How SAP evolved and changed ERP?
Tags: tutorial, productivity, beginners
Published: 2020-04-13 08:44:17

The impact of SAP on today's business is humungous, The world is witnessing its ease of supporting to one's business in various departments. Let's see the cool stats😮 about SAP.
 
   * SAP is implemented in >4,00,000 companies and in >180 countries
   * In 2019 SAP turnover has recorded a staggering figure of 27.55 billion euros 
   * Currently SAP supports 25 modules
   * SAP customers include:
      92% of the Forbes Global 2000 companies

      98% of the 100 most valued brands

      97% of the greenest companies(Newsweek)
   * SAP customers distribute 78% and 82% of the world’s food and medical devices respectively
   
But this is not possible in overnight, The vision🔭 of SAP is sparked among a group of 5 friends before 48 years from now (2020).

##___1. History of SAP🔬___##

Dietmar Hopp, Hans-Werner Hector, Hasso Plattner, Klaus Tschira, and Claus Wellenreuther are former employees of IBM they noticed that all the companies are using similar business applications with minute varied requirements. So, They proposed to create standard business applications to eliminate reworks, errors-prone incidents, cost factor and to improve effectiveness. However, IBM didn't buy the idea and consequently, In 1972 they founded a company Systemanalyse und Programmentwicklung (System Analysis and Program Development) and later renamed it to Systeme, Anwendungen und Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung (__Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing__) which is shortly called as __SAP__.

##___2. Evolution of SAP🧬___##

The first client for SAP is a German chemical company where SAP provides mainframes programs for payrolls and accounting programs. In 1972 SAP launched its first commercial system SAP R/1 which is a single-tier system and in 1979 SAP updated its business by launching SAP R/2 which is a two-tier system, R/2 was a great hit and bought fame for the company.

###___2.1 SAP R/3 Client-Server architecture___###
Adding boost to the SAP R/2, In 1992 SAP introduced SAP R/3 which is a Client-server architecture

Here, SAP maintained separate hardware for 3 individual systems.

They categorized the business into 3 layers

a. Presentation layer:
Presentation layer is typically a client system eg: SAP GUI, where the data is displayed in a user-friendly fashion.

b. Application layer:
Application layer mediates the data flow between the presentation layer and Database layer. It performs Read/Write operations with Database layer and presents the results to the presentation layer

c. Database layer:
Database layer stores the data in the form of tables and supports R/W operations to application layer

On a success note, Client-Server architecture bought a lot of success and made many business companies to look at SAP.

>The same R/3 architecture was also implemented by various systems namely Oracle, MySQL, Mango DB, Micrsoftsqlserver etc.

_SAP R/3 classified their business modules into 2 types_

![Extracted fromhttps://www.saponlinetutorials.com/about-sap-modules-sap-modules-list-overview/ ](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/lu61ihgy2m3603x1ui3g.png)

__Technical Modules__: All the technical and coding related stuff will be developed by SAP ABAP and SAP BASIS.

__Functional modules__: All the functionalities in real-time business are carried out by 11 main modules.

![Extracted from https://www.saponlinetutorials.com/about-sap-modules-sap-modules-list-overview/](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/ctqmcd2wdihe9033jc2c.png)

To have a glimpse😉 of SAP functional modules visit [here](https://www.saponlinetutorials.com/about-sap-modules-sap-modules-list-overview/) 

####___2.1.1 SAP R/3 4.6c and 4.7c___####

After the stable version of SAP R/3, __SAP R/3 4.6c__ was the next version in R/3 class which includes Business plugins, Infructure addons.

![Extracted from google images](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/ojs5okwrtc5sf1j91gnm.png)

Following 4.6c version, In the early 1990s due to the business movement to web application servers, SAP introduced one more version for R/3 class which is __SAP R/3 4.7c__ and renamed the Basis module to _Application web servers_ announcing that their latest support to application servers. This support is released via extension packs📦 instead of releasing a new next-generation ERP systems.

![Extracted from google images](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/465icluc9jkway7eqk86.png)

###___2.2 MySAP ERP 2003 and SAP NetWeaver 2003___###

In 2003, SAP introduced __MySAP ERP Edition__ which is a huge Business suite and its a combination of SAP R/3 Enterprise, SAP NetWeaver along with some additional components related to the business.

