What is SAP?

SAP is one of the world’s leading producers of software for the management of business processes.

Founded in 1972, the company was SAP which stands for Systems Applications and Products in Data
Processing. It is also called as System Analysis Program later abbreviated to SAP.
With the introduction of its original SAP R/2 and SAP R/3 software, SAP established the global
standard for enterprise resource planning (ERP) software.

What is ERP software?

ERP stands for “enterprise resource planning.” ERP software includes programmes for all core
business areas, such as Finance, procurement, production, materials management, sales, marketing,
and human resources (HR).

SAP was one of the first companies to offer industry-leading ERP solutions.

Now, SAP S/4HANA takes ERP to the next level by using the power of in-memory computing to
process vast amounts of data, and to support advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence
(AI) and machine learning (ML)

“How do you say SAP?”

SAP is not pronounced as a word (“sap”), it is pronounced as individual letters (S-A-P) because It is an
abbreviation, not an acronym.

What is SAP ECC6?

SAP ECC (also known as SAP ERP) is SAP's legacy suite of enterprise applications. ECC was designed
to run on a third-party database. It started as a Financial software package called RF in 1973,
followed by a Material Management module called RM/1. As SAP added additional components, the
package was renamed to R/1.

In 1979, R/2 was released, integrating multiple enterprise functions such as accounting,
manufacturing processes, supply chain logistics, and HR.

R/3 was released in 1992. It was their first client/server package (it no longer required mainframes)
and supported a wide variety of operating systems and databases.

In 2004, SAP renamed its core ERP product to SAP ERP Central Component (ECC.) SAP ERP and ECC
are now used interchangeably.
What is SAP Business Suite?

The SAP Business Suite software is an integrated suite of modular applications designed to perform
essential end-to-end business processes across all industries.

The SAP Business Suite supports a broad range of processes for human resources, finance,
manufacturing, procurement, marketing, product development, sales, service, supply chain
management, and IT management.

Difference Between SAP HANA and SAP S/4HANA

What is SAP HANA?

SAP HANA acts as a hub for all SAP's products and it serves as the base for recent technology.

SAP HANA is an in-memory computing database designed to accelerate SAP applications and
business processes.

What is Database?

A database is an organized collection of structured information, or data, typically stored

electronically in a computer system.

HANA database is the back-end that runs the SAP landscape. Its central feature is an innovative,
column-based Relational Database Management System (RDBMS), which is used to store, retrieve
and process data on core business activities.

HANA reduces the memory usage factor by 10 and improving performance as it uses column-
oriented storage which combines OLAP and OLTP into a single structure. The speed of both Online
Transaction Processing (OLTP) and Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) can be drastically changed
with the design of SAP HANA.

What is SAP S/4HANA?

SAP S/4HANA is the shorter form of SAP Business Suite 4 SAP HANA, which means it is the fourth
version of SAP Business Suite.

 ECC version has a choice of the database of Oracle, SQL server or SAP's HANA

 S/4 HANA, is designed to run only on SAP HANA as the database.

SAP S/4HANA is an ERP business suite based on the SAP HANA in-memory database that allows
companies to perform transactions and analyse business data in real time.

It can be used for financials, manufacturing, supply chain management, human resources, analytics,
and reporting.

SAP S/4HANA Deployment:

Whether you decide to implement S/4HANA enterprise management by migrating an existing SAP
ERP solution or you are considering a new implementation initiative, it is necessary that customers
choose a deployment option that best suits their business needs, budget, and resources.

S/4HANA has a wider array of deployment options, including On- premises & Cloud (Public Cloud &
Private Cloud)
SAP S/4HANA On-premise:

In 2014 SAP released its first edition of S4HANA in the name of Simple Finance. It is aimed at
financial professionals in all industries, including CFOs and others involved in accounting, taxes,
treasury, financial operations, risk management and compliance.

Later SAP released S/4HANA Finance 1503 and 1610 with more and more improvements and
integrations with other modules like material management, sales, production etc.

