Since I launched SAPLAB.org, I’ve received several e-mails from beginners or plain curious on SAP asking me questions like “What does SAP stand for?” or “What’s the difference between ERP and ECC?“. Even though I know for a fact that this blog is targeted as a niche blog, I think that it would be worth to create this post. Even the top experts might find it useful to put their deep technical knowledge in context with some of the broader and more conceptual facts of SAP.

Please comment on this post, ask away, share you knowledge and experience – it’ll be highly appreciated!

1. What is SAP?
2. The History of SAP
3. Which Solutions are included in the SAP Portfolio?
4. What are the main components of the SAP ERP Solution?
5. What is the SAP NetWeaver Platform?
6. What are the NetWeaver Components?
7. What are the SAP Business Suite Components?
8. What are the Most Recent Releases and Versions of the SAP R/3 Solution?
9. What Industry Solutions (IS) are Available from SAP?
10. What are SAP xApps?
11. What are the SAP xApps Components?
12. What is Duet?
13. What is the SAP Document Builder?
14. What is SAP Solution Manager?
15. What is SAP Business One?

1. What is SAP?

SAP stands for German “Systeme, Anwendungen, Produkte der Dataenverarbeitung,” meaning “Systems, Applications, and Products in Data Processing”. SAP was founded in 1972 with its still existing headquarters in Walldorf, Germany. SAP is a multi billion dollar company and the global market leader in Business software. SAP employs around 50,000 employees worldwide, with more than 140,000 system installations in about 120 countries. More than 12 million people use SAP on a daily basis. And there are more than 20 industry-specific “Industry Solutions”, known commonly as “IS” (e.g. IS-Oil, IS-Retail, IS-Bank, etc.).

2. The History of SAP

• SAP GmbH was founded in 1972 (Germany) by five former IBM employees. Their challenge was to develop a standard business application software, with the goal of processing business information in real-time.
• During 1973, the company released its first financial accounting software, “R1″ (the letter “R” stands for “Real-Time Processing”).
• In the late 70s, SAP “R/2″ was released with IBM’s database and a dialogue-oriented business application.
• R/2 was stabilized during the early 80s and the company came out with a version capable of processing business transactions in several languages and currencies, to meet the needs of their already growing international clients.
• In 1988, SAP GmbH became SAP AG. The “new” company then established subsidiaries in countries such as the United States, Sweden, Denmark, and Italy.
• The early 90s saw the introduction of SAP “R/3″, introducing the client-server architecture and GUI, which ran on almost any database, and on most operating systems. SAP R/3 brought a new concept, moving from a “main frame” to a 3-tier architecture (Data layer > Application Layer > Interface layer).
• In the beginning of 1996, the company had already more than 9,000 installations worldwide. On the verge of turning the 2k year, SAP had introduced the e-commerce enabled mySAP suite of products for leveraging ever-growing web technology.
• SAP began the twenty-first century with the Enterprise Portal and role-based access to business information.
• SAP continued to grow and innovate, bringing new technologies to business-information processing.
• SAP introduced SAP NetWeaver, the underlying technology framework, which still is based on Enterprise Services Architecture (ESA) with application integration across diverse platforms for providing one-stop end-to-end business processing. With NetWeaver, companies can now integrate people, information, and processes.
• The future will tell the tendencies but it is a fact that SAP leads innovating initiatives is areas like Mobile, SOA, BPM and Self-Services, across several SAP Application Areas.

3. Which Solutions are included in the SAP Portfolio?

Currently, SAP Solutions include the following:

• SAP ERP
• SAP Business Suite
• SAP R/3 and R/3 Enterprise (v. 4.6 and 4.7)
• SAP for Industries
• SAP xApps
• SAP Solution Manager

4. What are the main components of the SAP ERP Solution?

• SAP ERP Central Component (ECC 6.0)
• SAP SEM (Strategic Enterprise Management) (SEM 6.0)
• SAP cProject Suite (Project and Portfolio Management 4.0)
• SAP SRM for ERP (SRM 5.0)
• SAP Catalog Content Management (CCM 2.0 for ERP 2004)
• SAP Internet Sales for ERP

5. What is the SAP NetWeaver Platform?

The SAP NetWeaver platform enables organizations to build new business solutions and processes rapidly, while taking off added business value from existing IT investments. SAP NetWeaver is a technology framework which bridges the several SAP components. It 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 a complete life cycle management for all of the Client’s applications. It is also the foundation for Enterprise Services Architecture (ESA) and helps orchestrate people, information, and business processes across the organization.

6. What are the NetWeaver Components?

By enabling a seamless integration and allowing the integration of the Enterprise Services Architecture (ESA), SAP NetWeaver unifies business processes across different systems, integrating applications for employees as needed, and accessing information easily in a structured manner.

