SAP Basis

Akash Kalra
Before we actually see in detail, what ERP is and how ERP can help in
your business process, we will understand how different departments
are involved in the whole business process, right from the ordering of
the raw material – to manufacturing goods – to delivering final goods
to the customer.
Let’s start from the beginning
Types of Enterprise Systems
• Decentralized

• Centralized (also known as ERPs)

 Decentralized Enterprise System
In a company with Decentralized System of Data Management, there
are two major problems –

• Data is maintained locally at the individual departments

• Departments do not have access to information or data of other
departments
 Centralized Enterprise System
In a company, with Centralized System of Information and Data
Management

• 1) Data is maintained at a central location and is shared with various

Departments
• 2) Departments have access to information or data of other
Departments
 Key benefits of the centralized system are:

• It Eliminates the duplication, discontinuity and redundancy in data

• Provides information across departments in real time.
• SAP System is Provides control over various business processes
• Increases productivity, better inventory management , promotes quality ,
reduced material cost, effective human resources management, reduced
overheads boosts profits
• Better customer interaction and increased throughput. It also improves
customer service
• Hence, a centralized enterprise management system is required.
• SAP Software is a centralized enterprise management system also known
as Enterprise Resource Planning.
 Orders
Parts Inventory Data
If no parts,
order is placed
Sales Dept. through DB Accounting
Customers

Example of Financial Data exchange;

Books invoice against PO

ERP System Database

Books inventory
against PO

Order is placed
with Vendor

Warehouse
Vendor Purchasing

Ships parts
And invoices accounting
Layers in ERP
 So What Exactly is SAP?
• SAP stands for Systems Applications and Products in Data Processing.
• SAP by definition is also named of the ERP (Enterprise Resource
Planning) software as well the name of the company.
• SAP Software was Founded in 1972 by Wellenreuther, Hopp, Hector,
Plattner and Tschira.
• SAP system consists of a number of fully integrated modules, which
covers virtually every aspect of the business management.
• SAP is #1 in the ERP market. As of 2010, SAP has more than 140,000
installations worldwide, over 25 industry-specific business solutions
and more than 75,000 customers in 120 countries
 Modules of SAP
SAP Modules can be categorized into
• Functional Modules
• Technical Modules
These functional and technical modules are tightly coupled.
 Technical Modules

SAP ABAP -ABAP (Advanced Business Application Programming) is the

default programming language for SAP applications. You can also
use Java to code in SAP.
 This is where I come in

SAP Basis - SAP Basis is a set of programs and tools that act as an
interface with Database, Operating system, communication protocols
and other SAP modules like FI,HCM, SD etc.
 What is Basis
Basis is a set of programs and tools that act as an interface with
Database, Operating system, Communication protocols and business
applications (such as FI, CO, MM,etc). Full form of BASIS is "Business
Application Software Integrated solution"

SAP applications such as FI,CO,PP etc. can run and communicate with
each other across different Operating systems and Databases with the
help of BASIS.
We can say Basis is the operating system for SAP applications and
ABAP. Basis provides services like communication with the operating
system, database communication, memory management, runtime
collection of application data, web requests, exchanging business data
etc...

Basis supports a number of known operating systems

(Unix flavors,Microsoft windows server edition) and databases
(Oracle,DB2,Informix,Maxdb,Microsoft SQL Server,etc)..
Evolution of Technology
2 Tier Architechture
 R/2 Architecture
• SAP R/2 is a 2-tier architecture.
• All 3 layers [Presentation + Application + Database] are installed in
two separate systems/server.
• Server One – Presentation , Server Two – Application +Database
R/3 ARCHITECTURE
Central Database
(Storage of all data)
Access to Database:
(Read / Write data)

Database

Input / Output
of data to users

Processing of data
Application using application logic

Presentation of the
processed data to
Presentation the user
 R/3 Architecture

• SAP R/3: is a 3-tier architecture.

• All 3 layers [Presentation + Application + Database] are
installed in three separate systems/server.
• server One -Presentation, server Two – Application, Server
Three – Database
Technical Configurations
Development Testing Production

Database
Servers

Application
Servers

Presentation
Servers
Object Migration
Corrections and Transport
Development QA Testing Production

Program A Program A Program A

Table A Table A Table A

Screen A Screen A Screen A

 BASIS is a set of tools. This tool has the following
functionalities

• System monitoring and administration tools

• Common monitoring tool CCMS(Computing Centre
Management System) to monitor alerts of R/3 system from
one place. The CCMS tools support
unattended system administration functions around the clock
within the SAP System.
• Database monitoring
• Resource management like memory, buffer, etc.
• Authorization and profile management tools for user management.
• Internet access control to the system and business objects.
• Transfer modifications in a screen, program, layout from the
development to a production system for accuracy purpose
by Transport Management System.
• Client-server architecture and configuration.
• Graphical User Interface designing for the presentation layer.
 SAP Basis consultant’s responsibilities

• SAP application server monitoring, ABAP dump, and system log

analysis.
• Performance tuning
• Database maintenance, Database backup schedule and restore
• R/3, NetWeaver
• SAP license maintenance.
• SAP landscape, transport management system installations
 SAP Basis consultant’s responsibilities
• Client creating, client copying, client deletion
• Creating user, assigning roles, locking and unlocking users
• Background jobs scheduling, job monitoring, job deletion, etc
• Profile and operation mode maintenance
• Applying support patches, upgrading and installing add-ons
 Patches
• In SAP system, a patch is used to fix a bug. There are different types of
patches that can be used in SAP system. All patches start with SAPK
followed by patch type.
• The following are the four different types of patches −
• ABAP (SAPKA620XXXX)
• BASIS (SAPKB620XXXX)
• HR (SAPKE470XXXX)
• APPLICATIONS (SAPKH470XXXX)
 SAP HANA
• SAP HANA is an in-memory, column-oriented, relational database
management system developed and marketed by SAP SE.
• Its primary function as a database server is to store and retrieve data
as requested by the applications.
• In addition, it performs advanced analytics (predictive
analytics, spatial data processing, text analytics, text
search, streaming analytics, graph data processing) and
includes ETL capabilities as well as an application server.
 HANA Vs ECC
• S4H can only be run on Hana database unlike ECC which can be run
on Oracle , IBM DB2 etc. Back bone of S4H’s design is with HANA’s in
memory capability and below design principles
• In-memory database means that data is read from memory i.e. data
always reside in main memory RAM (though Write happens in hard
disk) and hence in-memory database reads data much faster w.r.t
traditional databases (fetching the data from hard disk)
• Hana’s column based tables provide faster access, better compression
(due to few distinct values compared to rows), parallel processing
(different columns can be easily processed parallels)
 ASAP Methodology
• ASAP stands for Accelerated SAP.
• Its purpose is to help design SAP implementation in the most
efficient manner possible.
• Its goal is to effectively optimize time, people, quality and other
resources, using a proven methodology to implementation.
 Phases of ASAP
• The road map is composed of five well-known consecutive phases
•• Phase 1 Project Preparation
• Phase 2 Business Blueprint
• Phase 3 Realization
• Phase 4 Final Preparation
• Phase 5 Go-Live and support