Create Company ( with Practical Screen Shots)

Suppose we are appointed to work on SAP in a newly started company. So in order to start up the whole process fully functional, we have to create the blue print of the whole process in a planned way.

The first process involves the making of a Company name with a unique company code.

Now we are discussing the creation of Company in SAP.

The followings are the steps for creation of a Company.

SPRO --->SAP reference IMG --->Enterprise structure --->Defination ---> Financial Accounting ---> Define Company ---> New Entries ----> Enter the details like company, company name, country, language key, currency. --->Save.

The practical screen shots are:

* After logging into SAP, enter the T-CODE : SPRO in the box provided in the top left corner of the box and hit "ENTER", the a new box will appear.

screen shot 1 (click on image to view large image)

* Now click on the tab "SAP reference IMG" or "F5" on top left corner, then a new box will appear.

screen shot 2 (click on image to view large image)

* Select "Enterprise Structure" option. Then a drop down list will appear.

screen shot 3 (click on image to view large image)

* Select the option "Definations" from then menu. now a drop-down menu will appear.

 

* Select the option "Financial Accounting" from the drop mown menu. Now a menu will appear.

screen shot 4 (click on image to view large image)

* Now double-click on the option " Define Company". A form will appear.

screen shot 5 (click on image to view large image)

* In the appeared form click on the tab "New Entries" or "F5". Now a blank form will appear.

screen shot 6 (click on image to view large image)

Now fill the details in the form.
Here i have entered:
Company: 4096
Company name: Rainbow pvt ltd
Country: DE

* Now click "Save" option on the top left corner of press "Ctrl+S".

# Now the "Company" is successfully created.

 

Begining with SAP (practicals with screen shots)

# Now the discussions is form the initial steps from beginners.

Click on the Icon of the SAP---->The following screen will appear---->fill the Client, User and password  provided to you (here I have entered Client: 800 and user: sapuser) ----> hit Enter. 

Screen Shot 1 (click to view large image)

# If any of the reader is using SAP on server where multiple user is using the SAP at the same time then select the option

“continue with this logon, without ending the other logons”

* The following screen shot will clear the above statement ( This screen-shot was taken by me during my course period on MM- module) .

Screen Shot 2 (click to view large image)

 

Master Data in MM ,Material Master Record Attributes & MM-Cycle

# MASTER DATA : Master Data is a data that is stored centrally on the server. It contains all the information regarding a material. This information includes the material type, vendor,                 store location, stock , etc.



#MASTER DATA IN MATERIAL MANAGEMENT:
In Material Management the Master Data is classified into three categories , they are -

1. Material Master ( Contains information related to the material that is required/used in the company).
2. Vendor Master (Contains the information concerning the vendor).
3. Service  Master (Contains information related to the service that is being offered by a company  on its products).

# MATERIAL MASTER RECORD ATTRIBUTES :
When SAP R/3 MM System is installed  it will include the full set of master records. These Master Records are in the form of entity types that can be copied and filled with specific data.We may wish to edit the format of some of the data fields and perhaps their name or titles, which will appear on the graphical display of the user.And ,of course, we will need to enter the specific details of the material needed inn our company. The system is delivered with the tools to help us make all the adjustments necessary to have our   implementation correctly running our business as soon as possible. For the sake of convenience, the data fields are grouped into clusters called "attributes".

A typical material master record will have attributes as follows:

• General data such as material number, description, units of measure, and technical data.
• Plant-specific data such as material requirements planning type, planned delivery time, purchasing group and batch indicator.
• Evaluation data such as evaluation price evaluation procedure and evaluation quantity.
• Warehouse Management data such as unit of measure, palletization instructions and directions to place in or remove from stock.
• Sales-specific data such as delivering plant and sales text.

Any of these data clusters can be further sub-divided. For example- the plant-specific data might be extended to include the following type of data:

• Storage location such as the permitted period of storage, the individual stock field, or storage area within a storage location where materials are kept.
• Forecast data for this material.
• Consumption data for this material.