The SAP NetWeaver components are the following:

• Security
• People Integration
  • Multi-channel Access
  • Portal
  • Collaboration
• Information Integration
  • Business Intelligence (BI)
• BI (Business Intelligence) Content
  • Knowledge Management (KM)
  • Master Data Management (MDM)
• Process Integration (PI, former XI)
  • Integration Broker
  • Business Process Management (BPM)
• Application Platform
  • Java
  • ABAP
  • Business Services
  • Connectivity
  • DB and OS Abstraction
  • SAP Knowledge Warehouse
• Life Cycle Management
  • Customizing
  • Software Change Management
  • System Management

7. What are the SAP Business Suite Components?

• SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
• SAP Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
• SAP Supply Chain Management (SCM)
• SAP Supplier Relationship Management (SRM)
  • SAP Catalog Content Management (SRM-MDM)
• SAP Product Life Cycle Management
  • SAP Environment, Health, and Safety
  • SAP PLM Recipe Management
  • Audit Management
• SAP Compliance Management for SOA
  • Management of Internal controls
• SAP Learning Solution
• SAP Strategic Enterprise Management (SEM)

8. What are the Most Recent Releases and Versions of the SAP R/3 Solution?

Since the launch of version ERP 5.0 (or ECC 5.0 or mySAP 2004), SAP abandoned for good the R/3 concept. Of course maintenance is possible however no longer on an extended period but only customer specific contracts. The latest R/3 releases were:

• SAP R/3 Enterprise Release 4.70 (partially based on SAP NetWeaver)
• SAP R/3 Release 4.6C/4.6B/4.5B/4.0B

9. What Industry Solutions (IS) are Available from SAP?

There are several Industry Solutions available from SAP in several forms:

• SAP for Aerospace and Defense
• SAP for Automotive
• SAP for Banking
• SAP for Consumer Products
• SAP Contract Accounts Receivable and Payable
• SAP for Defense and Security
• SAP for Engineering, Construction and Operations
• SAP for Financial Service Providers
• SAP for Healthcare
• SAP for Higher Education and Research
• SAP for High Tech
• SAP for Insurance
• SAP for Media
• SAP for Mill Products
• SAP for Mining
• SAP for Oil and Gas
• SAP for Professional Services
• SAP for Public Sectors
• SAP for Retail
• SAP for Telecommunications
• SAP for Utilities
• SAP for Wholesale Distribution

Please also read the available SAP Application Areas.

10. What are SAP xApps?

The SAP xApps family of composite applications enable business innovation and provides flexibility to respond quickly to business changes. xApps allow clients to extend the value of their 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 pre-bundled. They clients drive their specific business processes and focus on the needs of a variety of industries.

All these applications combine Web services and data coming from multiple systems in an application design made possible by the SAP Composite Application Framework (CAF) within the SAP NetWeaver technology platform. This framework includes the methodology, tools, and run-time environment to develop composite applications.

11. What are the SAP xApps Components?

• Duet
• SAP Document Builder
• SAP Global Trade Services
• 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

12. What is Duet?

Duet is a product result of a partnership between SAP and Microsoft. It enables enables users to easily and quickly interact with SAP business processes and data via their familiar Microsoft Office environment. 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 aims to enable:

• 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.

Even though there was a great buzz over this new and apparently revolutionary framework, Duet didn’t have the success that was announced. Instead, earlier in 2009 SAP announced a new partnership with IBM, read about it here: Alloy: SAP’s twosome with IBM.

13. What is the SAP Document Builder?

SAP Document Builder’ (CA-GTF-DOB) is a content-driven and cross-application solution for building and delivering complex documents. 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.

It is possible to deploy SAP Document Builder as a standalone application or integrate it with other SAP or non-SAP components.

The SAP Document Builder supports companies 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.

14. What is SAP Solution Manager?<

SAP Solution Manager provides a central access to tools, methods, and pre-configured content, throughout the life cycle of solutions—from Business Blueprint to Configuration to Support.

Sokution Manager includes:

• Implementation/Upgrade of SAP Solutions
  • Central access to Project Tools
  • Central management of Project Information (Roadmap, System Landscape, Documentation, etc.)
  • Enables comparing/synchronizing customizing in several SAP components
• Solution Monitoring
  • Central System Administration
  • System Landscape Analysis with System Level Reporting
  • Real-time System Monitoring
  • Business Process Monitoring
• Services and Support
  • Access to programs/services for monitoring and optimizing system performance and availability to minimize risks.
• Service Desk
  • Solution Support through Work Flow to create and manage Process/Problem Messages.
• Change Management
  • Trace and audit system changes and transports through Change Request Management.

15. What is 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 the standard ERP software, this solution enables managers with access to real-time information through one single system containing financial, customer relationship management, manufacturing, and management control funcionalities. The solution empowers managers to make better and quicker business decisions. Bundled with a user-friendly interface, SAP Business One serves as the client’s central ERP hub with standard interfaces (internal and external data sources), handheld computers, CRM applications, among others.

SAP Business One is based on the Microsoft Windows platform making it easier to install and maintain. The application comes with a demo company, which can be used by the client to become familiar with it and use it for testing and ramp up sessions.
The modules of SAP Business One include:

• Administration
• Financials
• Sales Opportunities
• Sales – A/R
• Purchasing – A/P
• Business Partners
• Banking
• Inventory
• Production
• MRP
• Service
• Human Resources
• Reporting