Overview of ERP - Enterprise Resource Planning
Overview of ERP - Enterprise Resource Planning
Objective
To plan the available resources lying with an enterprise so as to receive the maximum profit at the end of the day.
Advantages
Paper free work. All the Business Transaction will run through ERP
Business Process
It is a collection of set of heterogeneous activities/processes related to all the departments of the enterprise. In one word ERP maps the BP of a particular enterprise. Each enterprise has it's unique way of designing it's BP.
Each module is mapped to a particular set of activities carried out in each different departments and also interfacing links are designed to have smooth transition from one module to other whenever required.
Advanced Business Application Programming (ABAP) is a SAP Proprietary programming language which is only used in SAP platform. Whenever any technical requirements comes up in any module SAP ABAP comes to picture. The other technical module is BASIS related to administrative aspects of SAP functioning.
This cycle spans right from the first day to the day when the project is declared GO-LIVE. There are different phases which the implementation passes through.
AS-IS Study
Study of the Business Process of the Company by a set of Consultants from Consulting firm right at client's place by heavy interaction with the end users of the client.
TO-BE Analysis
Preparation of initial Blue-Prints based on the study carried out in the previous phase.
GAP Analysis
Potential Gaps are found out and solutions are deduced to merge those Gaps. Gaps are nothing but a virtual open space created between the SAP process and the actual client's process.
After all necessary modifications in the Blue-Prints, it is freeze from further modifications upon signing on it by potential people involved both from client as well as consulting firm making it the guide book for Implementation.
Development Phase
In this phase, development starts. Developments can be broadly divided into Functional and Technical (ABAP and BASIS oriented).
For testing the objects developed in Development phase it needs to be transported to Quality Box for Testing.
Once the testing is successfully completed all the developments are transported to Production Box and the project is declared as GO-LIVE.
Sustain Phase
As a matter of fact a specific period of support is by default provided by the Consulting firm to the client where in the users are trained to run SAP and to materialize the functioning of SAP to run clients Business. There after if client wants they can enter into an sustain agreementwith the same Consulting firm or any other to sustain their process through SAP to run their business.
SAP Architecture
SAP Follows Client/Server Architecture. Client is the Service Requester and Server is the service donor.
SAP Architecture
Architectural Diagram
USER PRESENTATION LAYER DISPATCHER APPLICATION LAYER WORK PROCESS DATABASE LAYER LOGICAL UNIT OF WORK
DISPATCHER
Dispatcher analyses what type of request comes in to Application Server for processing. Depending on the type of request Dispatcher sends the request to one of the 6 work processes.
WORK PROCESS
There are all together 6 work processes. They are: Dynpro Work Process Background Work Process Update Work Process Spool Work Process Enque Work Process Deque Work Process