At the same time, SAP SE implemented [J2EE](https://www.webopedia.com/TERM/J/J2EE.html) engine thanks for its ability to develop web applications and platform-independence. Due to this availability of Java programming SAP-integrated many integration components like SAP CRM, SAP Enterprise Portal and SAP Exchange Infrastructure, and SAP grouped components like XI, BW, EP and KP and named it as __SAP NetWeaver__.

![My credits](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/irts4iw7fx7gpaxnakwu.png)

###___2.3 MySAP ERP 2004 and SAP Netweaver 2004___###

In 2004, SAP introduced Enterprise Web Service. Stating briefly, A lot of web services should be run for a single process. For instance, Creation of a PO(placing an order to purchase an item) requires a web service for fetching item details and other web services for vendor details similarly a lot of services should be run to post PO. Hence, SAP adopted __Enterprise Services Achitecture__(ECA) to SAP R/3. As the SAP R/3 got a new component to its core they changed the name to __ERP central component__(ECC). Moreover, Enterprise Services Architecture changed to Enterprise Service-oriented Architecture(ESoA).

![My credits](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/t58ip2hkxhcakxan1ub6.png)

###___2.4 SAP ERP 2006 and SAP Netweaver 7.0___###

In 2005, MySAP ERP 2005 edition is introduced later changed to SAP ERP 6.0 (in 2006). SAP realized that even after grouping the individual components into NetWeaver it's not the way how the customers are using it up. Hence _SAP Netweaver 2007_ introduced _Usage types_ for individual components. For instance, Before introducing usage types if we want to install XI lot of additional components should be installed but after, the _XI usage type_ will spontaneously install every component. 

![My credits](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/lxcz28sa14g7bbjqwf2l.png)

After SAP ERP 6.0 we can say that SAP found a standard ERP model since then there are no much changes to the ERP model unless they provided constant extension packs to business. The most recent extension pack for _SAP ERP 6.0_ is "EHP08"(in 2016). Soon after that, it's monster time😈 ___SAP S/4 HANA___

>At the end of 2020 nearly 50% of global sap customers are planning🤔 to migrate from ERP to SAP S/4 HANA 

###___2.5 SAP S/4 HANA___###

Here is the big fish, SAP SE after years of working experience with their customers. Finally wants to boost up their computing time⏳, portability, simplified UI and dream of using their database(HANA) came up with _S/4 HANA_ where S is a Simplified data model, 4 signifies the fourth generation (after R/2, R/3 and ERP) and HANA meant to be High-performance analytical appliance.

####___2.5.1 Overview___####

SAP HANA is an SAP application which uses Inbuilt memory(RAM) to compute a lot of real-time data with less than a second.

Instead of performing R/W operations from hard disk which consumes a lot of computing time (usually happens in legacy systems), HANA performs R/W operations in RAM itself completing the tasks ([OLAP](https://wiki.scn.sap.com/wiki/display/BI/OLAP+vs+OLTP) & [OLTP](https://wiki.scn.sap.com/wiki/display/BI/OLAP+vs+OLTP)) under a second. 

It's a known fact, that data volumes💽 are rocketing throughout the years and migration to the cloud database is the best solution which is implemented by SAP.
It uses a structural database where the data is stored in rows and columns of the tables. However, the column data is shirked to a large extent thanks to the developed compression techniques to fetch data faster than the row data.

Now, SAP enhancing it's ECC core to support🤝 HANA, let me illustrate some of HANA's cool features

>Supply chain and retail optimization
>Forecasting and profitability reporting
>Database Services
>Analytics and Data Processing
>Application Development and Deployment
>Data Access, Integration and Quality
>Administration and IT Operations
>Security and Multi-Engine 

Although, Evolution of SAP underwent many versions it is the customer👔 satisfaction which bought SAP as a leading ERP systems provider.

![Extracted from google](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/1eccnyeeiph2tzq4nobs.jpg)

References:

https://medium.com/@sapnwnewbie/evolution-of-sap-erp-architecture-in-11-steps-c060150a150c
https://www.sap.com/india/products/hana/features.html
https://www.saponlinetutorials.com/about-sap-modules-sap-modules-list-overview/
https://www.sap.com/documents/2017/04/4666ecdd-b67c-0010-82c7-eda71af511fa.html