# MM-CYCLE:

1. Demand
2. Request
3. Request For Quotations (RFQ)
4. Source Determination
5. Purchase Order (PO)
6. Purchase Order Monitoring (by communication media such as, telephone, e-mail ,etc) 
7.  Goods Received Notes (GRN)
8. Invoice
9. Payment ( related to FI-CO module)

List of SAP MM Transaction codes

# All transaction are stored in table TSTC.
 

#Transaction for MM module start with M.

* TRANSACTION CODES FOR MM-MODULE

IH09 - Display Material
MM01 - Create Material
MM02 - Change Material
MM03 - Display Material
MM50 - List Extendable Materials
MMBE - Stock Overview
MMI1 - Create Operating Supplies
MMN1 - Create Non-Stock Material
MMS1 - Create Service
MMU1 - Create Non-Valuated Material

ME51N - Create Purchase Requisition
ME52N - Change Purchase Requisition
ME53N - Display Purchase Requisition
ME5A - Purchase Requisitions: List Display
ME5J - Purchase Requisitions for Project
ME5K - Requisitions by Account Assignment
MELB - Purch. Transactions by Tracking No.

ME56 - Assign Source to Purch. Requisition
ME57 - Assign and Process Requisitions
ME58 - Ordering: Assigned Requisitions
ME59 - Automatic Generation of POs

ME54 - Release Purchase Requisition
ME55 - Collective Release of Purchase Reqs.
ME5F - Release Reminder: Purch. Requisition

MB21 - Create Reservation
MB22 - Change Reservation
MB23 - Display Reservation
MB24 - Reservations by Material
MB25 - Reservations by Account Assignment

MB1C - Other Goods Receipts
MB90 - Output Processing for Mat. Documents

MB21 - Create Reservation
MB22 - Change Reservation
MB23 - Display Reservation
MB24 - Reservations by Material
MB25 - Reservations by Account Assignment

MBRL - Return Delivery per Mat. Document

MB1C - Other Goods Receipts
MB90 - Output Processing for Mat. Documents

MB1B - Transfer Posting

MIBC - ABC Analysis for Cycle Counting

MI01 - Create Physical Inventory Document
MI02 - Change Physical Inventory Document
MI03 - Display Physical Inventory Document
MI31 - Batch Input: Create Phys. Inv. Doc.
MI32 - Batch Input: Block Material
MI33 - Batch Input: Freeze Book Inv.Balance
MICN - Btch Inpt:Ph.Inv.Docs.for Cycle Ctng
MIK1 - Batch Input: Ph.Inv.Doc.Vendor Cons.
MIQ1 - Batch Input: PhInvDoc. Project Stock

MI01 - Create Physical Inventory Document
MI02 - Change Physical Inventory Document
MI03 - Display Physical Inventory Document
MI31 - Batch Input: Create Phys. Inv. Doc.
MI32 - Batch Input: Block Material
MI33 - Batch Input: Freeze Book Inv.Balance
MICN - Btch Inpt:Ph.Inv.Docs.for Cycle Ctng
MIK1 - Batch Input: Ph.Inv.Doc.Vendor Cons.
MIQ1 - Batch Input: PhInvDoc. Project Stock

MI01 - Create Physical Inventory Document
MI02 - Change Physical Inventory Document
MI03 - Display Physical Inventory Document
MI31 - Batch Input: Create Phys. Inv. Doc.
MI32 - Batch Input: Block Material
MI33 - Batch Input: Freeze Book Inv.Balance
MICN - Btch Inpt:Ph.Inv.Docs.for Cycle Ctng
MIK1 - Batch Input: Ph.Inv.Doc.Vendor Cons.
MIQ1 - Batch Input: PhInvDoc. Project Stock

MI21 - Print physical inventory document

MI04 - Enter Inventory Count with Document
MI05 - Change Inventory Count
MI06 - Display Inventory Count
MI09 - Enter Inventory Count w/o Document
MI34 - Batch Input: Enter Count
MI35 - Batch Input: Post Zero Stock Balance
MI38 - Batch Input: Count and Differences
MI39 - Batch Input: Document and Count
MI40 - Batch Input: Doc., Count and Diff.

