SAP

SAP AG – The Company

SAP AG is a German multinational software corporation that makes enterprise software (ERP) to manage business operations and customer relations. Headquartered in Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg, with regional offices around the world, SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software. The company's best known software products are its enterprise resource planning application (SAP ERP), its enterprise data warehouse solution - SAP Business Warehouse, SAP Business Objects software, and most recently, Sybase mobile products and in-memory computing appliance SAP HANA. The company expects to be number two in IT database management in India, in spite of being relatively new in the business. SAP is one of the largest independent software corporations.

SAP – The Product

SAP stands for Systems Applications and Products in Data Processing. Designed and developed by 5 IBM engineers during the 1970s as a standard based software alternative to custom built ERP software. SAP has been in the forefront of ERP software ever since. SAP develops ERP products to be used by companies to manage their enterprise. This includes managing their day to day operations, logistics, finances, month end, quarter end and yearly activities, reporting, HR etc. Although there are a couple of other ERP vendors who do the same, the key differentiator for SAP is the way in which SAP integrates all these operations and makes for a seamless system that is both easy to use and at the same time sophisticated enough to include all kinds of complex activities that are needed for any kind of enterprise. Examples of some of these activities could, be running Material resource planning, recruiting and managing an employee’s lifecycle, disbursing payrolls, recording all financial transactions and drawing balance sheets and P/L statements of the company etc. Now imagine a single system that takes care of all these diverse activities and still keep them well integrated. SAP system comprises of a number of fully integrated modules, which covers virtually every aspect of the business management. SAP is #1 in the ERP market .As of 2010, SAP has more  than 140,000 installations worldwide ,over 25 industry-specific business solutions, and more than 75,000 customers in 120 countries Other Competitive products in market are  Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics etc.

What is ERP ?

ERP stands for ‘Enterprise Resource Planning’. The term ERP was coined by a leading research and advisory company, Gartner in 1990.ERP involves the management and utilization of ‘Finance, Human Capital, Manufacturing and Order’.SAP ERP is one of five enterprise applications in SAP's Business Suite. The other four applications are:  

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) – helps companies acquire and retain customers, gain marketing and customer insight
• Product Lifecycle 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 Terminology 

• SAP Netweaver

SAP Netweaver is the comprehensive integration and application platform and is the technological backbone of SAP Business Suite.SAP Netweaver includes the whole range of enabling technologies like SAP EP (Enterprise Portal) infrastructure, SAP BW (Business Warehousing), SAP XI (Exchange Integration), SAP WebAS (Web application server), mobile technologies and others.

• SAP Business Suite

SAP Business Suite is a collection of integrated enterprise applications which enables enterprises to perform business processes designed to work with other SAP and non-SAP software. Core applications of SAP Business Suite are : SAP ERP, SAP CRM, SAP PLM, SAP SCM and SAP SRM. SAP Business Suite applications are built on an open, service-oriented architecture (SOA) and powered by SAP Netweaver platform.

• SAP ERP

SAP ERP is the comprehensive enterprise resource planning solution from SAP. SAP ERP is powered by SAP Netweaver technology and includes the full suite of applications for Financials, Human Resources, Operations Management, Corporate Services and Analytics.

• SAP CRM

SAP Customer Relationship Management helps businesses to focus on customer related business processes like Marketing, Sales, Customer services, e-commerce, etc.

• SAP PLM

SAP Product Lifecycle Management is the application for product-related processes starting from the first product idea, through manufacturing to product service.

• SAP SCM

SAP Supply Change Management applications helps businesses to plan and execute its supply networks. It also enables collaboration and co-ordination empowering the supply chain processes.

• SAP SRM

SAP Supplier Relationship Management application focuses on supplier relationship to empower procurement process and suppliers as strategic partners in the organization. It is aimed at strengthening procure-to-pay processes for goods and services. Simplifying sourcing and procurement functions leads to reduction in procurement costs and better managed supplies.

• SAP ABAP

SAP ABAP is the programming language of SAP. SAP developed ABAP for programming various SAP applications. ABAP stands for Advanced Business Application Programming. The language helps in customizing applications for different customer requirements which can not be provided as part of standard software.

• ABAP Objects

ABAP Objects is the object-oriented extended version of the 4th generation ABAP language (called ABAP/4). Starting from version 4.6, ABAP is continuosly gaining new object-oriented features making it at par with other modern languages. ABAP Objects is not a 100% object-oriented language like Java rather a hybrid language where the old procedural paradigm exists with the modern object-oriented component.

• mySAP

SAP introduced this term way back in 2003 to represent the web-enablement of its various applications and introduction of e-commerce capabilities. At that time, it was a big things in SAP circles and SAP products were referred as mySAP ERP, mySAP Business Suite, etc.

