SAP & ERP Introduction

SAP stands for Systems, Applications and Products in data processing and is a multinational software
corporation introduced by Germans to manage business operations and customer relations.

Management applications can be

1. Centralized
2. Decentralized

Centralized Applications
Centralized systems store all data in a single database and can be updated immediately. ERP
systems are centralized, these systems can be purchased in the form of a single customizable
software that the companies modify later according to their business needs.

Decentralized Applications
Decentralized systems store data of respective fields separately, i.e. Each department of a
company will manage their own database. The major drawback of such system is that each
division has to coordinate for every transaction that is being processed. ERP systems were
introduced as a solution to the issue faced by decentralized systems.

SAP NetWeaver
SAP NetWeaver is a technology platform that allows organizations to integrate data, business
processes, elements and more variety of sources into unified SAP environments. The SAP landscape
is a complex place that involves various business applications -- for example, finance, supply chain
management, customer relationship management etc., that all need to talk to each other. These
applications also need to talk to other systems and applications outside of the SAP business suite
environment. SAP NetWeaver allows users to manage the complexity and costs of integrating all of
these systems, applications and services in their SAP environments. It comprises a collection of
components that organizations can use to solve specific problems or introduce and manage specific
features and functions in SAP environments. SAP NetWeaver is commonly used to develop apps,
connect users, manage systems, manage data and access security.

SAP NetWeaver components

SAP NetWeaver encompasses a variety of components that enable functionality in SAP
environments. These components include:

SAP Business Information Warehouse, which provides data warehouse functions and tools that
organizations can use to analyze and interpret business application data.

SAP Business Intelligence, which provides analytics and reporting tools.

SAP Enterprise Portal, which allows organizations to develop single access points for applications,
services or data in SAP environments.

SAP Exchange Infrastructure, which facilitates the exchange of data between an organization's
internal SAP environment and external systems.

SAP Knowledge Warehouse, which helps organizations set up and manage enterprise-specific
knowledge bases for documentation, training materials and manuals.
SAP NetWeaver Process Integration, which enables organizations to integrate business processes
that run in different systems, such as when companies merge or are acquired.

The Backend Development of SAP NetWeaver is mainly in ABAP which is the original SAP language,
some modules and UIs are developed in JAVA.

Production Planning
SAP Production Planning (SAP PP) is the component of ERP Central Component (ECC) that helps
businesses plan the manufacturing, sale and distribution of goods.

Modules of SAP
Functional Modules
The SAP modules which provide predefined standard functionality to replicate actual business
activity are called functional module. A functional consultant has to understand the business
requirement and use the standard functionality provided by SAP.

Technical Modules
These modules do not directly replicate actual business activity but provide needed support to
functional modules.

When an organization takes up a big project which consumes a lot of time and resources then it is
broken down into smaller well-defined components to be completed successfully in a defined
budget and time period. This big project is broken down into activities, which are further broken
down into smaller tasks. These activities are interdependent as they depend on each other to be
started or completed successfully. These activities are performed by different departments. Some of
the Departments each organization will always have are

1. Material Management (raw product, semi-final product, final product, spares)

2. Production/Manufacture
3. Plant maintenance
4. Quality assurance
 5. Sales
6. Finance

ABAP
ABAP (Advanced Business Application Programming) is the original SAP language used for backend
development of the software. SAP offers predefined functionality to meet business requirement. But
predefined functionality may not suffice to fulfill business requirement hence customization is
needed. Standard or predefined functionality is basically set of codes which are already developed
by SAP hence when customization is required to meet requirement either new codes are developed
or existing standard code is copied and edited. This customization is done purely in ABAP. ABAP runs
on the application layer of R/3 system.

Another use of ABAP is to format the by-default provided data by SAP into user required format. SAP
provides a standard structure of the system and ABAP is used to manipulate the processes that are
outside the standard. The system complexities are handled by ABAP. End work can be done using
.NET or UI5 for SAP systems.

In- House Developed Applications

Other than the provided functionalities by SAP, each organization requires some modules that aren’t
provided by the system. In-House developed applications are the applications that are developed in
ABAP by the organizations and integrated with the SAP system later. FFC uses In-House developed
applications such as Guest House booking, rent a car, Hospital reports etc.

The Hospital reports application is used to keep tabs of each employee’s availed medical facilities,
their reports and the expanse for those facilities payable by employee and by the organization.

The rent a car application is mainly for the employees of the company. They can check the
availability of a car, and/or a driver and book it for specific amount of time. The expanse occurred is
also recorded in this application.

Guest house booking application, just like rent a car, is for employees to check and book rooms of
company guest houses and to record their expanses.

These In-House developed applications are integrated with the provided Portal and thus can be
accessed from this portal and the expanses occurred are handled by SAP like other transactions and
deducted from the pay of the employees using SAP standard modules.

Introduction to crystal reports

Crystal Report is reporting tool developed by SAP SE. It is an easy to use, drag and drop tool. It can
be connected to many types of databases regardless of whether they’re stored locally or on a server.
It can create simple, complex or specialized reports from virtually any data source like Access, Excel,
JDBC or any other.