MI08 - Create List of Differences with Doc.
MI10 - Create List of Differences w/o Doc.
MI20 - Print List of Differences

MI11 - Physical Inventory Document Recount

MI07 - Process List of Differences
MI37 - Batch Input: Post Differences

CT01 - Create Characteristic
CT02 - Change Characteristic
CT03 - Display Characteristic

CL01 - Create Class
CL02 - Classes
CL03 - Display Class
CL04 - Delete Class
CL2B - Class Types

SAP MM Process Flow

The typical procurement cycle for a service or material consists of the following phases:

1. Determination of Requirements :
   Materials requirements are identified either in the user departments or via
   materials planning and control. (This can cover both MRP proper and the
   demand-based approach to inventory control. The regular checking of
   stock levels of materials defined by master records, use of the
   order-point method, and forecasting on the basis of past usage are
   important aspects of the latter.) You can enter purchase requisitions
   yourself, or they can be generated automatically by the materials
   planning and control system.
    
   
   
   2. Source Determination: 
   The Purchasing component helps you identify potential sources of supply
   based on past orders and existing longer-term purchase agreements. This
   speeds the process of creating requests for quotation (RFQs), which can
   be sent to vendors electronically via SAP EDI, if desired.
    
   
   
   3. Vendor Selection and Comparison of Quotations:
   The system is capable of simulating pricing scenarios, allowing you to
   compare a number of different quotations. Rejection letters can be sent
   automatically.
    
   4. Purchase Order Processing :
   The Purchasing system adopts information from the requisition and the quotation to help you create a purchase order. As with purchase requisitions, you can generate PO's yourself or have the system generate them automatically. Vendor scheduling agreements and contracts (in the SAP System, types of longer-term purchase agreement) are also supported.
    
   5. Purchase Order Follow-Up:
   The system checks the reminder periods you have specified and – if
   necessary – automatically prints reminders or expediters at the
   predefined intervals. It also provides you with an up-to-date status of
   all purchase requisitions, quotations, and purchase orders.
    
   6. Goods Receiving and Inventory Management: 
    Goods Receiving personnel can confirm the receipt of goods simply by entering the PO number. By specifying permissible tolerances, buyers can limit over- and under deliveries of ordered goods.
    
   7. Invoice Verification: 
    The system supports the checking and matching of invoices. The accounts
   payable clerk is notified of quantity and price variances because the
   system has access to PO and goods receipt data. This speeds the process
   of auditing and clearing invoices for payment

SAP MM: Basic Functions

# Purpose
 

Vendor, purchasing info, material, and customer master records contain foreign trade data. This data includes general foreign trade information and information on legal control and preference handling.
The system uses the foreign trade data in these master records both directly and indirectly. It uses the data directly as default values in the Materials Management (MM) application component’s purchase orders and advanced shipping notifications and in the Sales and Distribution (SD) application component’s deliveries and billing documents. It uses the data
indirectly when automatically determining additional export-relevant data, which it then includes in deliveries and billing documents.
 

# Implementation Considerations
 

This component is fundamental to Foreign Trade and should always be implemented.
 

# Integration
 

This component integrates with SD’s Sales (SD-SLS), Delivery Processing (SD-SHP-DL), and Billing (SD-BIL) components. It also integrates with Materials 

# Management’s (MM) Purchasing
 

(MM-PUR) and Goods Receipt (MM-IM-GR) components.
Features
• Maintenance of master data relevant to foreign trade
• Copying of foreign trade data from master records and proposal objects into MM and SD
documents
• Maintenance of foreign trade data in MM and SD documents
• Other foreign trade data management including utilities for loading commodity codes into
the system and for checking vendor, material, and customer master data for
completeness and consistency

MM Module

NEED OF MM-MODULE

The purpose of the MM-Materials Management module is to provide detailed support for the day-to-day activities of every type of business that entrails the consumption of materials, including energy and services.The word "material" is given the highest connotation.

Product Group of SAP- R/2 and R/3 systems

# Product group of SAP :
1. R/2
2. R/3

1. SAP R/2 was the first compact software package for the whole spectrum of business applications from the SAP corporation. SAP R/2 runs on mainframes, especially IBM, BS2000 (Siemens machines).

