SAP AG started its operations in 1979, after they released SAP R/2, their first enterprise software which ran on mainframes; into the German market. SAP R/2 was the first integrated, enterprise wide package and was an immediate success. The reason for the success was the flexibility that was provided with which an organisation can implement the application, to its own set of specifications. For quite few years SAP stayed and prospered within the German borders until it was virtually present in every large German company. As with all major institutions, SAP looking for more growth, expanded its horizons into other European markets during the 80's. By the end of the 80's, the client-server architecture over-took, the thick client architecture, and SAP intuitively responded with the release of SAP R/3 in the year 1992. This was the single most popular application by SAP especially in the North America, where SAP started its operation in the year 1988.
The success of SAP R/3 was nothing short of stunning. Going with the statistics, the North American market went from virtually 0 to 44% of total SAP worldwide sales. At the present SAP America alone employs more than 3,000 people and has added the names of many of the Fortune 500 to it's customer list. Talking of examples, you can add 8 of the top 10 semiconductor companies, 7 of the top 10 pharmaceuical companies and the list goes on like this. SAP today is available in 46 country specific versions, incorporating 28 languages including Kanji and other double-byte character languages. SAP also comes in 21 industry specific versions. In short, no matter what business you are in, SAP has got something to sell to you!
So what is the fuss about SAP consultants and where do they come into the picture? Well SAP R/3 is delivered to a customer with selected industry and/or country specific processes turned on, and many other optional processes and features turned off, which at the local level needs to be configured. At the heart of the SAP R/3, there are about 10,000 tables which control the way these processes are executed. Configuration is the process of adjusting and manipulating the settings of these tables to get SAP to run the way the client inteds it to. Think of an Operating System, with 10,000 parameters to set, which if done in correct way, delivers the WOW effect, otherwise, crashes the system.
Some of the enterprise wide functionality that SAP offers includes Financial Accounting, Management Accounting, Sales, Distribution, Manufacturing, Production Planning, Purchasing, Human Resources, Payroll, etc and the lists goes on and on.
The factors that has helped SAP gain the edge over its competitors are:
- Embracing the internet with mySAP.com to head off i2 etc
- Extending their solutions with CRM to head off Siebel
- Adding functionality to their industry solutions
So to sum it all, if there is someone somewhere who provides a section of a particular industry, tools to make their jobs easier; SAP will have something to compare it to!
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