El Nacimiento de la UNESCO

What have we learned so far?

You gained a first look at what SAP as a company does, what products it sells, and how these products are embedded in the SAP product portfolio (Business Suite). There were some technical aspects discussed that seem to be very com-plicated. However, you do not need to understand every last technical detail but you should get a clear view on the “big picture”. Let us now paint that picture.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

- ERP is primarily a management concept, although it’s not clear if the scientific con-cept or the real-world system was there first.

- ERP in a broad sense describes all management techniques, systems, processes, etc.

that are used to manage all types of resources in a company effectively and efficiently.

- ERP, in a close sense, means the usage of IT-systems to supply a company’s daily work with all necessary data. The IT-system maps organizational structures, processes and data into a coherent perception in the form of software, to manage all the compa-ny’s resources.

- The most important aspect of ERP-systems is Integration, through which

o No data redundancy occurs: e.g., a customer has only one customer record in the system.

o All company departments use the same data records.

o Processes across a company and with external partners must be mapped with-out discontinuity. For instance, if a company orders a raw material from its supplier, an employee fills in a purchase order form in the ERP system. This form is then transferred to the suppliers ERP system. All filled in information (material, quantity, price, conditions, etc.) are mapped to the structure of the order form of the supplier. There is no need for any employee of the supplier to fill in any information manually (biggest point of errors!)  that is the summit of what an integrated process should look like, literally (systems communi-cating with each other without any “human” engagement).

2.3.1 SAP R/3

- The most successful product in the history of SAP, when it comes to market domi-nance.

- The main reason for SAP’s success today.

- Module-based structure: that is, the SAP software is divided in two sections SAP Ba-sis and the Application Modules (Finance (FI), Controlling (CO), Sales and Distribu-tion (SD) etc.).

- Problem: this monolithic structure is not very flexible, since changes in a sub-component require complete update of the module it belongs to. The same is true for new releases of the software.

2.3.2 SAP ERP

- Latest version of SAP’s ERP software  SAP ERP ECC 6.0.

- Covers the following functional areas that can be implemented separately:

o SAP ERP Financials

o SAP ERP Human Capital Management o SAP ERP Operations

o SAP ERP Corporate Services

- Service oriented architecture: business logic is divided in far smaller units (services) that are based on industry standards.

- Eliminates the technical problems of SAP R/3 (see above) upon upgrades and release changes  much higher flexibility regarding extensions and implementation.

- Contains all functions of R/3 Enterprise plus many new applications and functional ar-eas NetWeaver capabilities (Analytics, BI, Portal Integration, etc.).

2.3.2.1 SAP Business Suite

SAP Business Suite is a complete package of enterprise solutions that link people, infor-mation and processes. It consists of the following individual SAP solutions:

- SAP ERP – SAP Enterprise Resource Planning - SAP CRM – SAP Customer Relationship Management - SAP PLM – SAP Product Life-Cycle Management - SAP SRM – SAP Supplier Relationship Management - SAP SCM – SAP Supply Chain Management

2.3.2.2 SAP Enhancement Packages

- New applications and developments for SAP ERP, changes to the software, exten-sions, enhancement, upgrades, etc. are now implemented by using enhancement pack-ages.

- Optional packages that enable companies to take advantage of ongoing innovations while keeping their core software stable.

- Benefits of enhancement packages

o accelerates and simplifies the upgrade process and adaptation to industry sec-tors

o allows for the addition of innovations on top of SAP ERP 6.0 o no need for a full upgrade of the current release of SAP ERP

o simplifies the way customers manage and deploy new software functionality

 Customers can electively implement and activate software innovations from SAP and activate the software according to business requirement.

 Customers can isolate the impact of software updates and bring new functionality online more quickly, through shortened testing cycles.

- currently available for SAP ERP and SAP NetWeaver only

The new capabilities included in an enhancement package focus on the following four areas:

- Simplification

- Generic enhancements

- Industry-specific enhancements - Enterprise Service Bundles

The following key points summarize important facts about the enhancement package concept and recommended approaches:

- SAP enhancement packages are cumulative.

- The latest available enhancement package version should be installed.

- Single step installation of enhancement packages and Support Packages.

- SAP enhancement packages have their own Support Packages.

- SAP enhancement packages have the same maintenance period as the underlying core application, SAP ERP 6.0.

- You install only selected parts of the enhancement package. The selection is driven by functional need from a business point of view.

- Installations of enhancement packages, as well as the activation of business functions, are irreversible.

- Installation of an SAP enhancement package has no impact on existing business processes or user interfaces, as long as no business function has been activated.

o Activation of business functions is only possible in ABAP-based systems, not in Java-based systems.

o Enhancement Packages in Java-based systems are active after installation.

- Enhancement Packages of SAP NetWeaver are active after installation. Only one enhancement package version is allowed in an ABAP system

2.3.3 SAP NetWeaver

- SAP NetWeaver is a Web-based, open integration and application platform and the technical basis for almost all SAP products.

- Implements the idea of SOA/ESA.

- Provides the integration and alignment of people, information and business processes across business and technology boundaries.

- By using open standards it is flexible and compatible with almost every system imagi-nable.

- SAP highlights the compatibility with .NET (Microsoft) and J2EE (Oracle former Sun Micro Systems).