2. SAP R/3 is the continuation of R/2 on client/server and distributed open systems. SAP R/3 was designed for open systems, e.g. UNIX. It runs on most types of UNIX, on Windows NT and OS/400.

 

-->    SAP R/3 is based on a client /server architecture that uses a relational data base to track all info.related to corporation . R/3 gathers related transactions that deal with the same area of business functionalities. There are modules for materials, financial , human resources,sales & other common business functions.

SAP R/3 Architecture :
SAP R/3 is divided into three layers as follows :

1. Presentation Layer : Software components that specialize in interacting with end users. System provides GUI (Graphic User Interface), receives output from Application layer, reformats the data and presents textual and graphic data.

2. Application layer : Software components that specialize in processing business applications, uses application logic of SAP programs to collect and process requests.

3. Database layer : Software components that specialize in management, storage & retrieval of data. This layer resides in database server with specialised systems with fast and large drives.

R/3 System (click to view larger image)

ERP OVERVIEW

# It is an abbreviation for Enterprise Resource Planning.
# It is a concept of resource management (resource includes employees, raw materials, finished products,etc)  in a firm. 

# E ---> Enterprise
# R --->Resource (It can be remembered as 5M's)
            1. Material { module: MM and SD}
            2. Market {module: SD}
            3. Money {module: FICO}
            4. Manpower {module: HR}
            5. Machine{ module: PP}
# P --->Planning (use of available resources)


# NOTE:
 * MM : Material Management module.
 * SD: Sales & Distribution module.
 * FI-CO: Finance & Controlling module.
 * HR : Human Resource module.
 * PP : Production & Planning

SAP classifications

# SAP has been classified into two aspects- TECHNICAL  and  FUNCTIONAL.

# TECHNICAL ASPECT  deals with the underlying programming that is associated with the functioning of SAP modules. It also involves the  steps involved in the installation of SAP/R3 in the server.
 Modules under technical aspect:
 1. ABAP/4 : It is the module where the underlying programs are dealt with.    
 2. BASIS : It is the module where the process of installing the SAP software  is  studied.

# FUNCTIONAL ASPECT deals with the various functional levels in the company. Usually a company is a collection/set of various functional groups working coherently.
 Modules under functional aspect:

1. MM : It is an abbreviation for Material Management Module. As the name signifies this module deals with the material that a company requires for its production.

2. SD :  It is an abbreviation for Sales & Distribution Module. This module deals with the marketing of the finished goods of the company.

3. FI-CO : It is an abbreviation for Finance & Controlling. This module is associated with the financial department of the company. It deals with the tasks such as payment to vendor, analysis of data and predictions.

4. HR: It is an abbreviation for Human Resources. This module is concerned with the HR department of a company.

5. PP : It is an abbreviation for Production and Planning. It deals with the proper use of the available resources and raw material in the stores of the company.


# NOTE:
These are the basic modules under SAP/ERP .

SAP brief history

-->

SAP stands for System, Applications & Products in Data processing. Four former IBM employees founded SAP AG in 1972. The Company headquarters are based in Walldorf Germany, a small German town close to Heidelberg . SAP R/2 was developed as a mainframe system. In 1992, SAP introduced SAP R/3 & then it has become the world's leading vendor of standard applications software for open Client / Server technologies. SAP is a German company but operates all over the world, with 28 subsidiaries and affiliates and six partner companies maintaining offices in 40 countries. It is available in 14 languages & it has more than 7500 customers in 90 countries. Eight out of ten top US corporations use SAP.
It comprises a number of fully integrated modules, which cover every aspect of business management. Each module performs a different function, but is designed to work with other modules. It is fully integrated, offering true compatibility across business functions. The system has been developed to meet the increasing needs of commercial and other organizations that are striving for greater efficiency and effectiveness.
It can be categorized into three core functional areas- Financial, Human Resources & Logistics.
Financial Modules give the whole picture of Accounting functions with extensive report facilities to allow for faster decision-making support. This area contains Financial Accounting, Controlling, Enterprise Controlling, Capital Investment Management & Treasury.

