ers. 6he (asis S stem is the heart of the data operations and should be not e&ident to higher le&el or managerial users. Jther customi1ing and implementation tools e'ist also. 6he heart of the s stem from a manager7s &iewpoint are the application modules. 6hese modules ma not all be implemented in a t pical compan but the are all related and are listed below? <I <inancial Accounting--designed for automated management and e'ternal reporting of general ledger, accounts recei&able, accounts pa able and other sub-ledger accounts with a user defined chart of accounts. As entries are made relating to sales production and pa ments 5ournal entries are automaticall posted. 6his connection means that the KbooksK are designed to reflect the real situation.

GJ Gontrolling--represents the compan 7s flow of cost and re&enue. It is a management instrument for organi1ational decisions. It too is automaticall updated as e&ents occur. AM Asset Management--designed to manage and super&ise indi&idual aspects of fi'ed assets including purchase and sale of assets, depreciation and in&estment management.

PS Pro5ect S stem--is designed to support the planning, control and monitoring of long-term, highl comple' pro5ects with defined goals.

,< ,orkflow--links the integrated SAP application modules with cross-application technologies, tools and ser&ices

IS Industr Solutions--combine the SAP application modules and additional industr -specific functionalit . Special techniNues ha&e been de&eloped for industries such as banking, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, etc.

-A -uman Aesources--is a complete integrated s stem for supporting the planning and control of personnel acti&ities.

PM Plant Maintenance--In a comple' manufacturing process maintenance means more than sweeping the floors. ENuipment must be ser&ices and rebuilt. 6hese tasks affect the production plans

MM Materials Management--supports the procurement and in&entor functions occurring in da -to-da business operations such as purchasing, in&entor management, reorder point processing, etc.

IM Iualit Management--is a Nualit control and information s stem supporting Nualit planning, inspection, and control for manufacturing and procurement.

PP Production Planning--is used to plan and control the manufacturing acti&ities of a compan . 6his module includesQ bills of material, routings, work centers, sales and operations planning, master production scheduling, material reNuirements planning, shop floor control, production orders, product costing, etc.

S* Sales and *istribution--helps to optimi1e all the tasks and acti&ities carried out in sales, deli&er and billing. Fe elements areQ pre-sales support, inNuir processing, Nuotation processing, sales order processing, deli&er processing, billing and sales information s stem

IUES6IJ4S A4* A4S,EAS

Gan (, run without a SAP AB9 implementation@

Gertainl . =ou can run (, without AB9 implementation. =ou can use pre-defined business content in (, using our non-SAP data. -ere ou simpl need to map the transfer structures associated with (, data sources 2InfoGubes, J*S tables3 to the inbound data files or use 9rd part tool to connect our flat files and other data sources and load data in (,. Se&eral third part E6C products such as Acta, Infomatica, *ataStage and others will ha&e been certified to load data in (,.

*ifferent t pes of EAP@

SAP, BAAN , O* Edwards, Oracl <inancials, Siebel, PeopleSoft. Among all the EAP)s most of the companies implemented or tr ing to implement SAP because of number of ad&antages a&er other EAP packages.

,hat is SAP@

SAP is the name of the compan founded in "#$% under the !erman name 2S stems, Applications, and Products in *ata Processing3 is the leading EAP 2Enterprise Aesource Planning3 software package

,h do ou usuall choose to implement SAP@

6here are number of technical reasons numbers of companies are planning to implement SAP. It)s highl configurable, highl secure data handling, min data redundanc , ma' data consistenc , ou can capitali1e on economics of sales like purchasing, tight integration-cross function.

,hat is I*ES@

International *emonstration and Education S stem. A sample application pro&ided for faster learning and implementation.

,hat is ,< and its importance@

(usiness ,ork <low? 6ool for automatic control and e'ecution of cross-application processes. 6his in&ol&es coordinating the persons in&ol&ed, the work steps reNuired, the data, which needs to be processed 2business ob5ects3.

6he main ad&antage is reduction in throughput times and the costs in&ol&ed in managing business processes. 6ransparenc and Nualit are enhanced b its use.

,hat is SAP R/3@

A third generation set of highl integrated software modules that performs common business function based on multinational leading practice. 6akes care of an enterprise howe&er di&erse in operation, spread o&er the world. In AB9 s stem all the three ser&ers like presentation, application ser&er and database ser&er are located at different s stem.

-ow can an ERP such as SAP help a business owner learn more about how business operates@ In order to use an EAP s stem, a business person must understand the business processes and how the work together from one functional area to the other. 6his knowledge gi&es the student a much deeper understanding of how a business operates. Using SAP as a tool to learn about EAP s stems will reNuire that the people understand the business processes and how the integrate.

4ame some drawbacks of SAP

Interfaces are huge problem, *etermine where master data resides, E'pensi&e, &er comple', demands highl trained staff, length implementation time.

*escribe how SAP handles Memor Management@

S6/% B S6/9 In general &ia table buffers, ou could go into the whole ,ork Process, roll in, roll out, heap 2pri&ate3 memor , etc. -owe&er 5ust as a Uni' or *(A admin would know, is ou look this up when needed for the e'act specifics. ,hat is the t pical structure of an ABAP B: program@ -EA*EA ,(J*=,<JJ6EA.

,hat are the ma5or benefits of reporting with (, o&er AB9@ ,ould it be sufficient 5ust to ,eb-enable AB9 Aeports@ Performance R -ea& reporting along with regular JC6P transactions can produce a lot of load both on the AB9 and the database 2cpu, memor , disks, etc3. Oust take a look at the load put on our s stem during a month end, Nuarter end, or ear-end R now imagine that occurring e&en more freNuentl . *ata anal sis R (, uses a *ata ,arehouse and JCAP concepts for storing and anal 1ing data, where AB9 was designed for transaction processing. ,ith a lot of work ou can get the same anal sis out of AB9 but most likel would be easier from a (,.

