System-Wide Features
SAP uses certain system wide features that should be understood at
the outset. These are used to logically, safely and flexibly organize the data
in a business enterprise.
- Customizing--
is the configuring of the system to
represent your organization's legal structure, reporting requirements and
business processes. Internal reporting is a managerial tool in the daily
operations. External reporting is required by governmental units controlling
the legal structure of the corporation, such as, the IRS state taxing
authorities, SEC etc.
- Organizational Elements
- Financial--
- client is a legal and organizationally
independent unit at the highest level in SAP
- company is an independent legal entity within a
client
- business areas are used to produce profit and
loss statements and balanced sheets across marketing lines
- Materials Management
- Sales and Distribution
- Sales Organization
- Distribution channel
- Division
- Master Data is records that remain in the database over
an extended period of time. Examples:
- Customer Master
- Vendor Master
- Material master
- Account Master
This structure eliminates redundant data and is shared by
all SAP Modules. It is a critical aspect of the robustness of the system.
Employee Self Service--your employees have access to the
own HR records over the Internet. - Classification is the assignment of objects to a class.
Each class has standard characteristics.
- Matchcodes are query tools used to find specific
information using search methods.
Security is administered for objects, profiles and
authorizations. Users are only authorized to see or change the parts of the
system required by their job responsibilities.
In order to understand a system like SAP a thorough understanding
of the events and relationships that take place in a business is required. It
is not enough to just realize the Sales, Production, Finance and Accounting
have jobs to do in a business. The exact details of each action, the timing of
that action and its interrelationships with every other process must be
understood. In many large operations there may be no person that has a complete
grasp of the situation. Before an operation can be automated or computerized a
thorough study of the business must be undertaken. This task is called
Business Process Engineering. 
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