Saturday, October 15
What is SAP ?
This article is about SAP.SAP stands for systems, applications and products in data processing.SAP should be pronounced as S A P and not saap. SAP was founded by a german company in 1972, hence it’s a german company. SAP is an ERP software. ERP stands for enterprise resource planning. ERP solutions is an end to end solution for a company. Enterprise consists of multiple departments, for example finance, sales, human resources, manufacturing , sales and distribution, etc. each of these departments needs a software to manage its information. So one solution is that the company can have a unique software developed from scratch for each of these departments or this company can go for an ERP solution. If this company goes for an ERP solution then this department would be using one or more modules of the same ERP software. ERP is a modulated and integrated product so ERP has multiple modules designed for different departments. These modules are integrated in terms of data sharing. This shares the data. So they share the same back-end ,the same data source and the same database. Transactions are automatically created in these modules, based on connectivity going on in one module the other module can automatically capture that and can create transactions. Now the ERP market looks like this with the SAP market with the maximum share with 35% with its product my SAP. ORACLE has 28% market with three of its products ORACLE e-business suites, peoplesoft and JDEdward as well. Now we have two ERP applications taking third position with 28% market share. This category includes ERP software which include Baan, epicor, infor and syspro. Microsoft accounts to 14% with its product called greatplains. This is the evolution for SAP. SAP had started with SAP R/2 which became SAP R/3 and which has now become my SAP ECC. SAP R/2 was mainly designed for mainframe computers ,large and huge computers then it changed to SAP R/3 which went for catering to the client server environment when machined went from large size to smaller ones and multiple machines were being used together. Now the latest offering is my SAP ECC. ECC stands for ERP central component. My SAP ECC has multiple modules. FI and CO are modules within my SAP. So financial and controlling modules are a part of my SAP ECC suite. My SAP has multiple suites , each suite is a group of modules, so you can see this is a family of modules and together all these families are called as my SAP. So my SAP has ERP central component, supplier relationship management(SRM), strategic enterprise management(SEM), catalogue content management, compliance management for SAO, supply hain management(SCM), product lifecycle management( PLM), customer relationship management (CRM), and business intelligence( BI). All these families are a part of my SAP. Hence this suite has many families or modules, so FI and CO are a part of ERP central component suite. SAP R/2 changed to SAP R/3 which changed to my SAP ECC. The company added other families as well. So initial offerings did not include these families. So these become a part of this one big giant product called my SAP.
Some SAP Terms
Most Common SAP terms are ABAP and ABAP 4, basis, variant, transaction code, parameter id , batch sessions, jobs, user menus and distributed systems (ALE)
ABAP and ABAP 4
ABAP stands for advanced business application programming 4th generation language. So ABAP is a 4 GL language stands for fourth generation language. The characteristic of 4 GL language is that the added abstraction layer to make them easy to understand. The other examples of 4 GL languages are SQL and PL/SQL. They are closer towards the human language, so if you look at the programming statement you can easily understand what the statement is trying to do. Now ABAP is also called the cousin of COBOL, though COBOL is a 3GL language. Now ABAP is the main programming language for SAP. If you really need to change the SAP software other than the customization and configuration options available on the screen, if you really need to modify under the hood you really need to understand the ABAP language. This Is the language within which SAP product is built.
Basis
Basis is a middleware that connects the SAP applications with the operating systems and the database. So the first layer is the operating system which is the hardware of course. Of the operating system we have the basis software running a swell as we have the database running. So we have choices of database but mostly ORACLE database is used with the SAP applications. So we have basis and database running on top of the system and SAP front run applications are runiing on top of the basis, so basis is the connection between the SAP applications and the operating system and as well as if the application need to talk to the database they have to go through the basis. So its called the middleware software. Now basis group is another term that is commonly used . before we talk about basis group lets see what basis administrator is. Basis administrator is the person who looks after the basis software. This person manages the basis software and security and if running properly and looks after any functional and technical problem related to the basis software while the DBA known as the database administrator looks after the health of the database. So basis administrator looks after the health of the basis software, which is the middleware and DBA looks after the health of the database. So the basis administrator and the DBA together are called a basis group which is more of a technical group looking after the health of the underlying software. So the basis group is a commonly used term as well, so that will mean DBAs and business administrators together.
Variant
When you run a program or report, you need to enter some parameter, for example you can enter January 2010 as a parameter for one of the report and display the data as January 2010. If you enter the data as February as the parameter then February as the parameter shows up. So each report has different parameters, a set of parameters that has to decode and based on those parameters you need to enter those values that are produced. Now same thing for the programs as well. You can save the settings and the saved settings is called as the variant. If you run the same report or program again and again, then you can have the settings saved as variant. Variants basically saves you time. Basically you can run routine programs without having to enter all parameters again and again.