 S/4HANA 1511, released in November 2015, introduced a logistics module called Materials
Management and Operations.

 S/4HANA 1610, released in October 2016, included modules for Supply Chain Management
(SCM), Inventory Management; Material Requirements Planning (MRP); Extended
Warehouse Management (EWM); and Environment, Health and Safety (EHS).

S/4HANA subsequently reorganized the SAP ECC ERP modules into lines of business (LOBs) that are
comprised of functions for specific business processes. The first LOB was SAP S/4HANA Finance, and
other LOBs have been added with subsequent releases.

S/4HANA Finance focuses on all the financial aspects of a business, including financial
accounting, controlling, treasury and risk management, financial planning, financial close
and consolidation.

S/4HANA Logistics is a collection of LOB modules cantered around processes for supplier
relationship management and supply chain management, including the following:

 S/4HANA Sourcing and Placement, which is centred on capabilities needed to

source and obtain raw materials for fulfilling production orders, including extended
procurement, operational purchasing and supplier and contract management

 S/4HANA Manufacturing, which focuses on the processes required to manufacture

products, including responsive manufacturing, production operations, scheduling
and delivery planning and quality management

 S/4HANA Supply Chain, which focuses on end-to-end business planning and logistics
processes, from pre-production to distribution to end purchasers, including
production planning, batch traceability, warehousing, inventory and transportation
management

 S/4HANA Asset Management, which focuses on maintenance processes for a

company's fixed assets, from machine tools to plants, warehouses and other
buildings, including plant maintenance and EHS monitoring.

S/4HANA Sales focuses on processes that are required to fulfill sales orders, including
pricing, sales inquiries and quotes, promise checks, incompletion checks, repair orders,
individual requirements, return authorizations, credit and debit memo requests, picking and
packing, billing and revenue recognition.

S/4HANA R&D and Engineering focuses on the product lifecycle, including defining the
product structure and bills of materials, product lifecycle costing, project and portfolio
management, innovation management, management of chemicals or other sensitive
materials used in development and health and safety regulatory compliance.
SAP later extended the digital core LOB capabilities to meet specific industry requirements.

Consumer Industries

 Agribusiness

 Consumer Products

 Fashion

 Life Sciences

 Retail

 Wholesale Distribution

Discrete Industries

 Aerospace and Defense

 Automotive

 High Tech

 Industrial Manufacturing

Energy and Natural Resources

 Building Products

 Chemicals

 Mill Products

 Mining

 Oil, Gas and Energy

 Utilities

Financial Services

 Banking

 Insurance

Public Service

 Defense and Security

 Federal and National Government

 Future Cities

 Healthcare

 Higher Education and Research

 Regional, State and Local Government

 Service Industries

 Cargo Transportation and Logistics

 Engineering, Construction and Operations

 Media

 Passenger Travel and Leisure

 Professional Services

 Sports and Entertainment

 Telecommunications

SAP S/4HANA On-Premise Releases:

 SAP S/4HANA Finance 1503: March 2015

 SAP S/4HANA 1511: November 2015
 SAP S/4HANA Finance 1605: May 2016
 SAP S/4HANA 1610: October 2016
 SAP S/4HANA 1709: September 2017
 SAP S/4HANA 1809: September 2018
 SAP S/4HANA 1909: September 2019[20]
 SAP S/4HANA 2020: October 2020 - (New nomenclature: switch to YYYY from YYMM)
 SAP S/4HANA 2021: October 2021
 SAP S/4HANA 2022: October 2022
 SAP S/4HANA 2023: October 2023

SAP S/4HANA Cloud:

SAP S/4HANA Cloud is a Software as a Service (SaaS) version of SAP S/4HANA ERP, a suite of
integrated business applications.

SAP S/4HANA Cloud was launched in February 2017. According to SAP, the intent was to provide a
"Next-Generation Intelligent ERP" system that enables companies to achieve digital transformation.
SAP S/4HANA Cloud is built on the SAP HANA database and takes advantage of HANA's in-memory
processing and real-time data access.

