SAP Stuff - Theory -3- What the hell is SAP

We talked about enterprise informatization in terms of content, nvidia partner in fact, covers a wide range, all the use of computer technology, information technology to change the enterprise access to information, processing information, transmission of information, output and display of information all methods and behaviors, we can be considered to be part of enterprise informatization. From the content of enterprise information, we can be divided into three major content, hardware, software, services, from the development history of the entire IT industry, the proportion of these three content is also constantly changing, its focus gradually from hardware to software, and then transition to services. Now, the proportion of service in information technology is increasing, why? In fact, IT is also understandable that when the IT industry just started, especially when the computer was just invented, hardware almost decided everything, and there was little software and services, because there were very few people or enterprises with hardware at that time, only a few large enterprises had computers, or mainframes, and then the emergence of Microsoft promoted the popularity of personal computers. With the popularity of hardware and the increasingly serious homogenization of hardware, the importance of software is becoming more and more prominent, we can see this in the development history of Microsoft, and even the speed and frequency of software, especially the update of the operating system, directly affects the development of hardware manufacturers. Every previous upgrade of Microsoft's operating system gave hardware manufacturers the opportunity to upgrade, and the software did not update. Hardware manufacturers can't produce new hardware because the software doesn't support it. Now, as the performance of the hardware is getting higher and higher, the complexity of the software, especially the enterprise software, is also getting higher and higher, so it is difficult to use the software simply by looking at the software manual, so the software service industry came into being, a variety of training is emerging, and a variety of certifications are pouring in. Now, we all think that what we can see is the most practical or the most useful, that is to say, material things are more important, invisible things are ethereal and useless, think about it, software and services are not intangible things, although it has a certain form of display to let you feel its existence. After all, it is impossible to touch, right? It is more the experience of using or personal feelings to judge whether the software or service is good or bad. I remember the saying in Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching: "The buildings are no longer rooms, but the buildings are no longer rooms." So there is a profit. What Lao-Tzu means is that we build houses by cutting door frames, and with the door frames and the space separated from the houses, we have the use of the house for living, so we say that "there is profit." Nothing is useful ", that is to say, tangible things as a basis, nothing can be used (space). Hardware and software are the same truth, hardware as the basis of software, software on the basis of hardware to play a specific purpose, the two influence each other, mutual constraints, common development. To say these digress is to say that when we consider the problem, we should not only pay attention to the side we can see, but also consider the side we can not see, so that we can not lose bias in considering the problem!

Since we are talking about enterprise informatization, we are naturally concerned about enterprise hardware, software and services. SAP Outsourcing The operation of enterprises requires a variety of resources, taking typical manufacturing industry as an example, IT needs land, plant, machinery and equipment, power (water, electricity, gas), manpower, materials, IT and other resources. In today's information age, every enterprise needs more or less IT resources, in fact, IT resources include the main content of enterprise information, we first put aside hardware, because hardware is not the focus of our discussion, we mainly talk about enterprise software, enterprise software what? We talked about office software, mailbox system, operating system (including enterprise and personal computers), CAD, ERP, enterprise security software, OA system, etc., if you ask a question "What do you think is the most important enterprise software?" Many people will answer "ERP" or "enterprise management software". The concept of "ERP" has a long history, developed from "MRP", because for the manufacturing industry, "MRP (material requirements planning)" is the most important part, to put it bluntly, the ultimate purpose of material requirements planning is when the supplier needs to send how many raw materials, how many raw materials can be sent when the customer wants how many goods. I can deliver how much goods when, the purpose of the material demand plan is not much, just, the raw materials just can meet the production (if you consider more comprehensive, but also to consider whether the capacity is enough, people are not enough, equipment is not enough, etc.), the finished products just can meet the sales, oh, easy to say, it is really not easy to do oh. From the management of material planning gradually expanded to financial management, personnel management, people, money, things are managed, this time can no longer be called "MRP" ah, it is not appropriate ah, it is called "ERP (enterprise resource planning)", it is suitable ah, the enterprise's resources are managed. From this concept, we can also see a concept, that is, the last letter of "ERP" P (Planning, planning), ERP is very important to planning, in line with our old saying "everything is in advance, not in advance" or "prepare for a rainy day".

