In an overview
After the Internet, SAP R/3 is one of the hottest topics in the computer industry, and the company that developed it, SAP AG, has become one of the most successful in the software market.
After the Internet, SAP R/3 is one of the hottest topics in the computer industry, and the company that developed it, SAP AG, has become one of the most successful in the software market.
The SAP R/3 system is targeted to most industries: manufacturing, retail, oil and gas, electricity, health care, pharmaceutical, banking, insurance, telecommunications, transport, automotive, chemical, and so on. The customer list includes most of the U.S. Fortune 100 companies, 97 percent of the most profitable German companies, and other impressive figures from companies around the world.
All major hardware vendors, without exception, are fully engaged to partner with SAP: in 1999, ACER, Amdahl, Bull, Compaq, Comparex, Data General, Dell, Fujitsu, Hewlett−Packard, Hitachi, IBM, Intergraph, NCR, Sequent, Siemens, SUN, Unisys, and others have supported and certified SAP R/3 platforms.
The biggest international consulting firms, numerous smaller ones, and most of the hardware vendors system integration departments have built an impressive army of experts around SAP−related business: Andersen Consulting, Arthur Andersen, Price Waterhouse Coopers, Ernst & Young, KPMG, Deloitte Consulting, Cap Gemini, Origin, CSC−Ploenzke, EDS, Sema Group, and others. Additionally, SAP has a growing group of first−order technological partners including Microsoft, Informix, Oracle, Apple, Next, Adobe, iXOS, Software AG, and many others that have participated in the Complementary Software Certification program.
With this presentation card, it is well assumed that SAP R/3 is not something that can be learned at home or in universities with the aid of a PC and standard PC software.
SAP AG: The Company Behind R/3
SAP AG was founded in 1972 by four former IBM employees. The company headquarters are based in Walldorf, a small German town close to Heidelberg, where the university is a continuous source of employees at SAP. Many of the gurus behind this phenomenal system known as R/3 come from this university.
Since its foundation, SAP has made significant development and marketing efforts on standard application software, being a global market player with its R/2 system for mainframe applications and its R/3 system for open client/server technologies.
The company name, SAP, stands for Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing. After the introduction of SAP R/3 in 1992, SAP AG has become the world's leading vendor of standard application software. One of the reasons for SAP's success is that since it is a standard package, it can be configured in multiple areas and adapted to the specific needs of a company. To support those needs, SAP includes a large number of business functions, leaving room for further functionality and enhancements or adaptability to business practice changes. More and more, corporations are deciding to use standard software systems that are highly flexible and configurable and able to support most of their business practices and information needs.
This kind of package leaves the development of custom software only for exceptional cases. The maturity and solid experience of SAP in solving the information management problems of businesses around the globe have made its R/3 system the clear market leader in the development of standard applications.