Software upgrades happen quarterly. The cloud version is available to enterprises in both private
and public editions.

While private cloud comprises complete S/4HANA functionality and also extends geographical reach,
Public cloud helps address challenges in the LOB, overall strategy and ERP.

Private Cloud: - With the private cloud, services are maintained on a private network protected by a
firewall. We can build a private cloud within our own data centre or use AWS, Azure, GCP, Alibaba
Cloud. Private clouds offer the most security and control. Private editions are single tenant
environment where the provider runs our services in a dedicated environment.
Implementation landscape for Private Cloud:

Public Cloud: - With the public cloud, services are delivered to customers over a network that is
open for public usage. Public clouds offer efficiency and affordability, and are often multi-tenant –
meaning the provider runs your service in a shared environment

Implementation landscape on S/4HANA Cloud:

A. SAP Cloud Identity Services: Runs on BTP and consists of 2 separate tenants:
i. Identity authentication
ii. Identity Provisioning
 B. SAP Central Business Configuration: Separate tenant that runs on BTP and helps with
provisioning Starter, QA and PROD system
i. Starter system: This has preconfigured business processes and master data and is
useful for delivering “Fit-to-Standard” workshop to the customers. After consultants
move onto configuring the Quality and Production systems, the Starter system can
be decommissioned.

ii. The Quality system provisioned and configured via CBC(Central business
configuration) based on the data and requirements gathered during the Fit-to-
Standard workshops. The implementation team should transport configurations to
the quality system in weekly or bi-weekly sprints, followed by thorough testing of
configured processes.

iii. The Production system is provisioned via CBC and kept in sync with the Quality
system via weekly or bi-weekly transports. After configurations have been made in
CBC, transported to quality and tested thoroughly, the configurations can be
released to the production system via CBC.

SAP S/4HANA On-premise Vs Cloud Edition

SAP S/4HANA Cloud Edition Releases:

 SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1603: March 2016

 SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1605: May 2016

 SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1608: August 2016

 SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1611: November 2016

 SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1702: February 2017

 SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1705: May 2017

 SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1708: August 2017

 SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1711: November 2017

 SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1802: February 2018

 SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1805: May 2018

 SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1808: August 2018

 SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1811: November 2018

 SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1902: February 2019

 SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1908: August 2019

 SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1911: November 2019

 SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2002: February 2020

 SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2005: April 2020

 SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2008: August 2020

 SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2011: November 2020

 SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2102: February 2021

 SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2105: May 2021

 SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2108: August 2021

 SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2111: November 2021

 SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2202: available February 2022

 SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2208: August 2022

 SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2302: February 2023

 SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2308: August 2023

 SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2402: February 2024

Business Process: -

DE-Centralized Business Process: -

Here is the whole process that is followed by any business unit.

1. Client contacts the sales team to check the availability of the product

2. Sales team approaches the Inventory department to check for the availability of the product

3. In case the product is out of stock, the sales team approaches the Production Planning
Department to manufacture the product

4. The production planning team checks with inventory department for availability of raw
material

5. If the raw material is not available with inventory, the Production Planning team buys the
raw material from the Vendors

6. Then Production Planning forwards the raw materials to the Shop Floor Execution for actual
production

7. Once ready, the Shop Floor Team sends the goods to the Sales Team

8. Sales Team who in turn deliver it to the client

9. The sales team updates the finance with revenue generated by the sale of the product.
Production planning team update the finance with payments to be made to different
vendors for raw materials.

10. All departments approach the HR for any Human Resource related issue.
This is a typical business process for any manufacturing company.

 It has many departments or business units

 These departments or business units continuously communicate and exchange data with
each other

 The success of any organization lies in effective communication, and data exchange, within
these departments, as well as associated third party such as vendors, outsourcers, and
customers.

