Tuesday, December 2, 2008

SAP R/3 Modules: Overview and Implementation

By Matt Parker

SAP can be extended as Systeme, Andwendungen, Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung in German or Systems, Applications and Products in Info Processing in English. The German organisation based in the yr 1972 published module R/1 and module R/2 earlier. Still, with the advent of the client server architecture the module R/3 was released by the organisation in the yr 1992 and is a business management application set on this architecture. The reply to the application has been huge and it can be told that the R/3 module has required the global software industry by storm.

The R/3 module can be best described as a comprehensive and integrated information system.SAP R/3 is a now being widely used around the globe and is easily customizable for several organizations reckoning on their sizes of operation due its ABAP/4 programming language. The R/3 architecture is a 3 tiered one which includes a user interface, a software application and database server and is compatible with a mixture of hardware configurations. The R/3 module includes several operational modules like financial control, human resources, materials management, sales and distribution in increase to production planning. Though every last of these modules executes their procedures one by one they are integrated together wherever applicable. This feature makes accessing the complete business actions of a organisation feasible to all it employees. The module too profits through its easy to use interface and online help functionality.

The SAP R/3 module is provided to the client with general features turned on and a host of optional features impaired. An corporation can manipulate the software corresponding to their particular needs by altering the settings of the database and tables in the module. Still, the module with it's greatest features comes with a high price tag. The price of the R/3 module ranges anyplace between US$1.5million and US$5million.

Though the functionality of the module is highly amazing implementing the R/3 module is a tiring task not to refer the superior costs involved. Implementation and maintenance prices range between US$10million to US$100million and include the service charges of the SAP consultant who assists in the process. By And Large the implementation operation needs a lot of changes within the corporation and can be distributed into four primary stages the project preparation stage where SAP technical support enterprise is based and preparating the SAP necessities of the organisation are undertaken.

In the second stage, the blueprinting stage analysis of the price of ownership, high availability and disaster recovery requirements, staffing the support enterprise and developing are executed. In the 3rd functional management stage the varieties that the corporation need to undergo are plotted and the SAP systems management and SAP computer processes are set. The phase too involves testing the SAP system before carrying out. The supreme planning stage involves some other testing operation and the cutover phase where the organisation plans the process of transmission from the older system to a newer one.

It is obvious that the SAP R/3 module is a highly usable and integrated system for companies. Though the price of the application, maintenance and implementation are high the functionality of the module overweighs the costs needed. Some organisations around the globe have executed the R/3 module and benefited hugely. - 16069

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