HR module includes all necessary business processes to efficiently manage the needs of a CO?s Human resource areas like payroll accounting, personnel development etc.

Logistic Application is the most extensive area. It manages all the processes involved in the supply chain management from goods procurement to billing. This area contains material Management, Production Planning, Project System, Quality Management & Sales & Distribution.
The infrastructures required for SAP are Technical Infrastructure (Database, Application Servers & peripherals), Application Architecture(SAP Clients),Desktop and LAN / WAN

# History of SAP :

SAP was founded in 1972 and has grown to become the fifth largest company in the world.

SAP is both the name of the company and the computer system. The SAP system comprises a number of fully integrated modules, which cover every aspect of business management. The system has been developed to meet the increasing needs of commercial and other organizations that are striving for greater efficiency and effectiveness. While many software companies have looked at areas of business and developed systems to support those areas, SAP has looked towards the who;e business. They offer a unique system that supports nearly all areas of business on a global scale. SAP provides the opportunity to replace large numbers of independants systems that have been developed and implemented in established organizations with one single moduler system. Each module performs a different function, but is designed to work with other modules. It is fully integrated, offering true compatibility across business functions.

Introduction:

SAP R/3 has been designed in two basic software languages.Both have a different function which is as follows:

1.ANSI-C language has been used to write R/3 run time i.e.for running the SAP R/3 System.
2.ABAP/4 has been used for R/3 application programs (i.e. for various queries that can be used in SAP R/3)

SAP R/3 is based on a client /server architecture that uses a relational data base to track all info.related to corporation . R/3 gathers related transactions that deal with the same area of business functionalities. There are modules for materials, financials , human resources,sales & other common business functions..

SAP R/3 Architecture :
SAP R/3 is divided into three layers as follows :

1. Presentation Layer : Software components that specialize in interacting with end users. System provides GUI (Graphic User Interface), receives output from Application layer, reformats the data and presents textual and graphic data.

2. Application layer : Software components that specialize in processing business applications, uses application logic of SAP programs to collect and process requests.

3. Database layer : Software components that specialize in management, storage & retrieval of data. This layer resides in database server with specialised systems with fast and large drives.


New Products from SAP:
Mark S Biestman, senior vice president, worldwide sales, said, "SAP was a very early investor in Commerce One in 1997, after which we made a strategic decision to have our own procurement product, we decided that instead of creating clutter in the market with various solutions of the same kind, we should work together. So we created a desktop purchasing application which is called Enterprise Buyer".

D V Jagadish, director, e-business, SAP, said "The Enterprise Buyer is an application that helps companies streamline their procurement process as well as provide the on-ramp to our marketplace (SAP and Commerce One)."

The Enterprise Buyer has two variations - the desktop application which is for simple purchase and the professional edition for sophisticated purchases. The customers would be offered this choice or a combination of both.The two partners also plan to launch a solution which combines the features of SAP's supply chain management solutions and Commerce One's exchange technologies. The new solution, which will be called Market SET, will combine elements of both solutions to create an integrated supply chain management system for corporates.

Industry Business Sector- Discrete Industries (IBS-DI), a division of SAP AG, is developing an enterprise product for the automotive market totally out of its development centre in India.

In the next four months SAP Labs India will unveil the Internet dealer portal_Dealer Workplace.

The IBS-DI division of SAP focuses on manufacturing uniquely identifiable items and covers industrial segments of Aerospace & Defence, Engineering & Construction, and Automotive.

IBS Discrete Industries, Senior vice-president, Wilhelm Zwerger said that the Dealer Workplace should sell as a stand alone, off the shelf product and was compatible with other ERP packages that have been implemented by customers.
The product is targeted at the automobile dealers and for the spare part business and is intended as a total solution for the automotive market.

With the SAP automotive solution, companies can track different possible material substitutions and also streamline back order processing, better management of warehouse inventory, and better integration of these factors with distribution and transportation requirements.
SAP Labs India also has aerospace and engineering and construction business units operating out of its centre in Bangalore. The engineering and construction business unit is focussed on service management and is also developing a product that integrates office automation products to document management.