Centralized Business System - which is also called as ERP

In this case, all departments update a Central Information System.

 When Customer approaches the sales team to buy a product on an urgent basis. The Sales
Team has real-time information access to the products in inventory which is updated by the
Inventory Department in the Centralized System

 Sales Team respond to customer request on time, leading to Increased Revenue and
Customer Delight.

 In case, manufacturing is required the Sales Team update the Centralized Database, so that
all the department remain informed about the product status.
  Production Planning Department is auto updated by the Centralized Database for
requirements. Production Planning Team checks the availability of the raw materials
required via the Central Database, which is updated by the Inventory Department.

 Thus, Data Duplication is avoided, and accurate data is made available. The Shop Floor Team
update their Man Power Status regularly in the Central Database, which can be accessed by
the HR department.

 In case of shortage of workforce, HR team starts the recruitment process with considerable
lead time to hire a suitable candidate at market price. Thus labour cost goes down.

 While vendors can directly submit their invoices to the Central Enterprise System, which can
be accessed by the finance department. Thus, payments are made on time, and possible
legal actions are avoided

 SAP software is a type of Centralized System. SAP Systems are the most popularly used in
ERP software.

SAP Project Implementation through Activate Methodology:-

1. In the Discovery phase, customers become familiar with the benefits of the solution. Preliminary
project assessment of the solution options is performed and, once the customer understands the
solution, they begin the trial of the solution.

2. In the Prepare phase, we define project governance, start the project, define/identify the
resources, define the roles and responsibilities for the project team, and detail the management
plans for running the project.

3. In the Explore phase, we run the fit-to-standard analysis on the working system with the best
practices content up and running. The objective of the Explore phase is to identify the fit of the best
practices-based solution, capture delta configuration requirements, identify gaps, and configuration
values. All these are captured by the project team in the backlog and later, in Realize phase, the
backlog items are implemented in the system. The best practices content is used as a jump-start for
the project.

4. During the Realize phase, the project team will use the approach of Agile Methodology to
iteratively and incrementally build the functionality from the backlog. This build follows the
prioritization given by the product owner (for example, the business users) that continue to be
involved with the project team during the sprints. During the build the team completes the
remaining configuration and development on top of the best practices content. Additionally, the
team performs the unit and string testing during the sprints. In the Realize phase, the team also
works on the integration of the overall solution to meet customer needs. The Realize phase covers
all the build and test activities required to prepare a release of functionality into production. This
includes a full Integration test and user acceptance test before the team can continue into the
Deploy phase.

5. The objective of the Deploy phase is to launch the production environment and confirm readiness
to switch into business operations with the new solution. The team also performs sustainment and
hyper-care activities in the Deploy phase once the system goes live. Once the customer has switched
over into the new environment, the project team supports the customer IT and business. The team
stay on-site for a pre-determined period of time, which is usually defined in the contract or agreed
as part of the plan to transition to operations.

6. The Run phase then represents key steps in running and improving the operations of the
environment. This includes end user support, system monitoring and other activities including
continuous improvements to the solution.

SAP Project Management through Agile Methodology: -

Agile methodology is a project management approach that prioritizes cross-functional collaboration

and continuous improvement. It divides projects into smaller phases and guides teams through
cycles of planning, execution, and evaluation.
The Agile software development process is a set of steps to be performed in order. The importance
of sequence is as follows:

Requirements: The companies here gather information on customer’s requirements and prioritize
them based on different factors. It is an initial factor to understand the direction of the project and
progress.

Planning: Developing a plan is an essential part of delivering the complete software comprising all
the features. The plan includes time for the development and delivery of each iteration.

Development: The software development is carried out by the development team while using
frequent and rapid iterations.

Testing: It involves software testing to make sure it meets the quality delivered by the organization
and expected by the customer

Deployment: Here, the organization serves the ultimate aim, which is to allow usage of the
software.

Maintenance: The software is regularly maintained to ensure customers' needs and expectations are
met.