*escribe how to setup a printer in SAP or where the would look to research wh a userBusers can not print@

SPA*, SP/", SM./, SU/" ...

SAP Ba!"c! # a$%r S Gonfiguration of the SAP modules o 6ransaction SPAJ - this is the main tree for all the configuration. S <unction Fe o <" - -elp o <: - Possible entries or matchcode for the field ou are accessing o <. - Selection screen o <$ - Pre&ious screen o <; - 4e't screen o <# - 6echnical info o G6ACT> - Gut o G6ACTG - Gop o G6ACT0 - Paste S 4a&igation o Bn Skip to the ne't record if ou are processing one batch input session o Bbend Gancel a batch input foreground process o Bnend Glose all AB9 sessions and logoff o Bn''' ' Gall the transaction '''' in the same session o Bo !enerate a session list o Bo''' ' Gall the transaction '''' in an additional session o Bi *elete the current session o Bh 6urn the debug mode on o B8tab Aeset all buffers 2for S stem Administrators3 o B8s n c S nchroni1e instances buffers 2for S stem Administrators3

,hat is ERP@

EAP is a package with the techniNues and concepts for the integrated management of business as a whole, for effecti&e use of management resources, to impro&e the efficienc of an enterprise. Initiall , EAP was targeted for manufacturing industr mainl for planning and managing core business like production and financial market. As the growth and merits of EAP package EAP software is designed for basic process of a compan from manufacturing to small shops with a target of integrating information across the compan .

E'plain the concept of L(usiness GontentM in SAP (usiness Information ,arehouse@

(usiness Gontent is a pre-configured set of role and task-rele&ant information models based on consistent Metadata in the SAP (usiness Information ,arehouse. (usiness Gontent pro&ides selected roles within a compan with the information the need to carr out their tasks. 6hese information models essentiall contain roles, workbooks, Nueries, InfoSources, InfoGubes, ke figures, characteristics, update rules and e'tractors for SAP R/3, &'SAP.com (usiness Applications and other selected applications.

,hat does an e'tract statement do in the A(AP program@ Jnce ou ha&e declared the possible record t pes as field groups and defined their structure, ou can fill the e'tract dataset using the following statements? E>6AAG6. ,hen the first E>6AAG6 statement occurs in a program, the s stem creates the e'tract dataset and adds the first e'tract record to it. In each subseNuent E>6AAG6 statement, the new e'tract record is added to the dataset E>6AAG6 -EA*EA. ,hen ou e'tract the data, the record is filled with the current &alues of the corresponding fields. As soon as the s stem has processed the first E>6AAG6 statement for a field group , the structure of the corresponding e'tract record in the e'tract dataset is fi'ed. =ou can no longer insert new fields into the field groups and -EA*EA. If ou tr to modif one of the field groups afterwards and use it in another E>6AAG6 statement, a runtime error occurs. ( processing E>6AAG6 statements se&eral times using different field groups, ou fill the e'tract dataset with records of different length and structure. Since ou can modif field groups d namicall up to their first usage in an E>6AAG6 statement, e'tract datasets pro&ide the ad&antage that ou need not determine the structure at the beginning of the program.

,hat is the ad&antage of structures@ -ow do ou use them in the ABAP programs@

Ad&?- !CJ(AC E>IS6A4GE2these could be used b an other program without creating it again3.

,hat is an ABAP @

A(AP 2Ad&anced (usiness Application Programming3 is a high le&el programming language created b the !erman software compan SAP. It is currentl positioned as the language for programming SAP7s ,eb Application Ser&er, part of its 4et,ea&er platform for building business applications. Its s nta' is somewhat similar to GJ(JC.

,hat is the difference between SAP memor and ABAP memor @

sap memor is a global memor whereas abap memor is local memor . <or e'ample, we ha&e four programs in abap memor and assigned some &aribles to a particular program in abap memor then those &aribles can7t be used b an other program in abap memor i.e., the &ariables are onl for that program and also local to that memor ,whereas sap memor can access all the abap memor or else it can perform an kind of modifications

,hat is SAP APJ@

SAP APJ stands for Ad&anced Planner and Jptimi1er, which is one area of SGM and application component of M SAP product. Its is designed to pro&ide solutions for companies in *emand planning, network design, suppl network planning, production planning and global a&ailable to promise, transportation and scheduling.

,hat is the work relation between SAP-MM, S* and fiBco modules@

SAP is the integration of all the modules and the topics are &er rela&ent to each other because basicall its management skillsetgroup. <rom manufacturing the productBgoodsBser&ices to reaching the customer. All the transaction process is depending on sales area, sales doc, item proposals, shipping, deli&er and billing.

,hat is the one full implementation of life c cle in SAP-(,.@

<ull life c cle implementation means implementing the pro5ect start from reNuirement gathering, anal sis, solution desion, mapping, implementing according to ASAP methodolog .

,hat are the acti&ities we will do in SAP MM module implementation@

0arious acti&ities in SAP MM are ? In&entor , ,arehouse, Purchasing, 0endor e&olution, In&oice &arification, etc.

,hat is an Jpen Item in SAP@ -ow will ou find an Jpen Item in SAP@

ou can generate a list of open items from the information s stems menu option? S !eneral Cedger? Information s stem U !eneral ledger reports U Cine items U !eneral ledger line items U !BC line items, list for printing. S Accounts Aecei&able? Information s stem S U Aeports for accounts recei&able U Gustomer items U Cist of customer open items for printing. Accounts Pa able? Information s stem U Aeports for accounts pa able U 0endor items U Cist of &endor open items for printing.