 

# Overview of SAP

SAP stands for Systems, Applications & Products in data processing.SAP is an Enterprise Resource Planning software Package encompassing within itself the entire gamut of business functions, which may be required to run a business. The scope of coverage of SAP systems covers all the major industries.

II . History of SAP SAP is the world's leading provider of collaborative e-business solutions. With 36,000 installations serving 10 million users at 13,500 organizations in 120 countries across the globe, SAP ranks as the world's third-largest independent software provider. SAP has been in the business of e-business for 29 years. Founded in 1972 by five former IBM systems engineers, SAP now employs more than 23,700 people in more than 50 countries.

The company began trading publicly in 1988. It is listed on several stock exchanges, including the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange, where it trades under the symbol "SAP."

The company is headquartered in Walldorf, Germany, with U.S. operations headquarters located in Newtown Square, PA.

Brief History
1972 SAP is founded
1973 SAP R/1 solutions launched
1977 First international customers
1979 SAP R/2 solutions launched
1988 Company goes public (Frankfurt)
1992 SAP R/3 solutions launched
1996 SAP R/3 Release 3.1 is Internet-enabled
1996 Company launches new solutions for customer relationship management and supply chain management; SAP begins developing industry-specific solutions
1998 Company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange
1999 SAP delivers mySAP.com
2000 SAP forms SAPHosting, a subsidiary dedicated to the Internet application service provider and application hosting business.
2000 SAP forms strategic alliance with Commerce One to create SAPMarkets, a subsidiary dedicated to creating and powering globally interconnected business-to-business marketplaces on the Internet.
2001 SAP acquires Top Tier and forms SAP Portals


III . SAP Products SAP products empower companies of all sizes and all industry sectors to respond quickly and decisively to dynamic market conditions, help to achieve as well as maintain competitive edge. It is an integrated product, which links all areas of an enterprise. In many large industries, number of legacy systems and third party products exist without much of integration. Seamless integration will require development of open interfaces to link disparate systems and provide enormous scalability and flexibility. Another option is to go for an integrated product. SAP, in collaboration with large number of complementary software partners and world-class hardware providers, has created this program to ensure the use of standard implementation methodologies and realize the solution in an accelerated time frame with least cost to the customer.

Product group of SAP :
1. R/2
2. R/3

1. SAP R/2 was the first compact software package for the whole spectrum of business applications from the SAP corporation. SAP R/2 runs on mainframes, especially IBM, BS2000 (Siemens machines).

2. SAP R/3 is the continuation of R/2 on client/server and distributed open systems. SAP R/3 was designed for open systems, e.g. UNIX. It runs on most types of UNIX, on Windows NT and OS/400.

OSS (Online Service System) SAP provides OSS, a system where one can ask questions online, receive answers and can read answers to common problems.
To Cater to so many running installations world-wide, SAP has evolved an on-line service system where authorized customers can interacted with SAP specialists and find solutions to all technical problems. There is a R/3 based Service System for R/3 customers, called R/3 Online Service System (OSS) and an R/2 based Service System for the R/2 customers called R/2 OSS.SAP Modules can be categorized into three core functional areas- Financial, Human Resources & Logistics.
Financial Modules give the whole picture of Accounting functions with extensive report facilities to allow for faster decision-making support. This area contains Financial Accounting, Controlling, Enterprise Controlling, Capital Investment Management & Treasury.

HR module includes all necessary business processes to efficiently manage the needs of a CO?s Human resource areas like payroll accounting, personnel development etc.

Logistic Application is the most extensive area. It manages all the processes involved in the supply chain management from goods procurement to billing. This area contains material Management, Production Planning, Project System, Quality Management & Sales & Distribution.
The infrastructures required for SAP are Technical Infrastructure (Database, Application Servers & peripherals), Application Architecture(SAP Clients),Desktop and LAN / WAN