- Consists of four layers:

o People Integration

 Portal infrastructure

 Collaboration (inter-company collaboration)

 Multi-Channel access

 SAP NetWeaver Mobile o Information Integration

 Business Intelligence (SAP BI, SAP BO)

 Knowledge Management

 Master Data Management o Process Integration

 SAP NetWeaver Process Integration

 Business Process Management

 Solution Manager

 Cross Component Business Process Management (ccBMP) o Application Platform

 SOAP

 WSDL

 UDDI

 XML

 HTTP, HTTPS, HTML, JavaScript

 .NET, WebSphere o SAP Web AS

o ABAP and J2EE runtime environment

2.3.3.1 IT Practices and IT Scenarios

Enhancement Packages contain new developments, new functionality, extensions or im-provements for existing and already installed SAP ERP and SAP NetWeaver applications. For instance, you have the Material Management application SAP MM already up and running in the company and SAP develops a new interface for SAP MM or enables new material plan-ning functionality. These new functionalities can be implemented on top of the existing instal-lation by using the enhancement package.

IT Practices is an implementation strategy to bring a whole new functionality to the SAP NetWeaver stack. For instance, a company wants to improve its employee's productivity. For this case, SAP offers the IT Practice User Productivity Enablement. This IT Practice en-compasses several IT Scenarios. Not all of them may be relevant for the company, and im-plementing and running all IT Scenarios may become too expensive regarding the available budget. The company operates its SAP systems (e.g., SAP CRM, SAP BI, SAP ERP) using the SAP GUI. Now it decides that it should operate all its IT systems from one single point by using the SAP NetWeaver Portal. Therefore, they decide to implement the IT Scenario Run-ning an Enterprise Portal. This IT Scenario contains all the necessary activities and installa-ble units that need to be accomplished to run the SAP NetWeaver Portal.

Details on each SAP Practice and SAP Scenario are not relevant for the TERP10 exam. You should only know what they are about. The following figures display how you can find more information on each IT Scenario on SAP's web site help.sap.com.

Figure 17: IT Scenarios: help.sap.com

The following figure highlights the IT Scenario Running an Enterprise Portal.

Figure 18: IT Scenario Running an Enterprise Portal: help.sap.com

What else you should know about IT Practices and Scenarios?

IT Practices can be considered as a complete package of applications and functionalities that belong together. That is, you use SAP NetWeaver technology components from all layers (people, information, process, application) described previously to compose the business pro-cess or business scenario that you want to implement.

Main business goals that can be achieved:

- You can combine different integration technologies and systems (SAP or non-SAP) that are using the open communication standards of SAP NetWeaver.

- You can develop composite applications leveraging existing system investments securing existing IT investments by integrating existing systems and processes with the SAP NetWeaver platform.

- You can flexibly build new business processes.

IT PracticesSAP NetWeaver enables the following IT Practices:

- User productivity enablement - Data unification

- Business information management - Business event management - End-to-end process integration - Custom development

- Unified life-cycle management

- Application governance and security management - Consolidation

- Service-oriented architecture design and deployment IT Scenario

An IT Scenario supports a process-oriented implementation approach. IT Scenarios quickly and easily help to:

- develop, compose and run applications

- build, enhance and operate an IT infrastructure - integrate people, information, and processes

- implement a defined IT concept such as evolving a company’s system landscape into a services-based architecture

Each IT Practice can be broken into one or multiple IT Scenarios.

Some IT Scenarios belong to more than one IT Practice.

2.3.3.2 Installable Units

Before you can implement a particular IT Scenario, several SAP NetWeaver functionalities must already be in place. These functionalities are grouped together and build so-called In-stalled units. InIn-stalled units are building blocks and are composed of clients (like SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio, Business Explorer or SAP GUI for Windows), standalone en-gines (like Search and Classification, Job Scheduler or Content Server) and usage types.

To stick with the Enterprise Portal IT Scenario, you can see from the SAP documentation that the Installable Units Application Server Java, the Enterprise Portal Core (EP Core) and the Developer Infrastructure must already be available in the company's NetWeaver installation to implement this IT Scenario.

Figure 19: Installable Units: help.sap.com

Usage types are built from technical software components that form an installable and con-figurable unit. They are reusable, installed and preconfigured units, and they can be built upon other usage types.

SAP NetWeaver components and tools:

Components

- SAP NetWeaver Application Server - SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence

- SAP NetWeaver Business Process Management - SAP NetWeaver Process Integration

- SAP NetWeaver Master Data Management - SAP NetWeaver Mobile

- SAP NetWeaver Portal - SAP Auto-ID Infrastructure

- SAP NetWeaver Identity Management Tools

- Adaptive Computing Controller

- SAP NetWeaver Composition Environment - SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio

- SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer - SAP Solution Manager

2.3.3.3 Advantages and Benefits of SAP NetWeaver What is so good about SAP NetWeaver?

- openness and extensibility - immediate integration - low TCO

3 Overview of SAP ERP

Organizational levels and master data provide the framework that supports the business trans-actions. Reporting allows displaying master data as well as the output of business transac-tions. This section provides an overview of the fundamental concepts of organizational levels, master data, transaction data and reporting in SAP ERP.

In document La Educación para la Paz (página 108-112)