Transaction Codes
There are two ways to navigate to a screen in SAP. First method is to use the menu. Another method is you can enter the transaction code for that screen directly in the command field and you can go to the screen directly. Each screen has its own transaction code and there is a command field available to you all the time and you can enter in the field and you will be directed into the screen. So it’s a shortcut to go into a particular screen and it comes handy if you use one or few screens on a frequent basis, so then you would basically remember the transaction cades for that screen, then you can enter that in the command field
Parameter ID
Parameter ID is an identifier given to some fields for example the parameter ID for the a company is BUK is considered as a parameter ID for a nickname of a field. Now what is the use. The use is that, for example if the user comes to the screen and this user work for a certain company 222 for example, then what this user can do is that he can go to the user profile screen and specify 222 as default value for parameter BUK. So you can use a parameter ID to set a default value to a particular field. Now as a result when the user is going to come to the screen, value 22 will always be defaulted. So he doesn’t have to enter 222 again and again. So, what you take home is parameter ID is a nickname to a field ,so most of the fields have parameter IDs. You can use the parameter ID to set a default value to a field so that when you come to the screen the default value is already there.
Input session
So what we see here is that a user is on the screen and is entering data into the SAP data entering screens and that this data is going into the SAP database. Other than the manual data entry, the SAP also receives data from the other non-SAP applications and other SAP installations. So how that process happens? First the data is stored as the batch input session . the batch input program could be used to read the data from the external world and save the data into batch input session. Then another program called process batch input runs which reads the data is stored under batch input session and feeds that into the SAP database. Now, something unique about this batch input session is that the data is stored in such a way that when it is read it is read as if a human being is sitting there and doing the data entry. So this data goes through the same validation process as if somebody is entering data manually in the SAP database. That’s something unique about batch input session. Its goes through the same validation process. It’s a little different concept from the interface tables. And sometimes this data is instructive as well. So if users enter this and asks the user this question then the user chooses this answer, so that is how the batch input session works. So this is how the data can be brought form an external input system to the SAP database.
Jobs
When you run a program or report, you have two choices. Either you can run it immediately or schedule to run later. A program or report is which is scheduled to run later on is called a job. So can specify when you really want this job to run. If it’s a huge job then you can choose to run it over a night. So job is a technical term used for a program or report which is casual to run later on.
User Menus
When you log in you can see two menus in the system, standard menu and user menu. The standard menu comes with the system and it contains all the options. There is a huge list on the standard menu, but in reality the users use few options for day to-day use. So what you can do is, you can extract those options and put them in the user menu. So the standard menu will contain all the options that are in a system and user menu will contains all those options that a user frequently uses on daily basis. So when a user logs in he can go directly into the user menu and see only those options that he is interested in. so that is the concept of a user menu.
Distributed systems (ALE)
What does ALE stand for? Application linked enabling. So what is the benefit of ALE? So lets imagine three SAP systems running individually. So they are separate SAPs , production 1, 2 and 3. Now sometimes a client may decide to go for different installations or for whatever technical reasons that happened. Now the need is whenever transaction takes place in system 2 and 3 , it should always automatically show up on system 1. And so system 1 should be in sync with system 2 and 3 in terms of the transactions. So you can use the distributed ALE technologies to achieve that. For example, if a transaction is happening in system 2 , it should automatically be flowing to system 1 , as if someone entered this transaction into system 1. So ALE could be used to keep one system in sync with the other. That’s the whole concept of ALE.
Some SAP Terms
Most Common SAP terms are ABAP and ABAP 4, basis, variant, transaction code, parameter id , batch sessions, jobs, user menus and distributed systems (ALE)
ABAP and ABAP 4
ABAP stands for advanced business application programming 4th generation language. So ABAP is a 4 GL language stands for fourth generation language. The characteristic of 4 GL language is that the added abstraction layer to make them easy to understand. The other examples of 4 GL languages are SQL and PL/SQL. They are closer towards the human language, so if you look at the programming statement you can easily understand what the statement is trying to do. Now ABAP is also called the cousin of COBOL, though COBOL is a 3GL language. Now ABAP is the main programming language for SAP. If you really need to change the SAP software other than the customization and configuration options available on the screen, if you really need to modify under the hood you really need to understand the ABAP language. This Is the language within which SAP product is built.