IV MySAP.com SAP Version 4.6B onwards is web enabled and is called mYSAP.com . Sap Internet Adviser
The benefits which Developers & decision-makers can achieve through the use of the SAP Internet adviser. It serves as a guide to implementing Business Scenarios with mySAP.com.
The SAP Internet Adviser is a centralized resource compiled specifically for decision-makers,consultants & developers who need answers to questions about how to integrate mySAP.com components with the Internet.The SAP Internet Adviser displays the entire structure & resources available for mySAP.com. As part of the Internet-Business framework,it offers a wide variety of information, from how mySAP.com is integrated with basic Internet technology, to its architecture ,to examples of various e-business scenarios -in a format that is easy to access & navigate.
The information in the Internet Adviser can help you make decisions & plan for building an organization?s Internet presence. It explains the Internet technology upon which the mySAP.com architecture is based, includes examples of mySAP.com components & describes various Internet scenarios such as Internet sales,c ollaborative planning Easy Web transactions ,etc . The tool offers help for decision-makers as well as for consultants & developers when implementing Internet scenarios with B2B partners or within their own companies,
To summarize,the SAP Internet Adviser benefits users in the following ways:
a)Offers an overview of mySAP.com architecture & the technology behind it.
b)Planning:One can reduce time & cost by using the information in the Internet Adviser to accurately define your business processes in an Internet environment.
c)Implementation:It is an invaluable resource for those trying to make decisions regarding Internet scenarios that require integration with SAP products.SAP - Supply Chain planning
The benefits of Supply Chain planning with SAP APO & then goes in-depth into the ways that supply-chain planners,IT departments & even the operation s research community can make the most of the R/3 supply chain process.SAP?s Advanced Planner & Optimizer (APO) is at the heart of SAP?s supply chain management solutions & offers users a big advantage in their supply chain planning, scheduling & analysis. SAP APO is a generic solution for optimizing the supply chain configurable to master specific business scenarios. Due to its open architecture, it is open to future enhancements concerning model functionality, improved optimization libraries & higher degrees of parallelization. The only limits of this approach are the available computing power & the complexity of the supply chain.SAP APO provides a suite of special tools tailored for all blocks of the Supply Chain Planning Cube (ie Detailed Planning, Aggregated Planning; Real-time Planning; Batch Optimization; Production Planning; Supply Network Planning; Detailed Scheduling, etc.)SAP APO?s modeling approach consists of two types of planning : Aggregated Planning based on Linear Programming solvers for a more global view of the supply-chain ( for long & mid-term planning), and Detailed Planning based on Scheduling algorithms to ensure accuracy at a finer level of analysis(for short-term planning).

Details of the various levels of Supply Chain planning supported by SAP APO, the APO Scheduling Approaches & Decomposition Techniques are explained in this article.SAP - Online Service Marketplace
The details regarding what the SAP?s service marketplace offers to customers & what it offers in terms of assistance to SAP partners.

The mySAP.com Marketplace model supports Communities of buyers & sellers a Collaborative Business Environment. SAP services is now putting this model into practice in its new marketplace offering- the SAP Service Marketplace.
At the SAP Service Marketplace,customers can get online support for their SAP systems, access information from others in the SAP professional community & download any appropriate solutions available from SAP. From this site- which users can personalize for their own needs- customers can also request & receive proposals from vendors , & then purchase those solutions for their SAP systems.

The Service Marketplace offers customers:
· A central place for information on issues regarding IT solutions for SAP.
· Delivery of high-quality ,reliable , complete & customizable business services around SAP needs.
· Information on bundled or co-ordinated services, technology, or complete solutions from different vendors.
· The opportunity to find the most suitable partner for a specific service & to use this information to make informed decisions when accessing or purchasing services, online support & solutions.
· Access to services & solutions from both SAP & SAP partners.
· Finally the SAP service marketplace assists SAP partners in expanding business opportunities by representing partners in an online site that is accessed by members of the SAP community worldwide;developing business opportunities through possible joint offerings ;accessing the SAP customer base via a marketplace that is clearly targeted to SAP customers.

Regarding the interface between CRMIS and SAP , yes there are problems at present but should get streamlined with time . To build interface between two large transactional system has always been a problem . And SAP is build on the assumption that all the modules of SAP will be used in an organisation and hence there will be no interface . However in our organisation because we already had two big and good production planning systems ( FPCIS & CRMIS ) already in place , hence we went for an interface rather than having it in SAP itself .