So what is the relationship between SAP and ERP? smart waste management Since ERP is a general term, then surely more than one company can do this kind of software, just like cars, all kinds of brands have, domestic brands, foreign brands, domestic Chery, Geely, FAW, SAIC, etc., foreign Ford, Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Maserati (do you feel tall ah!) . SAP is one of the brands in ERP, domestic ERP products are Kingdee, Uf, Inspur, and foreign countries are SAP, Oracle and so on. Then we'll take a look at SAP's past and present life.

Just as many of the top companies in the IT industry today have a deep connection to IBM, SAP has a deep connection to IBM. In 1972, five IMB managers and engineers left IBM and founded their own company in Mannheim, Germany. Legend has it that they spent their evenings and weekends developing one of SAP's first products, an automated finance and trading program called R/1. Why did they leave IBM to start their own company? The main reason is that at that time, many hardware companies would independently develop corresponding software products to customers after selling hardware to customers, and then charge the cost of development and software update and maintenance, that is to say, most of the software is customized according to the hardware, in this case, obviously, it is very cost-effective for hardware manufacturers, and the business is endless. You buy my hardware, you buy my software, you buy my services, you eat it all! So these five founders of SAP, after they left IBM, wanted to change this situation, they thought could they develop a set of universal software, because the process of most enterprises is actually similar, for example, the basic process includes purchasing, production, sales, collection, payment, reimbursement, research and development, inventory sending and receiving, etc., there is no need to re-develop every time, what a waste. That's why they started SAP, and what a good idea! It was this well-intentioned intention that led to a great company decades later -SAP. Then in 1976, SAP moved to Walldorf, and gradually developed R/2, R/3 products, I don't know what the meaning of the letter R is, I think it must be the first letter of the German word. R3 is a milestone product of SAP, which has included the main modules popular now, and SAP has entered the rapid development with the help of this product. R3 is so famous that many people still call the SAP product R3. In fact, R3 was launched in 1992, and it has been more than 20 years. SAP's product name has also been updated several times. Around 2000, the Internet industry was surging, and SAP changed its product names to suit the trend, such as http://mysap.com, which had nothing to do with the website. More milestone changes are in 2004 and 2005, in 2004 SAP launched ECC 5.0, ECC 6.0 launched in 2005, the bigger change is financial, SAP launched a new ledger in finance, the specific content of the new ledger is no longer detailed, we are interested in their own search for relevant information. Why the changes of SAP products always start from finance? My understanding is that the design of SAP products starts from the finance module at the very beginning, and the first-generation product R1 is mainly based on the finance module. In addition, in the past two years, SAP has launched HANA database and a new business suite based on HANA database, S/4 HANA, the latest version is 1610 (1610 stands for product released in October 2016), including simple finance and simple logistics. This version is currently not many domestic enterprises in use, there are some in the implementation, I believe that there will continue to be enterprises in the future to use, S/4 HANA changes than ECC 6.0 and R3 changes greater. In summary, the development history of SAP products is as follows: R1-R2-R3(3.1/4.0/4.6/4.6C/4.7)-ECC 5.0-ECC6.0-S/4 HANA. It should also be noted that starting with the ECC (Enterprise Central Component) version, SAP has continuously updated the product in the form of upgrade packages, adding additional features to the product, from 610-61X, commonly referred to as EHP1 to EHPX. The latest update package should be EHP8, for example, the version used more often now should be ECC6.0 EHP6 or EHP7. Starting with S/4 HANA, SAP has changed the name of the product version, and now the product is named after the month of the year, such as S/4 HANA 1503 refers to the release in March 2015, and 1511 refers to the release in November 2015. With the continuous upgrade of SAP application version, its underlying platform (here mainly refers to the development platform and database platform is also changing, HANA platform database is HANA, the previous platform is supported by mainstream databases, such as Oracle, DM2, Sybase, SQL Server, to HANA platform, It only supports HANA database) is also changing, its development process is: ABAP platform -Netweaver platform -HANA platform, everyone can be interested in searching more information on the Internet, the so-called platform, that is, this platform can not only deploy and run SAP applications, typical such as ERP, but also develop other applications.