Basis
Basis is a middleware that connects the SAP applications with the operating systems and the database. So the first layer is the operating system which is the hardware of course. Of the operating system we have the basis software running a swell as we have the database running. So we have choices of database but mostly ORACLE database is used with the SAP applications. So we have basis and database running on top of the system and SAP front run applications are runiing on top of the basis, so basis is the connection between the SAP applications and the operating system and as well as if the application need to talk to the database they have to go through the basis. So its called the middleware software. Now basis group is another term that is commonly used . before we talk about basis group lets see what basis administrator is. Basis administrator is the person who looks after the basis software. This person manages the basis software and security and if running properly and looks after any functional and technical problem related to the basis software while the DBA known as the database administrator looks after the health of the database. So basis administrator looks after the health of the basis software, which is the middleware and DBA looks after the health of the database. So the basis administrator and the DBA together are called a basis group which is more of a technical group looking after the health of the underlying software. So the basis group is a commonly used term as well, so that will mean DBAs and business administrators together.
Variant
When you run a program or report, you need to enter some parameter, for example you can enter January 2010 as a parameter for one of the report and display the data as January 2010. If you enter the data as February as the parameter then February as the parameter shows up. So each report has different parameters, a set of parameters that has to decode and based on those parameters you need to enter those values that are produced. Now same thing for the programs as well. You can save the settings and the saved settings is called as the variant. If you run the same report or program again and again, then you can have the settings saved as variant. Variants basically saves you time. Basically you can run routine programs without having to enter all parameters again and again.
Transaction Codes
There are two ways to navigate to a screen in SAP. First method is to use the menu. Another method is you can enter the transaction code for that screen directly in the command field and you can go to the screen directly. Each screen has its own transaction code and there is a command field available to you all the time and you can enter in the field and you will be directed into the screen. So it’s a shortcut to go into a particular screen and it comes handy if you use one or few screens on a frequent basis, so then you would basically remember the transaction cades for that screen, then you can enter that in the command field
Parameter ID
Parameter ID is an identifier given to some fields for example the parameter ID for the a company is BUK is considered as a parameter ID for a nickname of a field. Now what is the use. The use is that, for example if the user comes to the screen and this user work for a certain company 222 for example, then what this user can do is that he can go to the user profile screen and specify 222 as default value for parameter BUK. So you can use a parameter ID to set a default value to a particular field. Now as a result when the user is going to come to the screen, value 22 will always be defaulted. So he doesn’t have to enter 222 again and again. So, what you take home is parameter ID is a nickname to a field ,so most of the fields have parameter IDs. You can use the parameter ID to set a default value to a field so that when you come to the screen the default value is already there.
Input session
So what we see here is that a user is on the screen and is entering data into the SAP data entering screens and that this data is going into the SAP database. Other than the manual data entry, the SAP also receives data from the other non-SAP applications and other SAP installations. So how that process happens? First the data is stored as the batch input session . the batch input program could be used to read the data from the external world and save the data into batch input session. Then another program called process batch input runs which reads the data is stored under batch input session and feeds that into the SAP database. Now, something unique about this batch input session is that the data is stored in such a way that when it is read it is read as if a human being is sitting there and doing the data entry. So this data goes through the same validation process as if somebody is entering data manually in the SAP database. That’s something unique about batch input session. Its goes through the same validation process. It’s a little different concept from the interface tables. And sometimes this data is instructive as well. So if users enter this and asks the user this question then the user chooses this answer, so that is how the batch input session works. So this is how the data can be brought form an external input system to the SAP database.
Jobs
When you run a program or report, you have two choices. Either you can run it immediately or schedule to run later. A program or report is which is scheduled to run later on is called a job. So can specify when you really want this job to run. If it’s a huge job then you can choose to run it over a night. So job is a technical term used for a program or report which is casual to run later on.
User Menus
When you log in you can see two menus in the system, standard menu and user menu. The standard menu comes with the system and it contains all the options. There is a huge list on the standard menu, but in reality the users use few options for day to-day use. So what you can do is, you can extract those options and put them in the user menu. So the standard menu will contain all the options that are in a system and user menu will contains all those options that a user frequently uses on daily basis. So when a user logs in he can go directly into the user menu and see only those options that he is interested in. so that is the concept of a user menu.
Distributed systems (ALE)
What does ALE stand for? Application linked enabling. So what is the benefit of ALE? So lets imagine three SAP systems running individually. So they are separate SAPs , production 1, 2 and 3. Now sometimes a client may decide to go for different installations or for whatever technical reasons that happened. Now the need is whenever transaction takes place in system 2 and 3 , it should always automatically show up on system 1. And so system 1 should be in sync with system 2 and 3 in terms of the transactions. So you can use the distributed ALE technologies to achieve that. For example, if a transaction is happening in system 2 , it should automatically be flowing to system 1 , as if someone entered this transaction into system 1. So ALE could be used to keep one system in sync with the other. That’s the whole concept of ALE.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment
You are welcome to express your views here...