Functional components

• Financial - FICO

SAP FI - Financial Accounting 

SAP CO - Controlling

SAP EC - Enterprise Controlling

SAP AM - Asset Management 

SAP EAM - Enterprise Asset Management

SAP TR - Treasury

SAP IM - capital Investment Management

SAP GL - General Ledger

SAP AP - Accounts Payable

SAP AR - Account Receivable)

SAP AA - Asset Accounting

SAP LC - Legal Consolidation

SAP FM - Funds Management

SAP BL - Bank-related Accounting

SAP TR-CB - Cash Budget Management

SAP TR-MRM - Market Risk Management

SAP TR-CM - Cash Management

SAP TR-LO - Loans Management

SAP TR-TM - Treasury Management

• Human Resources - HR

SAP HR - Human Resource

SAP PA - Personnel Administration 

SAP PD - Personnel planning and Development

SAP PA-APP - Applicant Management

SAP PA-BEN - Benefits

SAP PA-EMP - Employee Management

SAP PA-INW - Incentive wages

SAP PA-PAY - Payroll

SAP PA-TIM - Time Management

SAP PA-TRV - Travel Expenses

SAP PD-OM - Organizational Management

SAP PD-RPL - Room Reservations Planning

SAP PD-WFP - Workforce Planning

SAP PD-SCM - Seminar and Convention Management

SAP PD-PD - Personnel development.

• Logistic and Manufacturing - Mainly SD/MM

SAP MM - Material Management

SAP MRP - Materials Requirement Planning

SAP ML - Material Ledger

SAP SD - Sales & Distribution

SAP PP - Production Planning

SAP DS - Detailed Scheduling

SAP LO - General Logistics

SAP SM - Service Management

SAP PM - Plant Maintenance 

SAP LE - Logistic Execution

SAP MM-PUR - Purchasing

SAP MM-IM - Inventory Management

SAP MM-WM - Warehouse Management

SAP MM-IV - Invoice Verification

SAP MM-IS - Information System

SAP MM-CBP - Consumption Based Planning

SAP MM-EDI - Electronic Data Interchange

SAP SD-MD - Master Data

SAP SD-CAS - Sales Support

SAP SD-SLS - Sales

SAP SD-SHP - Shipping

SAP SD-TR - Transportation

SAP SD-BIL - Billing

SAP SD-SIS - Sales Information System

SAP SD-EDI - Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

SAP SD-GF General Sales Functions

SAP PP-SOP - Sales and Operations Planning

SAP PP-CRP - Capacity Requirement Planning

SAP PP-MP - Master planning

SAP PP-ATO - Assembly orders

SAP PP-BD - Basic Data

SAP PP-IS - Information System

SAP PP-KAB - Kanban/Just-in-Time

SAP PP-MRP - Material Requirements Planning

SAP PP-PDC - Plant Data Collection

SAP PP-PI - Production Planning for Process Industries

SAP PP-REM - Repetitive Manufacturing

SAP PP-SFC - Production orders

SAP PM-EQM - Equipment and Technical Objects

SAP PM-IS - PM Information System

SAP PM-PRM - Preventive Maintenance

SAP PM-PRO - Maintenance Projects

SAP PM-SM - Service Management

SAP PM-WOC - Maintenance Orders Management

SAP LO-AB-TC - Trading Contract

SAP LO-BM - Batches

SAP LO-ECH - Engineering Change Management 

SAP LO-EHS - Environment Management

SAP LO-EWB - Engineering Workbench

SAP LO-HU - Handling Unit Management

SAP LO-LIS - Logistics Information System

SAP LO-MAP - Merchandise & Assortment Planning

SAP LO-MD - Logistics Basic Data

SAP LO-MDS - Merchandise Distribution

SAP LO-PDM - Product Data Management

SAP LO-PR - Forecast

SAP LO-RIS - Retail Information System

SAP LO-SCI - Supply Chain Planning Interface

SAP LO-SRS - Retail Store

SAP LO-VC - Variant Configuration

• Product Life Cycle Management - PLM 

SAP QM - Quality Management

SAP QM-QP - Quality Planning

SAP QM-IM - Quality Inspection processing

SAP QM-QC-AQC - Quality control

SAP QM-IT - Test equipment management

SAP QM-QN - Quality notifications

SAP QM-CA - Quality certificates

SAP PS - Project System

SAP DMS - Document Management System

SAP PPM - Project and Portfolio Management 

SAP EHS - Environment, Health and Safety

SAP PLM_RM - Recipe Management

SAP PLM-AM - Audit Management

SAP QM-CR - General functions

SAP QM-PT-RP - Control in logistics

SAP PLM400 - Quality Management

SAP LO170 - Quality Management

SAP PLM405 - Quality Inspections

SAP LO705 - Quality Inspections

SAP PLM410 - Quality Notifications

SAP LO710 - Quality Notifications

SAP PLM425 - QM in Sales and Distribution

SAP LO725 - Quality Certificates

SAP PS-CAF - Payments

SAP PS-CON - Confirmation

SAP PS-COS - Costs

SAP PS-CRP - Resources

SAP PS-DAT - Dates

SAP PS-DOC - Documents

SAP PS-IS - Information System

SAP PS-MAT - Material

SAP PS-PRG - Progress

SAP PS-REV - Revenues and Earnings

SAP PS-SIM - Simulation

SAP PS-ST - Structures

SAP PS-VER - Versions

• Cross Application (X-Apps) 

