WHAT IS SAP

SAP stands for Systems Applications and Products in Data Processing. Designed and developed by 5 IBM engineers during the 1970s as a standards based software alternative to custom built ERP software, SAP has come a long way. SAP has been in the forefront of ERP software ever since.SAP develops ERP products to be used by companies to manage their enterprise.

SAP is a name of a company which offers ERP solution for various industries to integrate information from various 

functions of that industry under one system. 

SAP was initially designed to be run on the mainframe and was called that release was called R/2 (Release 2). SAP quickly caught on to the client server model with a later release called R/3 and this was the most popular version of SAP. After R/3, later versions of their core software were launched called Enterprise Central Component (ECC).

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 SAPR/3 stood for realtime – even though it is not a realtime solution. The number 3 related to the 3 tier architecture : Database, application and client( sap gui). R/2 which ran on a Mainframes architecture, was the predecessor of R/3. Before R/2 came System RF, later dubbed R/1.

SAP ERP is one of five enterprise applications in SAP's Business suite. The other four applications are:

http://sapbasiscorner.blogspot.com/what-is-sap

§  Customer relation ship Management (CRM) – helps companies acquire and retain customers, gain marketing and customer insight

§  Product life cycle 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

SAP Implementation Methodology

An SAP implementation is a large scale, multi-month (or year) project that requires a "methodology" to help organizations successfully execute an SAP implementation and maximize the use of SAP's functionality after go-live. Because of the complexity inherent in SAP's software, consultants and companies around the world have built successful consulting businesses solely focused on the implementation of SAP.

SAP's implementation methodology was first called "ASAP" meaning Accelerated SAP. The ASAP toolset was migrated to Solution Manager around 2004. The SOLMAN tool is used for project management, documentation, system support, defect tracking and many other requirements associated with an SAP implementation.

SAP Implementation Methodology Roadmap:

·         Phase 1: Project Planning

·         Phase 2: Blueprinting

·         Phase 3: Realization

·         Phase 4: Final Prep

·         Phase 5: Go Live

    Each implementation phase has a set of goals and outcomes. For example, at the completion of the Blueprint phase, the business analysts should have developed a document, or blueprint, that details all the business processes that will be implemented in the SAP software with information about the flow of the transactions. At the completion of the Realization phase, the SAP system will be fully configured and ready for integration testing. During the Final Prep phase, testing and training will take place. And finally, during Go Live, the data conversion will be completed and users will start performing their daily business transactions in their new SAP system.