Data visualization tools provide simple graphs or complex geographic maps to help communicate
information visually to help in understanding data analysis. Crystal Reports can publish in a variety of
formats including Microsoft Word and Excel, E-mail and over the Web. Advanced Web reporting
allows all members of organization in a workgroup view and update shared reports inside a web
browser.

Application and web developers can save time and meet their user’s needs by integrating the report
processing power of Crystal Reports into their applications.

FI/CO (Finance & Controlling)

SAP FICO is a core functional component in SAP ERP Central Component that allows an organization
to manage all of its financial data. The purpose of SAP FICO is to help companies generate and
manage financial statements for analysis and reporting and help with effective business planning and
decision-making. SAP FICO consists of two modules

 SAP Finance (FI)

 SAP Controlling (CO)

Each of which is used for specific financial processes. SAP FI deals with overall financial reporting and
accounting while SAP CO focuses more narrowly on planning and monitoring costs. SAP FI and SAP
CO were originally released as separate modules but are now so tightly integrated that many people
refer to them as simply one module.

SAP FI
SAP FI enables companies to generate financial statements -- such as balance sheets or
profit and loss statements -- for reporting and analysis. SAP FI consists of several sub-
modules that handle specific accounting processes:

 General Ledger contains all of the company's transaction data in a chart of accounts that
lists all of the accounts in the system.
 Accounts Receivable captures customer transactions and manages customer accounts.
 Accounts Payable involves all of the transactions with vendors and manages vendor
accounts.
 Asset Accounting manages all of the transactions related to the company's fixed assets,
such as land, buildings and heavy equipment.
 Bank Ledger deals with all of the company's bank account transactions and data. It can
reconcile all transactions recorded on bank statements and compare them with the
transactions in the system.
 Consolidation enables the company to combine financial statements for multiple
entities, which provides an overview of the company's financial position as a whole.
 Funds Management manages the budgets for the company's revenues and expenses.
 Special Purpose Ledger defines the ledgers in SAP FI for reporting purposes.
 Travel Management manages all of the transactions for travel processes, including
booking trips and handling travel-related expenses.

SAP CO
 While SAP FI deals with a company's accounting and internal and external reporting, SAP CO
supports processes to plan, report on, and monitor costs from business operations. SAP CO
can be instrumental in improving the company's profitability. Like SAP FI, SAP CO is
comprised of sub-modules that handle specific processes:

 Cost Elements provides an overview of all the company's costs and revenues based on
profit and loss statements, which are also known as income statements. Cost element
accounting describes the origin of the costs, and the cost elements represent specific
costs that the company incurs.
 Cost Centers deals with the costs associated with the company's internal divisions or
departments, such as sales, production, marketing or human resources. Cost Centers
involves only expenses, not revenues.
 Profit Centers handles all of the cost data related to the company's business lines. It
deals with both expenses and revenues, unlike Cost Centers, which deals only with
expenses.
 Internal Orders is used to manage the costs for smaller internal projects or non-fixed
assets.
 Profitability Analysis enables the company to analyze the profitability of its products.
 Product Costing manages the data about costs required to produce the company's
goods and services. Product costing analysis can help manage manufacturing costs and
optimize efficiencies.

SAP FICO is part of the SAP ECC Accounting function. It integrates with other SAP Logistics modules,
including Sales and Distribution (SD), Production Planning (PP), Plant Maintenance (PM), Quality
Management (QM), and Materials Management (MM

Material management
SAP MM (Materials Management) is a module in SAP ERP Central Component (ECC) that provides
companies with materials, inventory and warehouse management capabilities. The primary goal of
SAP MM is to make sure that materials are always kept in proper quantities and without shortages
or gaps in the organization's supply chain. It also helps supply chain professionals and other SAP
users complete the purchasing of goods in a timely and cost-effective way and to be able to deal
with day-to-day changes in these processes. It integrates with other ECC components like Production
Planning (PP), Sales and Distribution (SD), Plant Maintenance (PM), Quality Management (QM),
Finance and Controlling (FICO) and Human Capital Management (HCM).

SAP MM submodules
SAP MM's functions include material management, procurement process management,
master data management (material and vendor master), inventory management, material
requirements planning and invoice verification.

All of these MM submodules have functions that perform specific business processes for
those modules. These are executed through transactions, the method that SAP ECC uses to
complete business processes. MM also supports other logistics functions that require
materials information, such as plant maintenance and project management.
HCM (Human Capital Management)
SAP HCM is one of the major modules in SAP that plays an important role in building an organized
management in enterprises. HCM is one of the most important processes in organizations across
industries. The general idea on HR is related only to recruiting. But HR is much beyond just
recruiting. In an organization, HR not just hires employees but segregates employees based on
various factors such as department level, payment days, payment details, designations and more.
Besides, various other works such as promotions, employee engagement and team motivation tasks
are taken care of by the HR. These works might sound very simple; however, working out all these
for people of an entire organization is not an easy work at all. To streamline all such HR processes,
SAP ERP operations are widely used. SAP HCM ERP is one of the most flexible software for HR
processes widely used across industries.

There are various sub models in SAP HCM for different processes.

SAP HCM Modules

 Organizational Management
 Personnel Administration
 E-Recruitment
 Time Management
 Payroll
 ESS and MSS
 Reporting