SAP xApp for Manufacturing Integration & Intelligence

SAP APO - Advanced Planner and Optimizer

SAP Live Cache

SAP WF - Workflow

SAP BW- Business Warehouse

SAP BIW - Business Intelligence & Data Warehousing

SAP Analytics

SAP xPD - Product Definition

• Governance, Risk, and Compliance - SAP GRC

SAP SDN

SAP Virsa

SAP GTS

SAP xEM

SAP CPM - Corporate Performance Management

SAP SEM - Strategic Enterprise Management

SAP Strategy Management

SAP Business Planning and Simulation

SAP Credit Management

Technical components

• SAP Basis

SAP BC - BASIS Components 

• ABAP

ABAP - Advanced Business Application Programming

• NetWeaver "Business Process Management" apps

SAP KMC - Knowledge Management & Collaboration

SAP DMS - Document Management Service

SAP CMS - Content Management Service

SAP XI - Exchange Infrastructure

SAP PI - Process Integration

SAP EP - Enterprise Portal

• IS (Information Systems) Management 

SAP CCMS - Computing Center Mgmt System

SAP MDM - Master Data Management

SAP BC-CCM-ADK - Archiving Development Kit

SAP CCM-API - Application Program Interfaces

SAP CCM-BTC - Background Processing

SAP CCM-CNF - Configuration

SAP CCM-HAV - High Availability

SAP CCM-MON - Monitoring

SAP CCM-PRN - Print and Output Management

SAP MDM100 - Master Data Management

SAP MDM101 - MDM GDS

SAP MDM300 - MDM Print Publishing

SAP MDM400 - MDM Data Modeling

Career in SAP

Demand is "strong" in Singapore, Malaysia, China, Thailand and Australia for SAP functional skills such as financial accounting and controlling (FICO), materials management (MM), and production planning (PP). Overall, the demand for such expertise is higher in discrete and process manufacturing industries, where the companies usually utilize a wider spectrum of SAP modules for different business areas. Although there is little difference between entry-level positions across the different technology areas, experienced SAP consultants generally command higher paychecks than the average IT professional.SAP consultants are paid a premium for their specific SAP project experience. Career prospects and development are good since there is a demand for these skill sets and companies are willing to pay good money for the best consultants.

Earning

How much one earns depends on several factors including the specific modules of specialization, as well as market demand and supply. In Singapore, for example, an SAPHR (human resources) consultant may be in the lower payscale compared to SAP SD (Sales and Distribution) where the general demand for SAP SD is higher.There is also a difference between working for an IT consulting company and in an end-user environment, and compensation also depends on the amount of travel required and the country of work. A consultant can choose to continue to specialize and hone his skills as a SAP subject matter expert, take up managerial responsibilities, or even lead a team and work his way up to senior business or application management.If you are already in an organization that implements SAP software, you can explore opportunities for internal transfers to get the relevant experience. Once you have clocked one to two full-cycle implementation projects, you can be considered as an experienced SAP consultant.

SAP consultants can hail from different walks of life; one can have functional skills or domain expertise.

A HR manager can take up a course, and find a job as a SAP HR consultant either in an end-user environment or a consulting company. As you gain project experience, say, six months to a year, you can expand into other areas.

Career advancement opportunities are also not limited to the SAP field. A consultant can take on a project lead role and later move on to become an IT head or CTO. And how important is obtaining professional certification? SAP certification is definitely nice to have, but it does not guarantee a smooth transition to a SAP career. Ultimately, companies are still looking at specific and related work experience in SAP. Strong communication skills and industry background will serve as a good foundation for an SAP consultant.

According to SAP, there are more than 8,000 SAP customer installations in the Asia-Pacific region, including Japan, and the German software giant has about 1,600 SAP consultants based in this region. The company continues to ensure it has a strong pool of consultants who can serve the market. Training is also provided at boot camps where participants pick up tips on strategy, consulting and change management

SAP Training Institutes

There are many SAP training institutes in India that offer good training but at the same time there are many ‘fly-by-night’ operators also that charge a hefty amount but just cover the basics. It is advisable to have a thorough look at the curriculum and their affiliations before joining any course. It is better to do SAP training from an autorized SAP training partner.