SAP is the fourth largest software company in the world.

It ranks after Microsoft,IBM and Oracle in terms of market

capitalization. SAP is the largest Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution software provider.SAP's products
focus on ERP, which it helped to pioneer. The company's main product is SAP R/3;the "R" stands for real time data
processing and the number 3 relates to a three-tier application architecture: database, application server and client
SAPgui.Other major product offerings include

(1).Advanced Planner and Optimizer (APO),

(2).Business Information Warehouse(BW),
(3).Customer Relationship Management(CRM),
(4).Supplier Relationship Management(SRM),
(5).Human Resource Management Systems(HRMS),
(6).Product Lifecycle Management(PLM),
(7).Exchange Infrastructure(XI) and
(8).Knowledge Warehouse(KW).

Reportedly, there are over

91,500 SAP installations at more than
28,000 companies. SAP products are used by over
12 million people in more than
120 countries."

SAP(Systems applications and products) is an ERP(Enterprise Resource Planning) package,where in the functions of
enterprise are planned and performed by the software,I am into ABAP(Advanced Busines Application Programming)
module,
We program (Change the standard code of SAP),or (Write a new code) According to requirments of Functional
People.Functional people will say us their requirements,For example for creating pay rolls of employees,in standard
SAP their is no VAT tax deduction,so we modify the standard code.
This(ABAP) is the only module through which we can write the code(progamme),
there are 12 functional modules,PP- Production planning
MM -Material Management
SD -Sales and distribution
FI -Financial Accounting
CO -Controlling
AM -Fixed Assest Management
PS -Project system
WF -Work force
IS -Industry Solutions
HR -Human resources
PM -Plant Maintainance
QM -Quality Management
The above modules are the basic modules,we will talk about latest modules in near future.

SAP is a company and a package as well,I mean both have the same name.
SAP AG (the company deals with both ERP & CRM),what we are talking in our grp is SAP software which is a kind of
ERP.

CRM is not an ERP. CLEAR ?

C - Customer
R - Relation-ship
M - Management

E - Enterprise
R - Resources and
P - Products.
SAP AG has both the softwares,if it's clear fine,or else i'll try to explain pictorially.

Functional Modules-Description
Material Management covers the functionality required to (1) purchase goods and services,(2) manage inventory,
and (3) inspect incoming materials.
The Purchasing function includes creation of requisitions, requisition approval, purchase order generation, and
receipt of goods and services. Inventory Management includes issuing and transferring inventory, inventory
restocking, and the inventory count and adjustment processes.

SAP R/3

Thrugh out our interaction I use two words,SAP R/3 and SAP AG.U need to be absolutely crystal clear abt these two
and their Definitions.

SAP R/3 Means the software package & R/3 means Real time ,3 tier Technology.

SAP AG Means the Company where AG(german) means limited in english.

Eight Reasons to use SAP.

(1).Global Basis
(2).Faster Speed
(3).Flexibility for Changes (Business & IT)
(4).Agility
(5).Extended Supply Chain Management
(6).Reach New Opportunity
(7).Knowledge Sharing
(8).Creativity Focus

SAP R/3 is SAP's integrated software solution for client/server and distributed open systems. SAP's R/3 is the
world's most-used standard business software for client/server computing. R/3 meets the needs of a customer
from the small grocer with 3 users to the multi-billion dollar companies The software is highly customizable using
SAP's proprietary programming language, ABAP/4. R/3 is scalable and highly suited for many types and sizes of
organizations.

The R/3 architecture is comprised of application and database servers. The application servers house the software
and the database servers handle document updates and master file databases. The system can support an
unlimited number of servers and a variety of hardware configurations. For more info. see SAP R/3 Architecture at
SAP home page.

SAP R/3 is based on various hardware and software architectures, running on most types of UNIX, on Windows NT
and OS/400. For more info...see SAP R/3 Platform Support at SAP home page.

SAP R/3 runs on several databases Oracle, Adabas D, Informix, DB2 for UNIX, DB2/400, Microsoft's SQL Server
6.0. For more info...see SAP R/3 Databases at SAP home page. Since R/3 foundation, SAP has made significant
development and installed thousands of R/3 systems. Here is the SAP R/3 installations chart by customer class

SAP ERP - Business Benefits

SAP ERP delivers a comprehensive set of integrated, cross-functional business processes. With SAP ERP, you can
gain the following benefits:

Improve alignment of strategies and operations

*Run your enterprise in accordance with strategy and plans, accessing the right information in real time to identify
concerns early.
*Pursue opportunities proactively.
*Achieve corporate objectives by aligning workforce and organizational objectives.
*Find the best people and leverage their talent in the right job at the right time.

Improve productivity and insight

*Leverage self-services and analytics across your organization.
*Improve operational efficiency and productivity within and beyond your enterprise.
Reduce costs through increased flexibility
*Use enterprise services architecture to improve process standardization, efficiency, and adaptability.
*Extend transactions, information, and collaboration functions to a broad business community.

Support changing industry requirements

Take advantage of the SAP NetWeaver platform's latest open, Web-based technology to integrate your end-to-end
processes seamlessly.

Reduce risk
*Solve complex business challenges today with SAP, your trusted partner for long-term growth, with 30 years of
experience working with organizations of all sizes in more countries than any other vendor.
*Join SAP's world-class partner network, uniquely qualified to support the best business practices in more than 25
industries.

Improve financial management and corporate governance

*Gain deep visibility into your organization with financial and management accounting functionality combined with
business analytics.
*Increase profitability, improve financial control, and manage risk

Improve financial management and corporate governance

*Gain deep visibility into your organization with financial and management accounting functionality combined with
business analytics.
*Increase profitability, improve financial control, and manage risk.

Optimize IT spending
*Integrate and optimize business processes.
*Eliminate high integration costs and the need to purchase third-party software.
*Deploy other SAP Business Suite applications incrementally to improve cash flow and reduce costly borrowing.

Gain higher ROI faster

*Install SAP ERP using rapid-implementation techniques that cost less than half what traditional approaches cost.
*Leverage preset defaults and prepackaged versions available for specific industries.

Retain top performers

*Retain your top performers through clearly defined career and development plans.
*Link employees' performance to compensation programs such as variable pay plans and long-term incentives.

Provide immediate access to enterprise information

*Give employees new ways to access the enterprise information required for their daily activities

SD

Sales and Distribution helps to optimize all the tasks and activities carried out in sales, delivery and billing.The
sales documents you create are individual documents but they can also form part of a chain of inter-related
documents. For example, you may record a customer’s telephone inquiry in the system. The customer next
requests a quotation, which you then create by referring to the inquiry. The customer later places an order on the
basis of the quotation and you create a sales order with reference to the quotation. You ship the goods and bill the
customer. After delivery of the goods, the customer claims credit for some damaged goods and you create a free-
of-charge delivery with reference to the sales order