SAP is the most popular enterprise resource planning (ERP) software application used to provide enterprise business solutions. It was first introduced in 1972 in Mannheim, Germany. SAP stands for Systems, Applications, and Products in Data Processing.

SAP provides complete business solutions by integrating various business tasks such as sales, purchase, and production. SAP takes information from one business process and incorporates it into another business process, thereby speeding up all business processes. For example, information about the raw material in stock is used by the production department to determine how to prepare products.

SAP is widely used in various industries because as it updates and processes important data very quickly, it can automate business processes and provide real-time solutions for businesses.

The SAP software was developed by a company of the same name. SAP (the company) was founded in 1972 by five former IBM employees: Dietmar Hopp, Hans-Werner Hector, Hasso Plattner, Klaus Tschira, and Claus Wellenreuther. SAP released its mainframe product, called SAP R/2, in 1979. The client/server version of the SAP software, called SAP R/3, was released in 1992. Today, SAP is the largest vendor of standard business-application software. SAP constantly delivers scalable solutions to its customers, allowing them to respond to dynamic market conditions and helping them to maintain an advantage over their competitors. Some of the major SAP applications presently available  include SAP R/3, mySAP ERP, mySAP Customer Relationship Management (CRM), mySAP Supplier Relationship Management (SRM), mySAP Supply Chain Management (SCM), and mySAP Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), to name a few.

• mySAP ERP is the next-generation ERP application from SAP AG in Germany, and was first launched in 2003. The mySAP ERP application has all the features of previously released SAP ERP software, such as SAP R/3 and SAP Strategic Enterprise Management (SEM), along with its own extensions. The mySAP ERP application provides e-commerce solutions by using Web technology. The mySAP ERP application has the following advantages:

  • Mobile infrastructure, which improves workforce mobility

  • Transparency through a business intelligence framework

  • Delivery of people-centric services

  • Faster access to information, which facilitates quick decision making

  • Seamless integration of processes throughout the business

• mySAP ERP includes the following products:

  • mySAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

  • mySAP Supply Chain Management (SCM)

  • mySAP Supplier Relationship Management (SRM)

  • mySAP Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

  • mySAP Product Life Cycle Management (PLM)

• mySAP R/3 can be classified into the following business components:

  • Financial applications

  • Human resource applications
    

  • Logistics

  • Sales and distribution applications

• The mySAP ERP application provides business solutions for almost every industry, including automotive, chemical, and media. Various industry-specific solutions available in mySAP include the following:

  • mySAP Automotive

  • mySAP Aerospace and Defense

  • mySAP Consumer Products

  • mySAP Banking

  • mySAP Chemicals

  • mySAP High Tech

  • mySAP Engineering and Construction

  • mySAP Healthcare

  • mySAP Higher Education and Research

  • mySAP Insurance

  • mySAP Media

  • mySAP Oil and Gas

  • mySAP Mill Products

  • mySAP Mining

  • mySAP Public Sector

  • mySAP Pharmaceuticals

  • mySAP Service Providers

  • mySAP Retail

  • mySAP Telecommunications

  • mySAP Utilities

Different Modules in SAP R/3

• To integrate various business processes, SAP R/3 comes with various modules, such as MM, SD, and CO. These modules are further grouped into various business-functional areas. The functional areas and the SAP R/3 modules in those functional areas are as follows:

  • Financial applications—Deals with an organization's financial matters, such as preparing and analyzing financial documents and reporting the document output to the appropriate authorities for further processing. To manage all these concerns, the following SAP R/3 modules are grouped in this functional area:

    • SAP FI—Financial Accounting

    • SAP CO—Controlling

    • SAP EC—Enterprise Controlling

    • SAP IM—Investment Management

    • SAP TR—Treasury

  • Human resources—Deals with documents related to an organization's human resources department. The SAP R/3 modules grouped in this area help an organization to manage processes such as salary creation and distribution, employees' payroll across the organization, and transferring data to other relevant departments, such as finance. This area consists of the following modules:

    • Personnel Management

    • Time Management

    • Payroll

    • Training and Event Management

    • Organizational Management

  • Logistics applications—This is the largest area covered by SAP R/3. This area helps manage broad-level business processes such as sales and distribution of products, materials management, production planning, and quality management. This area consists of the following modules:

    • SAP MM—Materials Management

    • SAP SD—Sales and Distribution

    • SAP PP—Production Planning
      

    • SAP PM—Plant Maintenance

    • SAP LO—Logistics

    • SAP QM—Quality Management

    • SAP PS—Project System

    • SAP WM—Warehouse Management
  SAP ISU mainly consists of following sub modules. which are also covered here at rmktechnology: