Introduction To SAP

The name SAP a German company is an

acronym for "Systeme, Anwendungen,
Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung." This is
translated in English as "Systems, Applications,
and Products in Data Processing."
 What is SAP?
The name SAP is acronym for Systems, Applications and
Products in Data Processing. SAP is an extremely complicated
system where no one individual can understand all of it.
SAP runs on a fourth generation programming language called
Advance Business Application Programming (ABAP). It have
many of the features of other modern programming
languages such as the familiar C, Visual Basic, and Power
Builder. Your programs name conventions begins with a letter
yxxx or zxxx.
SAP graphical user interfaces (SAPGUI) runs on Windows / NT
/ Unix / AS400. When you are using 3.x you can used the
SAPGUI 4.x, there are no conflicts as the SAPGUI is basically a
front end tools.
 If you create dialog screen, remembers to tick Development
Tools (utility programs for the Screen Painter) when you are
installing SAPGUI 4.x.
In SAPGUI 4.x, you can configure whether to use the
present 3.x screen design or the New 4.x Visual design
(which is very graphical and computer resource hungry).
Disable the login image to reduce the memory usage. In
transaction SM30, table SSM_CUST, create a new entries
with Name HIDE_START_IMAGE and Value to be set YES.
SAP have move towards the Windows Explorer Screen
Format (all the Menu on the left of your screen).
 SAP is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software
product capable of integrating multiple business
applications, with each application representing a specific
business area. These applications update and process
transactions in real time mode. It has the ability to be
configured to meets the needs of the business.
SAP are categorized into 3 core functional areas:
Logistics
Sales and Distribution (SD)
Material Management (MM)
Warehouse Management (WM)
Production Planning (PP)
General Logistics (LO)
Quality Management (QM)
 Financial
Financial Accounting (FI)
Controlling (CO)
Enterprise Controlling (EC)
Investment Management (IM)
Treasury (TR)
Human Resources
Personnel Administration (PA)
Personnel Development (PD)
 SAP Basics Feature

Configuration of the SAP modules

Transaction SPRO - this is the main tree for all the configuration.
Function Key
F1 - Help
F4 - Possible entries or match code for the field you are
accessing
F5 - Selection screen
F7 - Previous screen
F8 - Next screen
F9 - Technical info
CTRL+X - Cut
CTRL+C - Copy
CTRL+V - Paste
 Navigation
/n Skip to the next record if you are processing one batch
input session
/bend Cancel a batch input foreground process
/nend Close all R/3 sessions and logoff
/nxxx x Call the transaction xxxx in the same session
/o Generate a session list
/oxxx x Call the transaction xxxx in an additional session
/i Delete the current session
/h Turn the debug mode on
/$tab Reset all buffers (for System Administrators)
/$syn c Synchronize instances buffers (for System Administrators)
In 4.x, you can have long SAP transaction code up to a maximum of
20 character
 What is the difference between
configuration and customization?
In a nut shell, customization is done when the client's requirement
cannot be mapped with SAP standards. Here you will have to take
the help of ABAPers to develop the programs/change the program
codes in order to match the clients business requirements
Configuration is done with out any developed programs
Some SAP Terms
Client type : Organization or group
default client 000
Company code : A company code is the smallest organizational unit
for which has a complete self-contained set of accounts.
Plant : A plant is an organizational unit within a company that
produces materials to make goods and renders services.
 Storage Location : A storage location is an organizational unit that allows
the differentiation of material stocks within a plant.
Sales Organization : A sales organization is an organizational unit that sells
and distributes products, negotiates terms of sales, and is responsible for
these transactions.
Distribution Channel : Is a channel through which materials or services
reach customers.
Division : Is a product group that can be defined for a wide ranging
spectrum of products.
Moving Average Price : Price that changes in consequence of goods
movements at the entry of invoices and which is used for valuating a
material. The moving a average price is calculated by dividing the values
of the material by the quantity of the material in stock. It is recalculated
automatically by the system after each goods movement or invoice entry.
Standard Costs : Constant price with which a material is valuated, without
taking into account goods movements and invoices.
 What is ASAP Methodology

ASAP: Accelerated Systems Application and Products in Data

Processing
All implementation projects have the the following phases:
Scoping - What is to be implemented i.e. which submodules are to
be implemented some clients may not require credit management
for example. Look at the project scope document carefully it will tell
you what SAP sub-modules in SAP you should be prepared for.
Usually the sales people along with project manager do it.
As is - Here you understand the existing business processes of the
client . Your BPOcollect all the ISO-documentation (if client is ISO
certified), reports and forms at this stage and you analyse how and
when the reports/forms are generated, where the data is coming
from. You also do a Level -2 training for your BPO so he is made
aware of all the required transactions in SAP.
 Once this is over BPO can start learning with the consultants help more about SAP.
This is crucial because if you miss out any transactions the BPO may forget about
some of his Business processes which may come up later. It is a good practice to
ask the BPO to make flow charts to explain business processes.
To-Be - Parallel you map these processes to SAP. Processes that you are not sure of
as to whether they are present in SAP or not you try to do a configuration of those
processes, and along with the BPO(Business process owner he is the clients
employee who knows about the clients business processes probably a middle
management guy, there can more than one), BPO involvement is required as he
may be able to tell you his requirements better. Once you do the business
modeling you
will also be made aware of the gaps between as-is and to-be , here decisions have
to be made as to whether a ABAP development/system modification is required or
not and so on. Involve the BPO as much as possible and document everything it is
good practice do not be lazy about it.
Business blueprint: Here the as-is and to-be and gap analysis is explained. This is
the document that you will be using to do your configuration in the realization
phase.
 Realization phase: Here you do the configuration in the development server (there
are three clients -development, quality, production). You also decide on the master
data format, so that BPO can go collect the master data. You also give ABAP
specifications for forms, reports etc, system modifications etc. Unit testing: Your
BPOs and a few key users sit down and test your configuration in your module
only. It is good to test the BDCs that you need for uploading data at this stage so
you have more realistic data and your BDCs are tested.
Integration testing:
Once all modules unit testing is over then the configuration is transported to the
Quality server, where testing for all the modules is done by BPOs and end user, this
is to check if any problems are there in integration between various modules. Once
all is okay from the QA server config is transported to the production server.
Go live preparation
Data uploading: The collected master data is checked and the uploaded into
production server(sever and client I have used interchangeably). Now you are
ready for go live i.e. users can now use the production server.
 ASAP methodology means nothing but standard process for implementation of
SAP, It consists of 5 phases.
1. Project preparation - consists of identifying team members and developing
strategy as how to go.
2. Business Blue print - consists of identifying the client current process,
requirement and how SAP provides solution.
Consists of detailed documentation
3. Realization -The purpose of this phase is to implement all the business and
process requirements based on the
Business Blueprint.
4. Final Preparation - The purpose of this phase is to complete testing, end-user
training,
5. Go Live and Support
All the functional consultants need good rapo with Abapers. right from uploading
of legacy data, developing customized reports, BDC's, Forms etc, here functional
consultants need to give guidance as to get the required data for reports and all..
like the table name, fields etc
What is baseline configuration in sap?

Base line and Final config is the third phase in ASAP

methodology. The purpose of this phase is to implement
all the business & process requirements based on business
blue print. You customize the system step by step in 2 work
packages: Base Line Configuration & Final Configuration.
- Base Line Configuration: this phase comprises the priority
requirements of the enterprise, ensuring that they can be
implemented quickly. This phase can be completed without
programming or enhancements to SAP systems.
- Final Configuration: in this phase you confirm that all your
requirements are met in the R/3 system. Final configuration
is a transportation process that expands that base line
solution.
 What are The Benefits of SAP
Implementation
Benefits of SAP implementation :

Benefits to the suppliers :

1) SAP increases their market share and ,

increased business by virtue of AMCs.
2) Implementer gets business and people
working at client side will build their resume.
3) Hardware manufacturer gets their share of
business without any effort.
 Clients :
1) Efficient , user specific, customized legacy system dies. Along
with all the trained people to manage it will also loose their
importance and gets demotivated.
2) Increased cost of IT by virtue of Initial expenditure on SAP
licenses/ Hardware/ Net working & implementation. recurring costs
/year goes up by virtue of AMC for SAP licenses and support
3) Entire Company performance goes down. Each person puts the
blame on SAP for not working properly,
4) Trained manpower in SAP leaves the company in search of better
( ? ) opportunities leaving the systems department in disarray . This
puts more dependence on support from AMC ( which is a mirage
and clients pay heavy price )
 5) One year post go live, with great difficulty , companies finalize accounts and
have nightmarish times explaining the auditors.
6) Educated end users will find out lots of open ends in various clearing accounts.
Due to pressure from Sr.Management, they try to pass manual entries and end up
in differential account balances. ( simple inventory statement form MC.1 does not
tally with sum of corresponding GL accounts )
7) End user start raising tickets on supports for flimsy issues consuming precious
AMC hours
8) End of one year, the Sr management will realize that only 30 % of their actual
business process were mapped in SAP and to full fill their other business needs,
they need to go for other licenses in SAP modules --- more expenditure......!
9) Middle of second year, the database growth will increase and Size of Hardware
needs up gradation...leading to more expenditure
10) Release notes for SAP will constantly put customized report updating..at client
end. ( hope they have trained manpower to tackle it )
11) List of reports on MIS increases. End users reluctance to accept SAP reports
puts more pressure on MIS
 12) every transaction will be recorded which includes the mistake done by end
users . All the mistakes done by respective users of MM/SD/PP ends at accounts
department for answers.
13) End users and Sr management will realize that old system legacy ) was better
and was answering to their needs with few exceptions like inter connectivity, web
etc.
14) Dependency of legacy system and mapping it to SAP will produce replica of
legacy system in the form of SAP ...! This leads to fact that all the features of SAP
will never comes to light and implementers will package legacy system in SAP and
run away with money. This happens at most of clients. Where all the minus of
legacy systems reappears in SAP too...! ( why do you need to spend millions to get
what you had earlier ..! )
Real benefits ( seen and appreciated by very very few clients )
1) one data flows across all domains
2) Visibility of data
3) Visibility of inventory/accounts/MIS for better control
4) Planning and automated working avoiding procedural hurdles for various
domains like purchase/production/sales etc
5) Inter-connectivity with other applications of PDM/SCM/CRM/ bla bla bla.....
 Scheduling of system maintenance
jobs
RSBTCDEL Clean the old background job
records
RSDBCREO Clean batch input session log
RSPO0041 Removing old spooling objects
RSSNAPDL Clean the old ABAP error dumps
Unconditional mode when importing
or exporting a request/transport
Run the command R3trans -u under user
SysIDadm.
 Reapplying hot packages

If you accidently applied hot packages out

of sequence for instance. Use the transaction
SM31 to modify table PAT03. You have to choose
the desired patch and click on delete entry.
Main return codes of tp program
0 Successfully done
4 Warnings occurred
8 Errors occurred
12 Fatal errors occurred
16 Internal errors occurred
 Before going live for your SAP
Implementation
It is highly advisable to increase the next extends size of
some tables and their indexes even before initial loadings
FI BKPF, BSEG, BSIS, BSAD, BSAK, BSID and BSIK
CO COEJ, COEP, COKS, COSS and T811*
AM ANL*
MM MKPF, MSEG and BSIM
SD VBAP, VBAK, VBEP, VBPA, LIKP, LIPS, VBRK, VBRP,
VBKD, VBUK, VBUP and VBSS
PP RESB and MDTB
Across module
ATAB, TST03, TSP01, MCSI, KNVP, ACCTIT, COEP, APQD,
RFBLG, CDCLS, SDBAD and from S000 to S999
 Locking the whole SAP system
Using the command tp locksys SysID only the user SAP*
will be allowed to login. The command tp
unlocksys SysID cancels the lock.
Connection between SAP R/3 and operating system
The command sapevt can be used to trigger an event from
the operation system. Thus, a job previously defined within
R/3 will be released.
SQL code help
Run the command oerr ora error number under user
oraSysID.
Oracle import and export explanations
Run the command imp help=yes under user oraSysID.
This format can also be used with exp, impst, and expst.
 url to download SAPGUI from SAP

To download any software from SAP Market

place, first of all, you will need to be an existing
SAP customer. If you are one of those that are
authorized to access the SAP site, you'll be
assigned an OSS ID which allowed you to report
problems, search for SAP notes as well as request
SAP related software on behalf of your company.
Please note that the following url and path might
change after the time of writing this:
 What is SAP Production Support -
Ticket Resolving
1. How the tickets in production support are resolved?
2. Give some examples with solutions?
What are the types of ticket and its importance?
This depends on the SLA. It can be like:
1. Critical.
2. Urgent.
3. High.
4. Medium
5. Low.
The response times and resolution times again are defined in the
SLA based on the clients requirement and the charges.
This is probably from the viewpoint of Criticality of the problem
faced by the client as defined by SAP.
 1) First Level Ticketing:
Not severe problem. Routine errors. Mostly handled by Service desk arrangement of the company
(if have one).
Eg: a) Say Credit limit block in working on certain documents?
b) Pricing Condition Record not found even though conditions are maintained?
c) Unable to print a delivery document or Packing list?
PS: In the 4th phase of ASAP Implementation Methodology( i.e Final Preparations for GO-LIVE) SAP
has clearly specified that a Service desk needs to be arranged for any sort of Implementation for
better handling of Production errors.
Service desk lies with in the client.
2) Second Level Ticketing:
Some sort of serious problems. Those Could not be solved by Service Desk. Should be referred to
the Service Company (or may be company as prescribed in SLA).
Eg: a) Credit Exposure (especially open values) doesn't update perfectly to KNKK Table.
b) Inter company Billing is taking a wrong value of the Bill.
c) Need a new order type to handle reservation process
d) New product has been added to our selling range. Need to include this into SAP. (Material
Masters, Division attachments, Stock Handling etc.)
 3) Third Level Ticketing:
Problems could not be solved by both of the above, are referred to Online
Service Support (OSS) of SAP Itself. SAP tries to solve the Problem,
sometimes by providing the perfect OSS Notes, fits to the error and rarely
SAP logs into our Servers (via remote log-on)for post mortem the problem.
(The Medical check-up client, connections, Login id and Passwords stuff
are to be provided to SAP whenever they need or at the time of opening
OSS Message.)
There are lots of OSS Notes on each issue, SAP Top Notes and Notes
explaining about the process of raising a OSS Message.
Sometimes SAP Charges to the client / Service company depending on the
Agreement made at the time of buying License from SAP.
Eg: 1) Business Transition for the Currency 'EUR' is not possible. Check OSS
Note - This comes at the time of making Billing.
2) Transaction MMPI- Periods cannot be opened See OSS Note.
There are many other examples on the issue.
 4) Fourth Level Ticketing:
Where rarely, problems reach this level.
Those problem needs may be re-engineering
of the business process due to change in the
Business strategy. Upgradation to new
Version. More or less this leads to extinction
of the SAP Implementation.